The Good, Bad and Ugly from the Brooklyn Nets' Early Season
After watching the Brooklyn Nets get stomped on by the Boston Celtics in the team’s first game of the year, fans held their breath.
The more things change, the more they stay the same, was the overwhelming thought. With a revamped team, the Nets looked as though they were about to stumble into another terrible start after beginning last season with a 5-12 record.
Three days later, all the hope that had been lost in an instant was gained back just as quickly. In Brooklyn’s second contest of 2014-15, the team pulled out a quality win against the Detroit Pistons, 102-90.
Following that refreshing victory, the Nets thoroughly beat the undermanned Oklahoma City Thunder on Nov. 3 and further solidified the notion that opening night was an anomaly.
Although we’re dealing with a small sample, the Nets have shown us a lot through their first three games.
There have been glistening bright spots, dark spots and spots that are so ugly, they’ll make your eyes bleed. Let’s get the nasty stuff out of the way first.
The Bad and the Ugly: Total Clunker on Opening Night
For how poorly the Nets played against Boston, they’re lucky the margin of defeat was just 16.
Boston’s 121-105 victory was misleading—the boys in green and white dominated every aspect of the game and downright embarrassed the Nets.
Eight Celtics scored in double figures, and their final score could’ve been higher if not for a fourth quarter played on cruise control.
Rajon Rondo totaled 13 points, 12 assists and seven rebounds and outdueled Deron Williams (19 points and eight assists) on both ends of the floor. Rondo and D-Will each made six field goals, but Rondo needed seven fewer attempts to do so.
The Celtics exceeded 30 points in each of the first three quarters and led 67-41 at halftime. It was a massacre.
“I don’t really have an answer for you on that one,” Williams said afterward, per Tim Bontemps of the New York Post. “We just looked like crap out there.”
Boston doesn’t have half the talent that Brooklyn does, and watching the C’s whoop up on the Nets so thoroughly was alarming.
“It was like [an] open gate, and all the sheep got out of the gate,” coach Lionel Hollins said of his team’s defense, per Bontemps. “It was layup after layup. … They had 62 points in the paint, and most of them were non-contested.”
It seemed as though Brooklyn had just rolled out of bed and got dragged to TD Garden by the coaching staff. There was no effort, no energy and no passion. There was nothing.
The emotion that carried the Nets into (and through) the playoffs last year was nowhere to be found.
Brooklyn turned the ball over 20 times to Boston’s 12, but it somehow managed to win the rebounding battle 39 to 35. To make up for the lack of presence on the glass, the Celtics finished with eight more assists than their disinterested opponents.
The word “ugly” is a kind way to describe this game for the Nets.
Even worse, starting center Brook Lopez, who's played in 96 out of a possible 208 games the past three years (about 46 percent), was already dealing with an injury that was serious enough to sideline him for Brooklyn's first two games.
It was not nearly as bad as the broken foot that robbed him of last season. But the simple fact that the big man has already experienced injury issues is disconcerting.
The Good: Polished Back-to-Back Wins
Bounce-Back Victory in Detroit
Heading into the Nets’ second game, there seemed to be a quiet sense of urgency. The team couldn’t get blown out twice to start the year, right?
Right.
In the grand scheme of things, Brooklyn’s victory over the Pistons was small. It was one game out of 82, a mere star in a regular-season galaxy.
But for the team’s morale, it was huge.
The Nets came out hot and led 33-25 after a quarter, and they eventually pulled away down the stretch by outscoring Detroit 21 to 15 in the final period.
Fans in attendance got to witness more than a Nets victory on Nov. 1—they got to witness the Joe Johnson Extravaganza.
Hitting 14 of his 23 shot attempts, Joe Cool carried the Nets with 34 points, eight boards and six assists. In the fourth quarter, Johnson erupted for 15 points on 7-of-9 shooting, killing any and every run that Detroit put together.
Johnson is the best player on the Nets, and the team needs to continue feeding Joe Jesus the ball all night long. Too often last year, Johnson would get cooking early in the game only to have his team turn its offensive focus elsewhere.
