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| In this battle of the Plumlees, the younger Mason beat the older Miles, as did Mason's team |
The Phoenix Suns may be one of the NBA's most surprising teams of the 2013-14 season, but if they played the Brooklyn Nets on a regular basis, they probably wouldn't be having nearly a good year as they're having. Brooklyn swept the season series between the East and West teams this evening at Barclays with a convincing, start-to-finish win that gave the Nets' their ninth-straight home win and some more cushion in the Eastern Conference standings.
Smarting over their really tough loss last Saturday in Washington to the Wizards, the Nets–without Kevin Garnett (back spasms) for a ninth-consecutive game–started off insanely hot from the floor, shooting around 70% from the field in the first quarter and 67.5% through the first half. I'm not sure if you realize, but numbers like those against a Phoenix team that is nine games above .500 in a tough West because of their defense are incredible. Also, Deron had 15 first half (15 of the Nets' 62 at half, to the Suns' 49) en route to an amazing 11-of-13 shooting game with 28 points. He plays better every single game.
The Nets were up 10 after the opening frame, in which 10-day contract signee Jorge Gutierrez even got some run at the point, and 13 heading into the half, so outside of a few isolated Phoenix runs in the second half to cut the deficit to nine or low teens, this game was Brooklyn's through and through. That meant Paul Pierce and Joe Johnson didn't even have to play at all in the fourth quarter, allowing them to rest up as much as possible to be fresh for Wednesday's home tilt against Charlotte.
Phoenix may be having a good season, but when any NBA team allows its opponent to shoot 58.6% from the field (41-of-70 and 9-of-21 from three) as the Nets did, said team probably isn't going to win. Brooklyn just got off to too hot a start for the Suns to keep up with, which led to a whole lot of garbage time for Jason Kidd's team to mess around with, resulting in Deron Williams' first dunk of the season on a fastbreak drive to the rim.
Some other observations I had from the game: Still no Garnett for the Nets, but no problem, as Mason Plumlee has continued to play extremely well in KG's absence. Tonight, going up against his older brother, surely gave Mason some extra motivation to play well and he certainly did, compiling a 14-11 point-rebound double-double on 5-for-6 shooting along with a few massive dunks. For a late first round pick, Mason performs extremely well, and could be argued for as one of the top 10 rookies for this year so far…..Shaun Livingston just keeps outplaying everyone's expectations of him, as he dropped 12 points in his 32 minutes as he set career-highs for both those categories for an entire season (506 points and 1,617 minutes) even though the Nets still have 17 games left to go. If that doesn't demonstrate the injury troubles he's faced in his career AND how well he has played this season, then I don't know what does….A lot of Nets played well, but Deron and Joe have to take the cake in terms of leading this team to an easy win. As I mentioned above, D-Will was insanely efficient from the floor and shredded the Phoenix defense for 28 points with jumpers, lay-ins, free throws, and even a dunk. He looks as good right now as he has at any time in his Nets career. Joe, too, was great, and scored 19 on 7-of-11 shooting (3-5 from three, like Deron) and also added five boards and five assists to boot. When his shot is on, he's unguardable, and unguardable he was tonight….Former Net Gerald Green scored 17 for the Suns and unleashed some crazy jams right over Nets defenders. When he was in New Jersey with the Nets two years ago, Prudential Center crowds were able to witness firsthand how high he gets on his dunks and hos ferocious they look.
Looking Ahead
The Nets stay at home this week, and welcome the Charlotte Bobcats to town on Wednesday and the Boston Celtics on Friday before heading out on a road trip.
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