What to Watch For: New York Knicks vs. Brooklyn Nets December 11

Tuesday, December 11^th, 2012

Pre Game News and Notes

New York Knicks vs. Brooklyn Nets

The Knicks will look to get some revenge in round two of the Battle of the Boroughs as they travel to Brooklyn to take on the Nets.  The first time around, the Nets won a hard fought overtime game 96-89.  In the first meeting, it was the Knicks who were not at full strength; tonight it will be the Nets who will be playing short-handed.  Here are some things to watch tonight:

-Jason Kidd in the Lineup

In the first matchup of the season, the Knicks were without guard Jason Kidd.  Thankfully, this time they will have Kidd at their disposal and he should assume his regular role in the starting lineup. 

Without Kidd in the lineup, the Knicks offense struggled; the ball movement was stagnant and the offense was over reliant on isolations, especially with Carmelo Anthony.  With Kidd in the lineup, the ball movement is crisper and everyone is on top of their game.

Kidd also brings veteran intangibles that are irreplaceable for the Knicks.  He is 39 years old, but he has the hands of a 24 year old and can still make things happen on the defensive end of the court and still makes precision passes not every point guard is capable of. 

-Attack the Paint

The Nets this time will be the team without a key piece in their lineup, as starting center Brook Lopez will miss the game with a foot injury.  It will be the sixth straight game that Lopez misses, meaning Andray Blatche will take over at center for the Nets tonight again.

The Nets are 1-4 without Lopez in the lineup, with their only win coming against a lowly Orlando Magic squad.  The Nets will also have Reggie Evans in the starting lineup, replacing Kris Humphries to try and replace the defense lost with Lopez sitting out.

Without Lopez in the lineup, the Nets are allowing 11.5 more points per game; 102.2 without Lopez compared to 90.7 with him.  The shooting percentages also see a drastic change without Lopez in the lineup, as the Nets are allowing teams to shoot 50.7 percent from the field without him compared to 44.9 with him. 

Blatche has filled in admirably for Lopez, scoring 17.2 points per game to go along with 9.8 rebounds, but he leaves a lot to be desired on the defensive end, blocking only 0.4 shots per game compared to the 2.5 Lopez provides.

-Bench Play

With the injuries the Nets have, their starting lineup will be shifted around much like the Knicks in the first meeting.  That means that their bench is weakened, meaning the Knicks have to take advantage.

Since Lopez has been out, the productivity of the Nets bench players has suffered as well.  Jerry Stackhouse has been shooting 30.4 percent from the field and C.J Watson is averaging only 1.5 assists and shooting 37.5 percent.

The Knicks bench has been coming alive of late, with Steve Novak finding his touch and Rasheed Wallace giving strong minutes as well.  J.R. Smith has struggled with his shot recently, but the effort he gives on defense and how he fills other stats still helps the Knicks.

With the Nets lineup change, the Knicks now have the superior bench and will have to take advantage as they cannot rely on Carmelo Anthony, Raymond Felton and Tyson Chandler solely to carry the offense.  

Nets Get Thunderstruck

Brooklyn Nets vs Oklahoma City Thunder Post Game Recap 12/4


The Brooklyn Nets fell to 11-6 as they lost to the Oklahoma City Thunder 117-111 in Brooklyn. The Nets were once again without Brook Lopez with a strained right foot for the 3rd straight game, as well as Reggie Evans who was suffering from the flu.

The Nets played awful defense in the first half, allowing the Thunder to shoot 65% from the field and trailed 61-48 at the half. They were unable to keep the Thunder out of the paint, as Westbrook who finished with 25 points and Durant who finished with 32 points got to the line a combined 20 times. Deron Williams struggled with keeping Westbrook infront of him all night, and the help defense which came late most of the time led to a wide open Sefolosha. On offense, the Nets primarily stayed out of the paint, shooting 34 three pointers. The Nets hit 14 of them, most coming in the 3rd quarter where the Nets made their run to cut the defecit to 2. With Evans out, rebounding the ball would have seemed to be troublesome for the Nets, but all the three pointers they shot led to long rebounds, which the Nets grabbed 16 of, 40 rebounds total. The Thunder only managed to grab 2 offensive rebounds and 33 in total. This odd rebounding effort allowed the Nets to stay in the game and let the game come down to the 4th quarter. Under 2:00 minutes left in the 4th, a close goaltending call on Kris Humphries on a Kevin Durant layup allowed the Thunder to go up 110-106, which sealed the deal.

