Early Returns for Brooklyn Nets Are Encouraging
The Brooklyn Nets had an up-and-down first week of the NBA season.
The Nets began their schedule getting trounced by the Boston Celtics 121-105, but they followed it up in proper fashion, defeating the Detroit Pistons 102-90 in Game 2 Saturday night.
So far, we've seen some bad (the porous defense against Boston, Brook Lopez sitting out the first two games, Deron Williams' shooting percentages, Andrei Kirilenko failing to get into games and to contribute), but we've also seen plenty of good, enough to outweigh the lousy through a couple of contests.
Brooklyn now stands at 1-1 with a chance to get off to a hot start, considering its next four games include the Oklahoma City Thunder, Minnesota Timberwolves, New York Knicks and Orlando Magic. If the Nets continue what they did in the Detroit win, they could be looking at an encouraging beginning to the season.
Health
Ignore D-Will's numbers for a second, because this isn't about results for the moment.
He may only be 13-of-35 from the field on the season, but Williams looks different, more explosive, just as he did during the preseason. He simply looks fresher.
After undergoing surgery on both his ankles this offseason, he's less tentative dribbling around ball screens than he was a season ago, when he helped turn the Nets into one of the NBA's least effective pick-and-roll teams. This year, that's not so.
Tim Bontemps of the New York Post notices the change, as well:
"Williams catches a lot of grief for the way things have gone over the last couple years, when he’s been the poster boy for the Nets being an expensive team that has failed to live up to expectations.
But after offseason surgery, he appears as explosive as he was during the lockout season, when he averaged 21 points and 8.7 assists, and the second half of the 2012-13 season, when he averaged 22.9 points and 8.0 assists.
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The numbers may not be there yet, but Williams is looking better than he ever did a season ago. The Nets can feel comfortable with that fact moving forward.
Lopez, meanwhile, is supposed to play in his first NBA game in 10 months Monday night against OKC, accordng to Mike Mazzeo of ESPNNewYork.com. If all goes well, we're only a few hours away from his first contest.
If all goes well...
Of course, we have to use that qualifier: "If all goes well." It's an obligation now, like play-by-play men having to mention the town of Secaucus, New Jersey, every time referees check instant replay. That's because Lopez was supposed to have played already this year after recovering from foot and ankle surgery he underwent last season.
Lopez went out with a right midfoot sprain during the preseason and was supposed to miss only 10-14 days. However, he had a setback.
He sat out a recent practice after participating in non-contact drills before that. Even Lionel Hollins was becoming pessimistic about the prospects of his return.
“I was optimistic every day, [but] when he doesn’t come out and practice, I’m not optimistic any more,” Hollins explained, per Devin Kharpertian of The Brooklyn Game. “But he was doing part of the drills, so I figured he was getting better. Now he didn’t practice today, so he’s not going to play tomorrow.”
That was Friday. Now, though, it's finally here. There is an actual reason for optimism. Brook Lopez, one of the world's best offensive centers, is going to play in an NBA, regular-season game...if all goes well.
Back from the Dead
Garnett looked somewhat sluggish throughout last year. This year, even as he's slated to play more at power forward than he has in recent seasons with the return of Lopez, it's seemed like a different KG, though for only two games.
Saturday, he had the best line of his Brooklyn career, packing the stat sheet against the Pistons, scoring a career-high (with the Nets) 18 points and pulling down a career-high-tying (with the Nets) 14 boards.
Make sure you read what's in those parentheticals. They kind of give the sentence a different meaning.
“I think everybody, since Brook has been out, has been trying to take some responsibility in the offense,” Garnett explains, per Bontemps. “I’m no different in that. I told you this would not be a repeat of last year, and I’m just trying to be assertive.”
Garnett missed 28 games last season during a year in which the Nets roster was plagued by injuries. Of course, KG was no exception, and after a slow start, it seemed impossible for one of the best players of the past 15 years to recover fully.
He had a strong finish, shooting 55.6 percent from the field and averaging 11.6 rebounds per 36 minutes during his 26 games played after the new year, but the season still ended with career-low numbers across the board. Now, it seems like Garnett's final games of last season have carried over.
The 38-year-old is going to miss some time throughout the season. What 38-year-old gets healthier as he ages? But if the Nets can maintain this quality of play from one of its leaders, the team stands to be in much better shape come the second half of the season.
He's Still Got It
Speaking of not aging, Johnson seems to be entering that category.
The 33-year-old, known for his long-distance shooting and tantalizing post-ups, both of which I wrote about last week, dropped 34 points to go with his eight rebounds and six assists against the Pistons, who stand to be a much-improved defensive team with Stan Van Gundy running the show.
Johnson can still get hot at any moment, and in an offense that stands to be healthier and a little more innovative than last year's, Johnson looks like he'll continue to be a big part of the attack.
"Joe Jesus, you know what it is. It's great. It's great, man," Garnett described Johnson's game against the Pistons, via Anthony Puccio of NetsDaily. "Me and Double-A [Alan Anderson] was kind of joking. We saw him bopping, getting it going. You can kind of see it coming like a tornado ... It’s crazy, man. After this win and after seeing a performance like that, it feels like he had a hundred or something."
Johnson is one of the most exciting players to watch drop 30-plus. His 29-point third quarter against the Philadelphia 76ers last year, a period in which he sank a record-tying eight threes, was jump-out-of-your-seat entertainment.
His 34-point performance Saturday hardly matched that, but the Nets should at least feel comfortable knowing Johnson is back to 2013-14 ways after one of the most efficient seasons of his career.
Getting Defensive
Brooklyn got absolutely rocked in its opener against the Celtics, allowing 121 points and 55.7 percent shooting (along with 61.7 percent true shooting). That all changed against Detroit.
Led by Kentavious Caldwell-Pope's 0-of-6, the Pistons shot 1-of-17 from long range, scoring a mere 101.8 points per 100 possessions, during the contest, a figure that, if stretched over the course of last season, would've placed the Pistons with the 22nd-ranked offense. And it was all about the way Brooklyn defended the perimeter.
Hollins' defenses know how to defend threes. In Memphis, wings and guards aggressively closed out on shooters. Brooklyn, while still learning the Hollins defense, executed such strategy successfully Saturday.
The Nets closed out hard on Detroit shooters, though Detroit did do a good job of finding dribble lanes and getting to the rim, especially when Bojan Bogdanovic was defending the ball.
Brooklyn crashed the glass, too. Against a team that should finish under .500, even in a weak East, but should also win plenty of rebounding battles, the Nets took control of the paint.
Garnett had 14 boards, Johnson had eight, Jerome Jordan had five in just 11 minutes, and the Nets as a team grabbed 53.9 percent of available rebounds. That's a good sign for a squad which will need to rebound well around Lopez, a below-average rebounder for his position, once its center re-enters the lineup.
Fred Katz averaged almost one point per game in fifth grade but maintains that his per-36-minute numbers were astonishing. Find more of his work at WashingtonPost.com or on ESPN's TrueHoop Network at ClipperBlog.com. Follow him on Twitter at @FredKatz.
Unless otherwise noted, all statistics are current as of Nov. 3 and are courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com and NBA.com.
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