RECAP: Nets 91, Heat 95 - The Rain Delay Game

KG finished with only an assist on the night but was integral to the Nets’ ball movement early in the game. Working as the screener with Deron, Garnett is excellent at floating/popping after the pick and then making a quick, extra pass from the high-post. He was responsible for a couple of Plumlee free throws, after Plum cut to the rim around the high pick-and-roll, and his sole assist produced one of Plum’s reverse dunks. A quiet 10 rebounds and some ball movement are about what we’ve come to expect from KG this season, along with a couple of field goals and some steady, if limited, minutes.

We saw very little of “Iso Joe” tonight against Luol Deng, as he worked mostly off-the-ball and spotted up off of the rest of the Nets action. His lack of free-throw attempts reflect his passivity on offense, but without his 4-8 shooting from three the Nets would have made only 4 of 20 shots from deep. If he wasn’t going to dominate the ball and work out of the post it would’ve been nice to see him pick up Dwyane Wade a bit more on defense, as he was the only Nets defender with the size and discipline to not fall for Wade’s tricks, and he bothered him on a couple of possessions, including Wade’s last shot that Deng offensive-rebounded and drew the foul on Bojan.

Plum was the best Net to suit up tonight. 21 points, 9 rebounds (5 offensive), 8 free throws, 3 reverse dunks, and a huge blocked shot in 32 minutes over-compensated for his four turnovers, as he was also the most active Net. The Nets offense wasn’t exactly humming this evening, considering all of the three-pointers the team missed (more on that in a bit), but Plum did a great job of cutting off of Deron and KG pick-and-rolls and finishing around the basket. He’s been getting more lobs thrown his way lately and he seemed to convert a handful of alley-oops around the rim against the Heat, and his hard cuts and dives drew the help defender and opened up some good looks on the perimeter, which, again, didn’t go in. If Plum maintains his energy level on a night that the shooters can actually make a shot, the Nets could explode offensively (see: Saturday night in Charlotte).

Deron finished with 11 assists and didn’t commit a turnover until the two costly give-aways down the stretch. He held opposing starter Norris Cole to just four points in 31 minutes but rookie Shabazz Napier came out firing off the bench by making three of his four three-point attempts and Mario Chalmers finished with 10 points, 7 rebounds, 5 assists, and 6 free-throw attempts. Deron again struggled with his jumper, missing 8 of his 12 shot attempts, and could have won the game tonight had he caught fire and carried the offense through some dry stretches (like the second quarter).

Sergey looked to bruise the left side of his body a couple of times tonight but left the game in the third quarter and didn’t return. He was active on offense in his 22 minutes, even making a play on a back-cut off-the-ball and skipping the ball around on the perimeter for his three assists. Like many, many other players before him, though, Karasev was roasted by future-Hall of Famer Dwayne Wade. Wade began the game by scoring 12 of Miami’s first 16 points, mostly by utilizing his patented up-fakes and “old man game” to keep Sergey off-balance, before abusing him with his arsenal of mid-range and mid-post moves. Hopefully his “sore left side” won’t hamper him for the remaining three games on the schedule this week.

I was ready to give Jefferson an A at least if he finished that cock-back dunk attempt on Chris “Birdman” Andersen in the first quarter, but Jerome Jordan had his back at the 11-minute mark of the fourth quarter and was able to jam on Birdman. Limited minutes kept Cory from getting completely comfortable in the game tonight, but he could be in line to start Wednesday night against the Raptors if KG again gets the second night of a back-to-back off to rest.

Mirza predictably struggled after returning to the court after missing the last three games with a hip pointer. He hit a three-pointer that sparked some Nets momentum and almost threw down a dunk on the fast break after some extra ball movement but was largely passive and ineffective tonight in his return to NBA action.

It’s tough to evaluate a player’s performance in just five minutes of game time but Jordan came in and was okay against the quicker Miami Heat offense, as far as recovering at the rim and grabbing boards. He had a nice dive off of the pick-and-roll and picked up two offensive rebounds in the third quarter, and should see significantly more minutes tomorrow night in Toronto on the second night of a back-to-back.

It was maybe a quiet five dimes and three steals from Jarrett Jack, but the 1-6 shooting from the floor left more of a lasting impression tonight. His missed layup down four might have only delayed the inevitable defeat for Brooklyn, as the Heat are a decent free-throw shooting team, and the dual-point guard lineup down the stretch helped to quicken the pace and allowed the Nets to close a ten-point lead in about a minute of game time. That corner three with two minutes left in the game was a big miss, and Jack’s issues continue to revolve around his shot selection and turnovers (four tonight).

Bojan had a huge three-pointer to cut the Heat lead to two with 35.1 seconds left, before committing the loose-ball foul on Luol Deng on the defensive end. He got to the free-throw line on one of his customary back-door cuts, but otherwise only attempted shots from beyond the arc.

The Nets needed a defensive presence on the perimeter tonight to slow down Dwyane Wade, but Anderson suffered the same fate as Sergey Karasev did guarding the former-“Flash”. Anderson made Wade work harder to get his shot off, as Wade put a bit more arc on his baseline fall-aways with Anderson on his hip, but still struggled on both ends and missed all three of his field goal attempts on the night.

Hollins threw a few different lineups out tonight, to combat the small-ball preferences of his Heat-counterpart, Erik Spoelstra. Miami went super-small at one point in the second half by subbing Mario Chalmers in for starting center Justin Hamilton, which Coach Hollins countered by keeping Plum at the pivot and going to Mirza at the power forward. The pairing was okay defensively, even conceding all the speed. His best move tonight was extending Mason’s minutes into the ’30’s, and his rotations tomorrow night will be worth monitoring.