Two nights after one of their worst home performances of the season, the Brooklyn Nets were able to rebound on Monday with a convincing, thorough win over the talented Sacramento Kings at Barclays Center.
After a pretty even first quarter in which they were outscored 28-27, the Nets broke through in the next one, nearly doubling up their Western Conference opponent–winning the frame 30-16–as they took a double-digit lead into the intermission and wouldn’t relinquish it for the rest of the night.
Lionel Hollins chose to keep Brook Lopez and Deron Williams, Brooklyn’s rehabbing stars, on the bench to start off and the move paid off well. Jarrett Jack, starting at point guard, and Mason Plumlee, starting at center, combined to score 38 points on 10-19 shooting from the field while Lopez and D-Will gave Brooklyn a much-needed boost off the bench in terms of both scoring and defense.
Those two played just 29 minutes overall as Hollins tries to ease them back into the Nets’ gameplan. Joe Johnson, who has stayed healthy for the most part this season, played 34 minutes tonight as he scored 16 points while looking like his usual efficient self. Whether it was a floater in the lane or a three, Joe got it done against Sacramento and hit shots at big moments.
Even Kevin Garnett played a big role on Monday, posting 10 points, eight rebounds and even four steals. KG’s 18-footer was on point in this game and helped facilitate ball movement for Brooklyn. Those four theft constituted just one-third of the Nets’ total (12) that contributed to the Kings’ 21 turnovers, which led to 25 Brooklyn points. The defense was swarming.
Although the Nets were up by more than eight or so points for the vast majority of the second half, on multiple occasions did the Kings fight back in quick scoring spurts to make the game a close one.
Maybe the most worrisome of those runs for the Nets occurred midway through the fourth quarter when the Kings rolled off a 12-2 run to cut the Brooklyn lead to 93-88 on a Rudy Gay three-pointer. Even though they played a pretty solid game, the Nets found themselves on the verge of yet another late game collapse at home.
However, as they did the whole night, the Nets made a big shot to keep the Kings further and further away from a full comeback. Mirza Teletovic, who scored 11 points and nabbed seven rebounds, promptly drilled one of his three triples to boost the lead back up to eight and put this game away for good. For once, Brooklyn made the right shot at the right time.
Assorted thoughts: Statistically speaking, the only two categories in which the Nets did better than the Kings tonight were free throw attempts and turnovers. Brooklyn got to the line an astounding 39 times (16 of which Mason Plumlee was responsible for) but made just 27 of them for a measly 69.2 percent conversion rate. Still, even with the missed chances, the Nets drew a ton of fouls on Sacramento and forced the issue at the hoop, not 20-25 feet away. This led to them taking higher percentage shots that helped them salt this game away. With turnovers, as I mentioned before, Brooklyn played incredible defense and was able to get the stops when needed or even create a fastbreak chance or just open shot off of a Sacramento miscue….Hollins’ rotation was 10-deep tonight and Jerome Jordan didn’t make it for the third time in Brooklyn’s last four games. With Brook’s return, maybe we can assume that Jordan won’t be playing too much for the near future. Also, no Cory Jefferson for the third consecutive game. Not super intriguing trends but still newsworthy and indicative of how Hollins plans on using his players when this roster is healthy.
Onto the next one: Tomorrow night in Chicago against the Bulls, who the Nets seemingly never beat. The Bulls beat the Pacers, who blew the Nets out on Saturday, tonight.
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