Nets (115) - Nuggets (70)

The best game of the year for this team. By far. The Nuggets are a top team in the west, with one of the NBA's top offenses and the Nets held them to 70 points, and 35% shooting. That is not a mistype, the Nets were rolling on all cylinders tonight to their largest victory in franchise history. I went to the game and it was something to watch, it is not every day that the Nuggets get beat at their own game. The Nets were running the ball at will, led by lightning quick Devin Harris who had 28 points. Tonight was one of those nights when Harris is 4 steps quicker than his opponent. He drove when he wanted, outclassed Chauncey Billups, and stopped at the foul line 17 times. He set the pace for the Nets tonight and his teammates were more than happy to follow. Anderson and Lopez continued their hot streaks as Anderson recorded his 1st career double-double (13 points, 12 boards) and Lopez just missed another one finishing with 15 points and 9 boards. The Nuggets could not find their shot all night as the Net d hampered them from all spots. This was another step for Lopez as well, in the fact that he held the athletically gifted Nene in check. This was a great game for the team and there isn't really much to elaborate on, the score says it all, this was all Nets all the time.

Nets (115) - Wizards (88)

The Nets followed up a nice win over the Bucks with a blow out win over the Wizards. This score is indicative of how the game should've turned out considering the Wizards are the worst team in the NBA and they were playing with only 8 healthy bodies, and one of the many injured was Caron Butler. While the score indicates a blow out, and it certainly was one in the second half, the Nets struggled throughout the first half and with just a few minutes left were down by 7 points to the Wiz, but then Devin Harris took over. He ignited a Nets run that put them up by 5 at the half and they never looked back from there. The Nets outscored the Wiz 35 to 18 in the 3rd quarter, effectively ending the game. The Nets got another solid team performance tonight after one last night versus the Bucks. Ryan Anderson continued his hot shooting, he really seems to be growing comfortable in the starting role, and finished with 18 points and 9 rebounds. Brook Lopez kept things going for the rookies recording his 3rd straight double-double with 12 points and 12 boards. The Big 2 led the way yet again however as Harris and Carter finished with 26 and 20 points respectively. Also, tonight saw the return of Sean Williams to the court for the Nets, and he made a statement immediately, coming into the game and throwing down a powerful left handed jam. On the Washington side, a player people should watch out for is Nick Young, the 2nd year guard out of USC. He has a great ability to create his own shot, and make tough shots as well. He is developing into an instant offense type of guy for the Wizards and should be an Eddie House type player in this league. Overall, this victory was a must win for the Nets and they won it convincingly, as they should have.

Nets (99) - Bucks (85)

Despite pleas from my recuperating (from shoulder surgery) father, and mother nature's best attempt to clog the roads, I made it to yesterday's game which marked the return of former Net stalwart Richard Jefferson. RJ got a warm reception during player introductions and deservedly so he was a key part of the greatest stretch of basketball in Nets history, and he was always a fan favorite because of his athleticism and his funny, opinionated personality. RJ played well in his return home tonight scoring 27 points but he was the only bright spot on a Bucks team playing with out its two top players, Michael Redd and Andrew Bogut. The Nets put a damper on RJ's return with the ultimate team effort as they had five players score in double figures. Brook Lopez followed up his 24 point, 17 rebound performance on saturday with a 22 point, 12 rebound performance tonight. He is quickly becoming a go to guy on the Nets offense. He gets to the rim and finishes with authority and is great running pick and rolls with VC or Devin. He also is starting to really attack on the boards, and is becoming a solid double double guy for this team. Another rookie wasn't far behind Lopez last night as Ryan Anderson had one of his better games of the year shooting 7 for 9 and scoring 19 points while pulling down 7 boards. It was good to see him shooting the ball from long range well because he has been struggling the last month or so and having him play well especially with Eduardo Najera now out indefinately is something the Nets need to happen. In addition, to the rookies playing well they got a solid all around performance from VC who recorded his frist triple double of the season and while he was off on his shot he impacted the game in other ways, particularly with his ability to drive and suck in the defense. While those 3 guys all contributed to the Net victory, Keyon Dooling was probably most essential for them, he hit 5 three pointers off the bench and scored 18 points, often hitting shots in huge spots. The Nets had been up by 15 then had their lead trimmed to 4 before Doolling converted a rare 4 point play to extend the lead to 8 and effecitvely end any Bucks hope for a comeback. The Nets played solid team defense holding the Bucks to 36% shooting in addition to their well rounded offensive showing. This night was supposed to be about one individual: Richard Jefferson , but it wasn't as it was about the team, and not RJ's team but his former team who used multiple contributions to pick up a big win in a game with playoff implications.

