At this point, every single game feels like a copy of the one before it. For the Nets, who lost their sixth-straight game tonight in Brooklyn against the explosive Houston Rockets, the defeats blend into each other as they slide down the Eastern Conference standings.
Once 16-16, the Nets are now 16-22 with multiple meetings with playoff teams coming in the next few days. Honestly, they didn’t have much of a chance in this one and that showed in the second half.
The Rockets started the evening firing on all cylinders, hitting their first seven shots from the field, four of which were from three-point range. When they finally mishit, 5:34 had already gone by and Houston was winning 23-14. They would be up by as much as 12 points in the first quarter before having their lead cut to 37-28 by the end of the frame.
But in the second quarter, led by strong play from Mason Plumlee (24 points on 10-11 shooting with 10 rebounds) and Brook Lopez (12 points and six boards), the Nets were able to chip away at their deficit, cutting it to to 52-50 on a Mason hoop at the 2:34 mark. However, Brooklyn’s half-closing struggles presented themselves again, and the Rockets went on a quick 8-2 run to close the quarter up 60-52.
Sometimes this season, the Nets have been able to counteract bad first halves with surprisingly good third quarters. Tonight was definitely not one of those times.
Houston opened up shooting as well as it did in the beginning of the game and broke this open with relative ease. Once Donatas Motiejunas and James Harden hit back-to-back threes to put the Nets down 68-54 with a little over nine minutes left in the quarter, this one was–for all intents and purposes–over.
Brooklyn wouldn’t get back within single digits the rest of the way and basically laid down against a Rockets team that controlled this game from tip until the game was over. For a team in dire straits with almost no hope or positive momentum, that’s unacceptable, even against a superior opponent.
Assorted thoughts: The Rockets, who make and take the most threes in the NBA, completely lived up to that billing tonight. They took 40 triples (40!!) and made 16 of them, good for an even 40 percent. A lot of them were open attempts–granted by some brutally poor Nets perimeter defense–and even Josh Smith, noted horrible shooter, went 2-4 from deep. That’s when you know it’s not your night…Kevin Garnett and Dwight Howard got into a tussle just a few minutes into the first quarter which resulted in KG getting ejected and some funny video. The Nets probably could have used Garnett in this game for rebounding help and maybe the occasional jumper but I understand why he felt his team needed a little bit of a kick in the butt to get going. Too bad it didn’t work….Jason Terry played his first game at Barclays since he was on the Nets for a few months last season before getting shipped to Sacramento with Reggie Evans for Marcus Thornton. Jet hit three triples for the Rockets….Reaching deep into his rotation, Lionel Hollins got Cory Jefferson some playing time for the first time since December 30th. He hit a contested corner three and didn’t do much else….Jarrett Jack took and missed four three-pointers. For reference, he is shooting threes at a sub-20 percent clip so far this season. Maybe he shouldn’t take them?….Bojan Bogdanovic showed some life, finally. He scored 13 points on nine shots and actually looked involved in the offense, which he seemingly hasn’t done in weeks. It’s the small things….My optimism with this team is waning. Will changes be made this season to help turn this around? I have no clue but if the Nets want to make the playoffs, they need to do something. Or, they can do something just to be more watchable. That would be nice.
Onto the next one: At Barclays on Wednesday night versus the Grizzlies. The hits keep coming.
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