Here’s Kevin Garnett on Johnson, per Mitch Abramson of the New York Daily News:
"“Joe Jesus, you know what it is,” he said.
Joe Jesus is Garnett’s nickname for Brooklyn Nets shooting guard Joe Johnson, a handle he coined because, as Garnett said last season, “he might not be there when you call him, but he’s there when you need him.”
[...]
“When we saw him bopping, we kind of see it coming like a tornado,” Garnett said. “You know what’s crazy — after this win and seeing this performance, it’s like he had 100 or something.”
"
Lost in Johnson’s heroics was the fact that Garnett put up 18 points and 14 rebounds in 35 minutes against Detroit’s solid front line.
Hollins has made it clear that he isn’t going to abide by any minute restrictions when it comes to his team, including the 38-year-old Garnett.
Mason Plumlee is a strong player, but he’s still raw. Through two games, the 24-year-old sophomore is averaging just seven points and 4.5 boards. He’ll have some big nights and some underwhelming ones, so Garnett's play will be crucial as Brooklyn aims to stay consistent.
KG posted just three double-doubles in a very poor 2013-14 campaign—so getting his first in Game 2 of the regular season is a positive sign. A bounce-back season from the 20-year veteran would be enormous for Brooklyn, given Lopez’s penchant for health problems.
“My mindset changed June 1, I got back to my regimen,” Garnett said after beating the Pistons, per Abramson.
“I got back to what I know. To what made me over these years. I got back to who I am. I’ve been ready since Day 1 for camp. I’m ready this year. I really want to say something else, but I’m not messing around. I’m here.”
That's exactly what Nets fans want to hear.
Dominating Effort in Home Opener
Without Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, the Thunder are not intimidating in the least bit.
A well-balanced offensive attack gave the Nets a 116-85 win over Oklahoma City in their home opener. The usually quiet Alan Anderson nailed all four of his attempts from downtown and tied Lopez, in his first game back, for a team-leading 18 points.
Williams tallied 17 points on an efficient 4-of-8 shooting night and also finished with 9 assists in a 37-minute effort.
Hollins is clearly undaunted by the prospect of dishing out too much playing time, as he also gave Lopez 24 minutes. However, the hard-nosed coach wisely gave KG a slim 20 minutes of action in the blowout.
Here's Andrew Keh of the New York Times on Brooklyn's ball movement and offensive continuity:
"The Nets shot 52.4 percent from the field, getting 17 points and 9 assists from Deron Williams. They had 25 assists, and each of the five starters had 8 to 10 shot attempts.
“When the ball is moving like that, we’re having fun, we’re sharing the basketball — that’s what we want,” Williams said.
"
Croatian rookie Bojan Bogdanovic is beginning to look more comfortable in the offense after admitting that his transition to the NBA has not been as easy as he anticipated.
"I just told him keep playing, being aggressive and just play your game," Hollins after the game in Detroit, per ESPN's Mike Mazzeo. "You're missing shots, so what? Next time you have a wide-open shot, take it. When you drive, go drive to score, go drive to make a play. It's just basketball. I want him to stay aggressive and stay confident."
Bogdanovic, who lit up OKC in an exhibition last year, finished with 12 points on 10 shots in Brooklyn's third regular season game.
Perhaps the brightest of the bright here is that Lopez returned, played well and remained injury-free. Even though his feet are seemingly made of glass, the guy is an elite offensive center when healthy.
What's Next?
Over the course of the next week, Brooklyn will have a chance to string some wins together.
The team gets the Minnesota Timberwolves, New York Knicks and Orlando Magic in a three-game homestand at Barclays Center in Brooklyn
The Nets had better win at least two of those three, because they've got a trio of tough matchups against Western Conference squads on the horizon.
It'll be a tall task to beat the Phoenix Suns, Golden State Warriors or Portland Trail Blazers on the road, especially in a span of just four days.
After a genuinely horrendous start to the year, the Nets rebounded nicely in Detroit and OKC. They will need to keep that momentum rolling—and continue feeding Johnson—as the schedule goes from smooth to bumpy in mid-November.
All stats are accurate as of Nov. 4 and are courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com.
.jpg?w=600 "Colts Release Kenny Moore")
