Following a big win over the hated Knicks on Friday night, the Brooklyn Nets had their first matinee of the new season this afternoon at the Barclays Center and they eeked out a close win over the young Orlando Magic.
The first half wasn’t too exciting but Orlando looked like the better team during it, holding a 54-52 advantage at the intermission. Nikola Vucevic–who finished the game with 27 points and 12 rebounds–dominated Brook Lopez early in the game, similarly to how another Nikola–Nikola Pekovic–did for the Timberwolves.
However, he didn’t make as much of an impact later in the game and didn’t even score a single point in the fourth quarter. Interestingly enough, Lopez–who Vucevic abused for much of the day–played exactly zero minutes in that quarter which brings to question just how bad Brook was on the defensive end of the ball today.
Don’t get me wrong, the entire game wasn’t horrible for the Nets center. But, it was an uneven one in which he did some nice stuff on offense–12 points on nine shots–but was mauled on defense and rebounding. This led to him playing just 26 minutes, slightly more than half the game but possibly Lionel Hollins limited his time a little bit.
Regardless, the win showed that the Nets don’t need a dominant Brook or Joe Johnson (just 13 points) in order to win. Bojan Bogdanovic put up a career-high 22 points, making nine of his 12 shot attempts in a very efficient performance. Also, Deron Williams scored 18 points to go with seven assists. What a refreshing start to the season for him.
This game was close throughout, but towards the end of the third quarter, Brooklyn started to pull away. Winning that frame 31-25–and the fourth 23-19–the Nets built a double-digit lead as the game wound to a close and they were finally able to convincingly finish off a win in which they weren’t on their top game. Not being able to do this led to Brooklyn’s loss to Minnesota.
Some other observations I had from the game: Hollins only went with a nine-man rotation today, meaning Andrei Kirilenko and Jerome Jordan didn’t check in the whole afternoon. Also, each of the Nets that played was on the floor for at least 16 minutes. It’s an interesting strategy for Brooklyn but was clearly effective as it kept everyone fresh while not letting players waste away on the bench for long periods of time…Mason Plumlee put up a double-double off the bench, scoring 12 points with 10 boards. What he did the best, though, was on the defensive side of the ball in terms of a big block or steal here and there. Mirza Teletovic, Jarrett Jack and Alan Anderson contributed with key baskets here and there…Kevin Garnett didn’t have his usual shooting touch in this one (3-for-9 from the floor) but he was able to impact the game in other ways. His eight rebounds helped the Nets win the rare rebounding battle by a healthy margin while his seven dimes helped find open teammates–mostly Bogdanovic–to put points up on the board. That versatility in KG’s game is key.
Looking Ahead
After a successful homestand, the Nets head out to the West Coast for a three-game road swing against the Suns, Warriors and Blazers.
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