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| Surprisingly, the Nets bench was terrible tonight. Unsurprisingly, C.J. Watson rose up to the occasion and stabilized it as best as he could |
Another uneven effort from the Nets, yet another win. Don't get me wrong, they played very well in the beginning and the end, it's just that the middle was very shaky. The first quarter couldn't have started much better, as the Nets jumped out to a 9-0 lead out of the gate, which they would extend to 14-2. It looked like the Timberwolves had no interest in playing a NBA game tonight and just wanted to watch Brooklyn run around, hit any shot at all, and force turnovers like nobody's business. Of course, the game would regress to the mean as some Dante Cunningham and Luke Ridnour jumpers–with some others sprinkled in–cut the Brooklyn advantage to seven points at the end of the quarter.
The next 12 minutes didn't start so well for the team that improved to 12-2 under its interim–and hopefully, permanent–head coach P.J. Carlesimo. Recent bench signings in Mickael Gelabale (don't worry, I hadn't heard of him before either) and D-League call-up Chris Johnson (there is another Chris Johnson on the Grizzlies, no they aren't clones) gave the Wolves the kick they needed to come within a point of the visiting Nets. Gelabale, a small forward with decent range, dominated from around 15 feet while the high-leaping Johnson, who reminded me of former Net Sean Williams, controlled the paint. Then Andray Blatche and C.J. took over for a little bit to bring the lead back up to 36-29 before the starters were brought back in. D-Will got hot from the perimeter, scoring nine of his 18 points for the game on four consecutive made jumpers, putting the Wolves in a 11-point rut that would stick till half.
After stretching their advantage to 14 early in the third, they have their once-a-game third quarter swoon, allowing the Wolves to have a 10-1 run which brought them right back in the game. The usual problems persisted as guys like Luke Ridnour and Derrick Williams were free to drain mid-range jumpers and Andrei Kirilenko and Williams were able to drive to the paint with ease as the Nets went one-and-done on offense, leaving themselves vulnerable on D. Isolation sets became the norm yet again for Brooklyn as they reverted to that awful form of offense they settle for whenever in major slumps, which, ironically, makes the slump worse and is why they are so prone to giving up big leads. Three straight Joe Johnson jumpers, accounting for eight of his game-total 18 points, finished off the third fine as the Nets stayed up by six.
Moving onto the fourth quarter, if C.J. Watson hadn't hit his first four shots of the period–all 20 feet or further–Minnesota, led by Cunningham and J.J. Barea, would have stormed right into seizing the lead away. Then the Big Three took over from C.J., putting the game away with a Joe three, some tough Brook Lopez post moves, and more accurate shooting from D-Will, who had a great game. I didn't get an uber-confident feeling from that one, but a win's a win regardless of how it comes, even against a team missing Nikola Pekovic, Kevin Love, and Chase Budinger to name a few players.
Some other observations I had from the game: The Big Three (Deron, Brook, and Joe) did it again. Combining for 58 points on 24-44 shooting from the field, the Nets trio of stars just keep playing to their potential and with their three varied skill sets and tendencies, is very difficult to stop by an opposing team. Joe wasn't as automatic as he was against the Knicks but still hit his patented contested, far-behind-three-point-line threes that make him so good. Deron, who dished out eight assists and grabbed six boards, looked so much more confident with him shot, hitting jumpers in transition, around picks, and even some spot-up. Also hit the dagger three with 1:15 left in the fourth. Brook scored a game-high 22 with seven rebounds and was much tougher in the paint than in recent games, a spot of emphasis P.J. probably touched on…..Brutal performance by most of the bench, except for Watson of course. Blatche took some awful shots, made some awful decisions, and looked awful en route to a 3-for-11 shooting line. After a great game on Monday, Hump didn't have it tonight shooting-wise (two points on 1-5 shooting) but did grab eight rebounds. Stackhouse, MarShon, and Bogans were all really bad and scoreless, with Brooks only getting five minutes of time…..Mirza sat yet again. Odd that he hasn't played in awhile because it appeared he was getting hot…..Brooklyn won the rebounding margin again, a trademark of this season so far. Good to see.
Looking Ahead
The Nets head down to Memphis to take on the Grizzlies on Friday as Brooklyn continues its road trip. A true Western Conference test.
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