Considering the added importance of each game in the NBA postseason, any loss is about as crushing as multiple regular season ones. However, if a heavy underdog drops Game 1 on the road to the No. 1 seed by just seven points, as the Nets did in a 99-92 defeat at the hands of the Atlanta Hawks on Sunday, it doesn’t seem as debilitating a setback.
Although they were down by double digits for significant portions of the second half of their series-opening game, the Nets were able to continually claw back into a game they had no business being in. Somehow, Brooklyn had the ball down five with 15 seconds left in regulation but saw Deron Williams miss a fading three to clinch the victory for Atlanta.
Just being that close that late in the game could be viewed as a plus for the Nets, who were swept 4-0 in the regular season by Atlanta. In fact, for a team already down in its matchup, there are a lot of positives for Brooklyn going forward as the Nets’ upset bid tries to gain a stronghold.
The first positive is how efficient Brook Lopez was on offense and the glass, posting 17 points and 14 rebounds with only seven field goal attempts (six makes) in 36 minutes. Lopez, for some reason, wasn’t made a focal point of Brooklyn’s offensive gameplan and basically scored on putbacks, the occasional post-up and even a 20-foot jumper he drilled. Still, he managed to go 6-for-7 from the field and command the boards in his playing time, even if he didn’t dominate the game overall.
You’d have to think Lionel Hollins and his staff will ingratiate Brooklyn’s best scorer back into the fold for Wednesday’s Game 2. Lopez averaged over 20 points and nine rebounds in March and April, doing so on roughly 15 shots a game. Sunday, he took less than half as many field goals. Who knows, maybe if more of an effort was made to feed Lopez in the post earlier, the Nets don’t lose that game.
Another reason to have optimism about this team was its disgraceful 5-for-20 shooting performance from three-point range in Game 1, which results in a visually jarring 25 percent mark. Granted, the Hawks went just 33.3 percent from deep, but–with a possible return of Mirza Teletovic to the lineup–Atlanta did catch a huge break in that key Nets’ shooters Joe Johnson and Bojan Bogdanovic went just 1-for-11 from three, with many of the looks they missed being really, really good ones. Obviously, such poor shooting isn’t a positive but it almost definitely will get better as the series progresses.
Speaking of Teletovic, he is now expected to be probable for tomorrow’s game, which–if he suited up and played–would be his first since January 22. That night, in a blowout loss on the road to the Clippers, Mirza left the game early with shortness of breath and was taken to a local hospital. The next day, he almost traveled with the team to Utah but was taken off the flight by Nets trainer Tim Walsh who had Teletovic stay in Los Angeles for more tests. Then, he was diagnosed with a blood clot in his lung–the same injury Miami’s Chris Bosh would suffer a few weeks later–and pronounced out for the season.
In a surprise, Mirza’s condition has improved rapidly. In January, it was thought he would be out until the 2015-16 season but, instead, might play in a playoff game. Aside from his strong shooting ability (he is sure to be rusty, though), Mirza’s presence on the floor in itself could be a huge morale boost for the Nets as they fight to steal homecourt advantage from the Hawks. He can stretch the floor well which–when Bojan Bogdanovic is on the bench–will open up the interior for Lopez, who should be able to get more space at the rim if the Nets can make some threes.
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