Recap: Nets 77, Wizards 114
The Nets came into this one with a three game winning streak including wins against the Raptors and Clippers while the Wizards were on their season worst five game losing streak. Unfortunately for the Nets those trends turned out to be absolutely meaningless for tonights game. The Nets started out the game relatively slowly as they were down 28-19 after one quarter, and not looking good on either end. As is often the case for the Nets the second quarter was even worse as they got outscored by eleven resulting in a twenty point halftime deficit. The Nets then failed to mount any type of run in the third quarter, were down by 28 at the start of the fourth and rode their bench guys out the rest of the way in route to the 35 point blowout loss.
Like most blowout’s, the Nets lost big due to a combination of poor play and bad luck. With KG out resting tonight the Nets played almost exclusively big-big lineups with some combination of Brook Lopez, Mason Plumlee, and Jerome Jordan. These lineups kill the Nets spacing, and as a result the Nets really struggled to get good looks. Neither Jarrett Jack or Deron Williams could get much penetration against the Wizards solid defense, and the Nets shot an atrocious 33.8% from the field for the game. The Nets were 0-9 from three at the half, the product of both bad looks, and also just bad luck. The Nets shooting woes are what led to the 77 point performance, but giving up 114 points to a middling offensive team like the Wizards isn’t great even in a fast paced game like tonights. All the Nets misses in the first half led to a ton of transition opportunities for Washington, and the Nets were outscored 18-0 in transition in the first half. The Nets lack of speed and athleticism certainly hurts the team in transition, but tonights defense was especially awful as both the Nets guards and bigs were lazy getting back on defense. The Nets were on a back to back, but the Wizards also played last night so that doesn’t really excuse the Nets players lack of effort. There isn’t to much else to say about this game, the Nets got thoroughly outplayed on both ends of the court tonight and the game was never competitive after the first quarter.
Grades:
Jarrett Jack: Jarrett was 3-12 from the field and had six turnovers on the game. He was also one of the main culprits for the bad transition D as he frequently watched as his own shot missed and John Wall leaked out past him for easy fast break opportunities. This is a pretty ugly game for Nets player grades, this isn’t even the worst of it. D
Alan Anderson: Alan shot 1-6 from three, posted a team worst +/- of -27 and basically didn’t do anything to help the team on either end. It’s sad to admit, but the Nets really rely on either Alan or Bojan hitting some shots to help the offense out, and when neither of them can, things get ugly fast. Anderson ended with zero turnovers which is good, but also zero assists, sources tell me that isn’t good. C-
Joe Johnson: When Alan Anderson plays awfully it’s one thing because he’s Alan Anderson, when Joe Johnson plays as bad as he did tonight the Nets wing play is about as bad as it gets. Joe played 24 minutes, didn’t get to the line once, was 3-11 from the field with no threes, and only recorded one rebound and one assist. Combine all of that with lethargic defense, and Joe had a truly awful performance. F
Brook Lopez: If a lone bright spot from tonight exists, it was Brook. He scored 19 points on 8-15 shooting, and had a solid eight rebounds to go along with it. He was able to get deep post position and nail a couple of hooks, but on the other end he had trouble keeping up with Nene and Marcin Gortat on the pick and roll. His offense was good, but his interior D was lacking and neither he or Mason deterred many of the Wizards looks in the paint. B
Mason Plumlee: Mason Plumlee got abused by Marcin Gortat in pick and roll, and struggled to get anything going on offense as he only got four shot attempts in the game. As much as playing with Mason hurts Brook’s post up spacing, playing with Brook might hurt Mason’s spacing on the pick and roll even more. However, none of that is exciting. Causing about five beers to be spilled on the sideline? Very exciting. C-
Deron Williams: Deron was the only Nets player who really created anything in this game as he dished out seven assists and had zero turnovers. He also shot 0-8 from the field, and has shot a combined 6-29 his last three games. Despite the poor shooting he only posted a -10 +/- on the day, one game +/- is really noisy, but that was the best of anyone who played over ten minutes for Brooklyn. If his shooting doesn’t stay ridiculously awful he might earn the starting job back soon. D+
Jerome Jordan: Jordan scored nine points on 3-4 shooting from the field, but only had three rebounds in 21 minutes of play, and was a big reason why Gortat ended with five offensive rebounds on the day. His individual offense was fine, but having him out there really doesn’t help the offense in anyway. In games where KG is active Jerome basically doesn’t play, his play tonight shouldn’t alter that in anyway. C-
Cory Jefferson: In games where KG is resting I’d like to see Lionel give more of the fourth big minutes to Cory instead of Jerome. Cory’s almost certainly a worse player at this stage, but he’s a rookie, and he at least provides some hope of semi-spacing for the Nets. He didn’t impact the game at all tonight (0-1 from field, only one rebound in 14 minutes), but he could be a piece in the future if Lionel gives him time to develop. D
Bojan Bogdanovic: Bojan played 20 minutes, Alan Anderson played 21, neither did much to help the Nets. Bojan shot the ball slightly better (2-5 v.s. 1-7), but he’s not as good on the defensive end as Anderson. Neither provides much off the bounce creation, but it’s good to see that Bojan is firmly back in the rotation at least. C-
Darius Morris: Morris played the whole fourth quarter, but only got up two shots and had zero assists. However, with Deron back healthy the Nets won’t be playing him at all in close games anymore. He’s been a below replacement player when he’s been in there for Brooklyn, and it might be worth it to at least try a D-League guy in his place. D+
Markel Brown: Markel only played six minutes at the end, and didn’t do anything of note in those six minutes. Nonetheless, the Nets are currently only playing three wings, so it might be nice to give him a few minutes at backup SG in a competitive game and see what he does. C
Sergey Karasev: Sergey has clearly fallen back behind Bojan and Alan in the rotation, and like Markel played an uneventful six minutes at the end of the game. If Hollins doesn’t feel comfortable giving Markel a shot, I think he should at least give Sergey 4-8 minutes a game just to try and give Joe/Deron/Jarrett a little more rest. C-
Coach Hollins: My only real complaint with Coach Hollins in game coaching today was his decision to play Jerome ahead of Cory, other than that it’s hard to blame him for the awful shooting. It’s also difficult to know how much of the Nets lazy fast break D can be blamed on him. One thing of interest is that he tried a zone for about five possessions midway through the third quarter. It didn’t work as Washington scored on it almost every time down, but I like to see a coach trying things so I give him credit for that. C-
The Nets next play Monday in Milwaukee at 8:00 ET.
