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| Brook Lopez returned to the floor tonight after not playing in exactly two weeks. He scored 16 points in 21 minutes, but wasn't able to do enough to help his team overcome an incredibly lackluster effort. |
Another road game, another blowout suffered by the Nets.
In their game tonight in Houston against the Rockets, Brooklyn was never really close, giving up the game's first six points and eventually going down by 16 after just 12 minutes of play. Trailing a high-powered team like Houston by a margin of 33-17 that early in the game? Yeah, the Nets had no chance of coming back and slowly let the Rockets' lead grow over the course of the next two quarters, until it was hovering around 30 early in the fourth quarter before the Brooklyn reserves shaved it to around 20.
All you really need to know about this game us that every Net starter had a +/- of -14 or worse, and each one–other than Brook Lopez–shot equal to or worse than 20 percent from the field. Joe Johnson went 2-for-10, Paul Pierce 1-for-6, and, for good measure, Andray Blatche had the good ole 0-fer on six field goal attempts. More putrid shooting, more nonexistent perimeter defense (Houston hit 19 three-pointers on 32 attempts–good for 59 percent), and another embarrassing loss.
If this game doesn't put Jason Kidd on the hot seat, then I don't know what will.
Some other observations I had from the game: None of the Nets starters (Livingston, Pierce, Joe, Brook, and Andray) played a lick in the second half after being the main reason the Nets were down 26 at halftime. Certainly a message, and not a positive one, sent from Jason Kidd to his best players, who–without Kevin Garnett (rest) and Deron Williams (ankle)–displayed absolutely no effort in the limited time they played…..Positives: Reggie Evans put up a team-high +11 rating, which doesn't make sense on the surface but says something about how he played. He also grabbed seven boards……Mirza shot well again, scoring a team-high 18 points on 6-of-14 shooting (three three-pointers) and also grabbed 13 rebounds for a surprising double-double…..Mason Plumlee continued his efficient paint attack on the NBA, hittting seven of his eight shots (dunks and layups) for 16 points. He was the recipient of many of Tyshawn Taylor's game-high 12 assists.
Looking Ahead
It doesn't get any easier for the Nets, as they take on the Grizzlies later tonight in Memphis in the second part of a brutal back-to-back. Today's my birthday too, so I'm not expecting much. Brook Lopez is likely to stay in the lineup for the game, though.
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