Nets (85)-Sixers(83)

I only caught the end of the 3rd quarter and the entire fourth quarter of this game, but I'm sure glad I did.  I turned it down with the Nets down 14 and the camera showing Vince grimacing in pain along the Nets bench because of a sprained right ankle... my thoughts at the time "oh god, another bad Net loss, why do I root for this team?"  But the last 15 minutes of game time, made me forget that pessimistic thinking, as the Nets made their back without VC for a big road win.  The Nets had cut the lead down to 10 at the end of 3, a manageable but not ideal deficit.  With VC out the Nets were playing 2 guys that hadn't been seeing much court time: CDR and Trenton Hassell.  One of them, Hassell, made a huge difference.  The Nets were a stout defensive team in the 4th quarter, holding the Sixers to 2 for 20 shooting in the 4th quarter, which is an incredible accomplishment for this defensively challenged team.  Hassell played tough defense for the nets including making a few blocks and steals down the stretch.  With such defensive struggles the past few weeks, a strong defensive player like Hassell should be playing and he showed why tonight.  The Nets also got strong contributions from Keyon Dooling, Devin Harris, and Brook Lopez, who contributed to the victory.  The Nets won despite an offensive rebounding barrage from the Sixers and free throw deficiency from Devin Harris, and they won with defense.  Yes, you read that right, defense.  The Nets won and they played defense, a coincidence? I think not.

Apology

Loyal readers i want to apologize for my lack of posts over the past few weeks.  I have been very busy with midterms and other things, but have tried my best to watch as many net games as possible but haven't found the time to blog about them. So i am going to resume blogging, starting with tonight's game versus the 76ers.

Nets-Heat

The Nets can't beat the Heat. This isn't just me sharing my opinion about the fact that the Heat have been and are better than the Nets, this is fact. The Nets played their 3rd down to the wire game with the Heat this season and lost for the 3rd time. I will point out that they were without Devin Harris for this game and the first meeting but still they need to beat this team especially considering the fact that they are so close in the standings. I was switching back and forth between this and the football games but I was there to see D-Wade dominate us yet again down the stretch. He hit some big free throws and tough jumpers in overtime to all but seal a Heat victory. The Nets were down 6 with 35 seconds left and actually made a valiant comeback to get it to 3 with just under 10 to go but Vince fresh off his game winner yesterday, forced up a bad 3 despite Keyon Dooling being wide open and there being 7 seconds to go. Just another chapter in the growing frustration that is playing the Miami Heat.

Nets-Hawks

What an exhilarating game. I went to the game with a friend and it was awesome (well the second half was). The Nets played an absolutely awful first half, they couldn't score to save the life of them. They had only 16 points about midway through the 2nd quarter and only 29 at the half. They were down 20 at the half but I think they were lucky they were only down 20 because the Hawks should have run away with this game, and 20 points may seem like a lot but the Hawks could've been up by 30. The game was so atrocious though that Coach Frank got himself ejected because he had clearly seen enough of their offensive ineptitude, and Brian Hill was left in charge of the sqaud. The boos were coming down from around the building during the first half, particularly at the end of it as it ended on quite a poor note. The Nets had a little over 4 seconds left with the ball and they throw it into Brook Lopez who loses it, and Mario West, a 12th man for the Hawks buries a half court jumper, this epitomized the first half... nothing went right.

The second half was a different story though, as the Nets went to a semi-trap defense and the Hawks suddenly couldn't find the basket while the Nets were pushing the tempo and burying their 3s. The charge was led by Devin Harris (26 points, 11 assists) who pushed the ball up the floor alot and created for teammates, setting up a lot of wide open threes. They would be cutting the lead and the Hawks would push it up, and the Nets could never really get over the hump. Had the Hawks made their free throws I don't know if the Nets would have had it in them to comeback but in the late 3rd quarter and early 4th Zaza Pachulia and Josh Smith both missed a couple of free throws and the Nets hung around. VC had a terrible first half then he heated up at the end of the 3rd quarter but when Harris was taken out, Vince went into trying to take over all by himself mode and started forcing shots. Brian Hill made a good coaching decision though to take him out when he started doing this. The Nets got some great help from the role players tonight as well as Simmons and Hayes both played very well and buried some big 3s, Dooling also gave the Nets a spark, and so did Josh Boone. On his 1st sequence in the game Boone grabbed 3 offensive rebounds on 1 possesion before being fouled, he played with a lot of grit. The Nets finally got over the hump at 69-68, then an interesting coaching decision was made as brian Hill had Ryan Anderson in the game even though Frank had recently taken him out of the rotation. Anderson buried a huge 3 to give the Nets a 74-71 lead, and the game went back and forth the rest of the fourth with the Nets going with a small lineup of Harris, VC, Hayes, Dooling, and Lopez. Harris tweaked his hamstring with about 5 minutes to go in the 4th and he wasn't the same after that, turning the ball over and shooting poorly.

The Nets were in control of overtime, continuing their great shooting, and they had the ball up one with 20 seconds to go and the Hawks didn't foul and Harris turned it over, leading to a Hawks score. The Nets then had the ball with 12 to go and there was a foul with 4 seconds left. A bad inbounds throw went into the back court and was retrieved by Carter who took a few dribbles and from 31 feet buried the game winner, and the crowd which had been cheering the Nets on the entire 2nd half, erupted.

What a game.