The Nets sat every one of their starters–plus Mirza Teletovic–for tonight’s regular season finale in Cleveland and the game’s result showed as much. The far-out-of-contention Cavaliers soundly routed a resting and/or tanking Brooklyn squad by a 29-point margin, sending Mike Brown’s team into the offseason and Jason Kidd’s into the playoffs.
Marquis Teague, Jorge Gutierrez, Marcus Thornton, Andray Blatche, and Jason Collins (in his first start of the season) constituted Kidd’s starting five for this game, demonstrating just how little the Nets cared about winning this game. Mason Plumlee and Andrei Kirilenko were the only guys to come off the bench tonight for Brooklyn. Normally, 7-man rotations don’t lead to wins in the NBA.
Some other observations I had from the game: It would be ridiculous to take much away from a game of this disinterest, but Andray Blatche and Marcus Thornton each scored a team-high 20 points, with Dray adding 12 boards to make for a double-double. Jorge Gutierrez added 13 points but no other Net that played added too much to the mix….The Brooklyn loss, added to a Charlotte overtime win over Chicago and a Washington blowout over Boston, makes the Nets the No. 6 seed in the East, Toronto the No. 3, Chicago the No. 4, and Washington the No. 5. The Nets end the regular season having lost four of their last five games and have a 44-38 record, which is five games worse than their 2012-13 record.
Looking Ahead
The Nets will play the Atlantic Division champion Toronto Raptors in the 1st round of the 2014 Eastern Conference playoffs. In all likelihood, Game 1 in Toronto will take place on Saturday night. One last interesting note to cap off the regular season: the Nets lost their season opener in Cleveland and lost their finale in Cleveland. Some interesting symmetry, but hopefully Brooklyn faces some more success in the playoffs.
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