Disastrous Defeat

What a bad loss last night, the kind of loss that sends a team into a horrible downward spiral. The Nets played so well for 42 minutes then let everything slip away when it mattered most. Despite solid defense and an outstanding performance from yi the Nets couldn't find a way to close out what seemed like a sure fire win. Here's why they lost: 1) They lost the rhythm of their offense down the stretch. Instead of continuing to attack and try to score they started playing conservatively and most of their shots took place with under 8 seconds on the shot clock and were not very good looks. They were playing offense like they were trying to run down the clock as opposed to trying to continue keeping distance between themselves and the Heat. 2) D-Wade finally turned into himself, making a serious of ridiculous shots. He swished a 28 foot 3 pointer, banked in another one, and hit another bank shot from a very tough angle, all single-handedly bringing the Heat back from the dead. 3) The Nets lack of another player to create their own shot with Harris out. With Devin Harris out the only person on the floor in the last 5 minutes that could create their own shot besides Vince was Keyon Dooling but he's not great at doing that, so the heat double and triple teamed Carter, not allowing him to beat them. Since the other players depend on Carter to create for them, the Heat double and triple teams were effective as they forced VC into some bad shots, and those 2 critical turnovers down the stretch. This game really makes you miss and truly appreciate everything RJ brought to the table. He would keep defenses honest because they either had to leave him or Vince with one-on-one coverage down the stretch, but now without him and with Harris out teams feel very comfortable committing alot of players to VC cause they don't feel anyone else can beat them. Bobby Simmons is also a huge bust, the man missed 2 wide open 3s in the last 4 minutes including one that was an airball. He really has yet to contribute much on offense or defense and if CDR wasn't out i'd advocate benching simmons for hayes and bringing CDR off the bench to speel both VC and Jarvis.