Mar
11

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Previewing Nets-76ers: “This is a really bad basketball team.”

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Photo by Flickr user keithallison

Photo by Flickr user keithallison

Andrew Bynum’s absence hangs over the Philadelphia 76ers like the ghost of Hamlet’s father—which I suppose makes Dwight Howard Claudius, but stop me before I go too far—but that doesn’t explain how or why Philly has slumped so seriously as of late. A juxtaposition that says it all: The Nets have a 3-game win streak going into tonight’s game at Wells Fargo Center, while the 76ers have one win since the All-Star break. Still, Philadelphia should be much better than they are—which means Brooklyn fans shouldn’t automatically pencil this in for a win. I talked with Hoop76′s Tom Sunnergren to get some idea of the problem with Jrue Holiday, the diminishing impact of Doug Collins, and the general bummer of starting Royal Ivey.

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Mar
10

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Nets 93, Hawks 80: The sleepiest blowout ever

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There’s certainly nothing bad about a blowout, because it’s obviously better than losing. But blowouts come in different forms and tonight’s against the Atlanta Hawks was a mildly dreary affair absent of any dramatic tension and closely resembling the basketball equivalent of boiled cabbage: limp and not much to get excited about. The margin of victory was wider during Friday’s win over the Charlotte Bobcats, but that game had the Deron Williams Blues Explosion to capture our attention. By comparison, Nets-Hawks didn’t feature a single player scoring more than 18 points, with both teams shooting a combined 42.% from the floor and 26.9% from beyond the arc. Andray Blatche was the leading scorer of the game on a 9-for-11 shooting performance built on long 2s, ponderous dribble-drives and fast break layups. Goofily entertaining in a way, but not great to watch in the flow of things.

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Mar
9

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“We can’t just take for granted that Brooklyn is going to support us.”

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That’s a quote from Nets chief executive Brett Yormark, who’s featured in a New York Times article about how the team is reopening the basketball gymnasium at the Navy Yard Clubhouse of the Madison Square Boys and Girls Club. The new court is modeled after the Nets’ own practice court, and will give local youths a place to congregate after school and during the summer. His words, in full:

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Mar
9

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Nets 95, Wizards 78: Deron doing Deron

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You come into these games ready to take notes about where and how the Nets are turning the ball over, whether Mirza Teletovic can play any kind of consistent defense, when Brook Lopez is looking for his shot… but then a black swan event interrupts the flow of things and you’re left sitting there Tweeting inanities in lack of anything profound. Deron Williams entered Friday night’s game against the Washington Wizards having recently been named the 17th worst contract in the NBA by Grantland’s Bill Simmons. His first move? Making his first three three-point attempts in the first three minutes. Then, it was four in the first four minutes, and five in the first four-and-a-half minutes. It kept going until we got to a preposterous 8-for-8 from three point range in the first half, at which point your blogger lost track of taking notes on those turnovers and that help defense and instead began Tweeting variations of the same pro-Deron affirmation. “He’s on fire!” “He’s tying this record!” “He’s tying that record!” etc.

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Mar
7

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Unsurprisingly, Carlesimo sticks with Teletovic

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From the New York Post, regarding Mirza Teletovic’s ascendance in the rotation over Kris Humphries: “Carlesimo said he expects to try this out through at least the next four or five games, and then go from there.” (Humphries “politely” declined to make himself available for comment.) “There’s just no way we can get Mirza 12, 15, 18, 20 minutes without taking one of the guys out,” Carlesimo told the Post. “Whoever I took out, it wouldn’t be fair, but it’s just reality.”

As I wrote in the recap of last night’s game, Teletovic’s theoretical three-ball prowess opens up the perimeter in a way that Humphries simply couldn’t—and though we’ll need more evidence than a blowout against the Bobcats, it’s hard to argue with the immediate results.

Mar
7

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Nets 99, Bobcats 78: Gerald Wallace runs the gamut

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Photo by Kent Smith/Getty

On Wednesday afternoon, Sports Illustrated’s Rob Mahoney posted a list of what he deemed the NBA’s “most problematic contracts,” starting things off with a pair of Brooklyn Nets: Joe Johnson and Gerald Wallace. Though his crash-heavy style of play could’ve only portended a decline as the years went on after coming to the Nets, “Wallace bucked that preliminary projection by flailing almost immediately,” Mahoney wrote, also adding, “There’s just not much room for him to help as a range-less wing alongside two interior big men, though both Avery Johnson and now-interim coach P.J. Carlesimo have insisted on playing him in such a capacity.”

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Mar
7

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Welcome to Brooklyn’s Finest

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BarclaysCenter

Photo by Flickr user shizukokato

Don’t believe what you’ve read. Brooklyn isn’t solely filled with bespeckled, plaid-decked millennial hipsters equipped with artisanal cheese cloths and custom-painted synthesizers, trawling the land for the trendiest place to brunch and lamest band to make fun of. Not simply because Brooklyn is a century-plus old borough with loads of history that existed long before the popularity of the fixed gear bicycle, but because the modern Brooklyn is such a diverse, sprawling space home to hundreds of thousands of people spread across dozens of unique neighborhoods, many of whom would never be found on an episode of “Girls.”

I bring this up because I’m also an outsider to Brooklyn, having spent most of my life in Chicago before moving out here after graduating college. Along the way, I’ve thought a lot about the nature of relocation and how the modern transplant can avoid becoming an ungrateful interloper insensitive and uncaring of his surroundings, because there’s more to calling oneself a Brooklynite than living in Brooklyn.

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