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Does this guy ever not kill the Nets? Answer: No |
No more regular season road games, no more chance of 50-win season, no more chance of #3 seed. A weird effort from the Nets commenced on Sunday afternoon, as the team that was coming off two major wins over playoff teams was thoroughly outclassed and outplayed by the team that has been out of the postseason discussion for awhile now. For two and change quarters (no pun intended at all), Toronto–led by DeMar DeRozan and Rudy Gay–blew Brooklyn right out of the gate, racing out to a 14-2 lead that would balloon to 19 point by half-time.
Down 51-32 after the 2nd quarter, the Nets had to make a desperate dash to get back into this game, as they were presented with a golden opportunity to cut into the Pacers' #3 seed in the East lead over the Brooklyn, as Indiana played earlier today as well (and lost to the Knicks). As the 3rd quarter kicked off, and six Brook Lopez baskets provided the first 12 points in the period, the Nets were only able to trade points with the Raptors, who responded to every Brooklyn hoop with one of their own.
But as the 3rd wound down, Deron Williams took over the scoring initiative (interesting note: Brook and Deron were the only Nets to score in the 3rd, Brook with 12 and Deron with 15), hitting a trio of three-pointers as his team made a late-quarter push to cut the Raptor lead to 11.
The 4th quarter was much of the same from the Nets as in the 3rd quarter. Offensive efficiency picked up a bit early on, as Andray Blatche scored some of his bench-high 15 points in the 4th, but Deron and Brook mainly disappeared, wasting the Nets' precious little time left to come back. However, with almost five minutes left, Brooklyn was within a single bucket of tying up the score, but a D-Will turnover (coming on a pass to Blatche, who was caught up with a Raptor defender) that lead to a Rudy Gay three-point play basically sealed the game's fate. The Nets would never come closer than four points to tying Toronto for the rest of the game.
Some other observations I had from the game: #ReggieEvansReboundWatch: 16. It didn't even seem like he had that many, but of course, he does it again. Andray Blatche added eight of his own, but Brooklyn was outrebounded overall by a margin of 48-38……D-Will: 30 points, seven assists, 11-20 FG shooting. Bordering on MVP-type play right now, looks like he's trying to prove to the league that his last two seasons were a fluke, and that he's still the elite point guard he was in Utah…..Keith Bogans was 2-7 from three-point range, missing a bunch of wide-open corner threes. My question for P.J. Carlesimo is why MarShon Brooks doesn't get playing time instead of an ineffective Bogans?
Looking Ahead
The Nets rush back home to Brooklyn to take on the Wizards at the Barclays Center tomorrow night.
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