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| Paul Pierce was on point tonight, scoring a game-high 18 points on 7-12 shooting |
Well, I don't know the record for this occurrence, but the Nets' last two games have to put them in the range of biggest swing in point differential between two games of a back-to-back in NBA history. Brooklyn was shellacked on Wednesday night by the Portland Trail Blazers, losing by a score of 124-80, a margin of 44. The Nets totally flipped the proverbial table upside down tonight, though, as they dominated the hapless Denver Nuggets, a team without four of its key players, by a score of 112-89.
Denver had real shot of ever being close to competing in this game, as the Nets started the rout right from the opening tip and led from there until regulation ended. Paul Pierce scored the first four points as Brooklyn amassed an astounding 29-8 lead by the time the 1st quarter ended. There was zero fight from a Nuggets team that was scolded by its coach, Brian Shaw, on Friday after a brutal road drubbing at the hands of the Chicago Bulls. He gave the media some strong comments about his frustration with his players' lack of fight, and I'm sure he'll say the same after this one.
The beating only got worse as the game progressed, before the Nets' reserves let up some in the 4th quarter. Brooklyn won the 2nd quarter by two points, and built a 59-36 lead at halftime, one similar to the 58-34 deficit they faced last night in Portland. The Nets outscored Denver 30-20 in the next frame, pushing the advantage to over 30 points and turning a big win into a crushing and systematic takedown. A bit of a comeback by the home team as the game wound down was just way too little way too late, kind of like using a bucket to take all the water out of a lake: it's not going to make a difference
Some other observations I had from the game: As bad as yesterday's loss to the Blazers was for the Nets, tonight's triumph over the Nuggets was that much better. All of the negative feelings from that poor performance have washed away with the tide, as they have been replaced by nice and fresh ones….As the YES Network broadcast noted, the Nets' last win in Denver before this one was on January 27th, 2007, when Jason Kidd was a Nets player, not coach…..Paul Pierce (stats above under the picture) and Deron Williams (nine points, five assists) led the starters yet again. D-Will didn't score a ton in his 26 minutes, but continued to move well and hit some nice jumpers off the dribble over defenders. When you can take just seven shots and commit one turnover to have an impact in a game like Deron did, that's a good thing and means you're playing some good basketball…..Shaun Livingston returned to his pre-tailbone injury form, putting up eight points and eight assists. His passing was phenomenal, as he kept getting teammates wide open looks at the hoop……More bad shooting from Mirza and Joe, who combined to go 6-of-20 from the field and 4-of-14 from three. The Nets didn't need them to hit shots tonight, but those two need to get back on track soon…..We had Good Blatche in this one, as 'Dray scored nine points and grabbed nine boards (and four steals!) in his 18 minutes. He's certainly a stat-stuffer, when he plays well that is.
Looking Ahead
The Nets get a well-deserved one-day break as they close out their road trip on Saturday night against the Bucks in Milwaukee. If they will, it will have been a winning trip.
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