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Tony Parker has style both on and off the court. And tonight, that style decimated a lifeless Nets team that was embarrassed in their home arena |
I'm starting to have serious doubts with this Nets team. Why? Oh, nothing other than that they are riding a two-game losing streak involving some absolutely disheartening circumstances. Of course, we have Friday's loss vs the lottery-bound Wizards. Now, we also have tonight's abomination of an effort against the Spurs at the Barclays Center, an effort that resulted in a 25-point loss for the Nets.
San Antonio, without the services of Tim Duncan and Manu Ginobili due to injury, laid in passive wait in the first half, going down by as many as 12 points to give Brooklyn the feeling that it could run away with an easy victory against an injury-riddled team. Then, that lying-in-wait tiger pounced on the unsuspecting Nets in the second half, absolutely destroying P.J. Carlesimo's squad by a score of 60-29 score in the game's final two quarters.
It was yet another brutal effort from a Nets team that has been skidding badly lately and is showing none of the same positive signs from the beginning of the season when they were winning plentifully, save from tonight's first quarter possibly. Brooklyn actually gave us the sense that it could have a nice showing on national TV in that quarter, scoring like crazy and going up 35-25 after 12 minutes. I'll admit, I felt confident in the team after that stretch of the game as the ball was flying around great on the offensive end, players were hitting shots, and the defense was swarming. Then, the Nets fell off the proverbial cliff, completely.
The second, third, and fourth quarter were absolutely horrendous for the Nets, getting progressively worse as the game progressed. By the 8:08 mark of the third quarter, when a Tony Parker jumper–accounting for two of his game-high 29 points–gave the Spurs a 63-61 lead, the whole tide of the game had shifted and the losing of the once-double-digit lead by the Nets knocked them completely out of competing for a win. At the end of the third, San Antonio had extended its advantage to 10, and only increased it in the fourth, on the strength of some backbreaking threes by the Red Rocket (Matt Bonner) and unstoppable drives by Tony Parker.
Even without Duncan and Ginobili, the Spurs were able to show tonight just how deep they are as a team and were also able to show why they have the highest winning percentage in the whole NBA since the 1996-97 season (a stunning stat noted by YES's broadcast). The Nets ran into a buzz-saw, that was still churning at full speed even with missing two of its most important cogs.
Some other observations I had from the game: Seven Spurs players hit at least four field goals, including all five starters. On the other hand, just four players did that for the Nets, only three of which were starters. The two starters who didn't were Reggie Evans and Gerald Wallace, who combined for six points on the night. San Antonio benefitted from the constant and wide-ranging production it gets on a nightly basis, production that the Nets would have loved to get from bench guys like Andray Blatche (six points) and C.J. Watson (four points)……Tony Parker scored 29 points on 12-21 shooting, with 11 assists, no turnovers, and a +23 rating to boot. Hands down the most underrated player of the last five years (or more) in the NBA. The effortless and silky-smooth way he plays games is just devastating to defenses and is truly impossible to stop. He can hurt you from in the paint, by passing, via the mid-range jumper, and even with the three-pointer when needed……Both the Spurs and the Nets took 19 threes. The Spurs made 12 while the Nets made six. Yup, that's tonight's game for ya……Turnovers killed Brooklyn again (18), while the Spurs only committed five. San Antonio scored 30 points off of the Nets' turnovers……Brook was probably the best player for the Nets, scoring 18 points on 8-13 shooting with nine rebounds. My only problem is that he should be getting more than just 13 shots in a game in which not much is going right for the Nets. He's an All-Star, get him the ball.
Looking Ahead
The Nets look to move on from whatever the hell happened tonight, tomorrow in Indiana against the Pacers.
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