BRIGHTSPOTS

Andray Blatche, who started in place for Lopez, continued to play well. Blatche finished the game with 19 points and 11 rebounds, 8 of which were offensive rebounds. Deron Williams also finally found his shooting touch as all season he had been struggling. Williams hit 5-9 from three point land finishing with 33 points and 7 assists. Along with Williams, Gerald Wallace also found his shooting touch in the 3rd quarter, shooting 4-7 from three point land. Mirza Teletovic, saw a lot of action in this game, and played well. Mirza shot 3-6 from the field for 8 points. Mirza will need to continue to play well due to Broo Lopez's history with injury.

QUESTIONMARKS

Brooklyn was the 2nd best defense in opponents ppg, but allowing the Thunder to score 117 was just atrocious. The Nets struggled on defense in almost every phase, from the guards not being able to keep the Thunder's perimeter players out of the paint, to our big men not being able to stay with their man. Serge Ibaka went 8-12 from the field and had two highlight dunks. Ibaka either got a wide open jump shot or an easy dunk on the offensive end.

Joe Johnson continued to struggle shooting the ball as well. When the Nets win easily, it's usually because JJ is on his game, and shooting well but this seems to be a rarity. JJ went 1-7 from 3 point land, and only started to hit jump shots in the 4th. Along with his iffy shooting, he seems scared to attack the basket, and didn't shoot one free throw. Infact, outside of Deron who shot 10 free throws, the Nets shot a combined 13 free throws.

It was also questionable rotation decisions by Avery Johnson in the 4th quarter that led to this loss. Blatche who played well, sat a little more than half the 4th quarter from 8:43 to 2:32. Blatche, who had been playing well all night, was substituted for Kris Humphries. The rationale was that they needed defense on the court, however that is something Humphries and the rest of the Nets didn't do all game. Along with this, Jerry Stackhouse played 30 minutes and finished with 8 points on 2-6 shooting. Stackhouse played down the stretch in the 4th quarter and hardly contributed at all.

After losing to both the Thunder and Heat, it's clear the Nets are not yet in their tier. They will have to get healthy and make improvements both on offense and defense but it was good to see where they stand against the NBA's elite.

Up next for the Nets are the 10-7 Warriors, who come to Brooklyn on Friday.

Nets Survive a Fight in Boston

nydailynews.com

Nets vs. Celtics Post Game Recap 11/28

The Brooklyn Nets were able to pick up their 4th straight win in Boston over the Celtics 95-83, as the Nets showed that they are in fact a good team, and won’t be pushed around by the Celtics.

The Nets showed some serious toughness in the second quarter after a harmless Kris Humphries foul on Kevin Garnett lead to Rajon Rondo pushing Humphries in to the stands with a semi-brawl starting out, as Gerald Wallace got involved with Rondo and Garnett coming to the aid of Humphries. The fighting led to Rondo being ejected for the Celtics, and Humphries and Wallace being ejected for the Nets.

On a basketball note the fighting overshadowed an impressive win for the Nets who after a big win over the Knicks at home went up to Boston and won by double-digits, and had a 16 point lead at the time of the ejections.

Joe Johnson picked up the slack for the Nets after the ejections of two members of their starting five, as Johnson bounced back from a poor game against the Knicks to lead the Nets in scoring with 18 points on six for 14 shooting, and added six assists with four rebounds.

Deron Williams struggles with shooting the ball continues due to the right wrist injury, as Williams only scored eight points on three for 12 shooting, and could probably use some time off to get the wrist right.

Brook Lopez had to leave the game early after hurting his foot in the third quarter, and is expected to miss two games, but on a note the injury doesn’t appear to be related to the one that kept him out most of last year. Before Lopez had to leave the game he was having one of his better rebounding games of the season, as he had 10 rebounds in just 17 minutes.

With most of the starting lineup having to leave the game early the Nets got a huge lift from their bench which outscored the Celtics bench by a huge 52-18 margin.

Jerry Stackhouse has certainly found the fountain of youth with his second straight monster game off the bench, as Stackhouse went five for six from downtown with a couple of free throws for 17 points.

Andray Blatche with no Lopez or Humphries for most of the game made the most of getting his extra minutes. Blatche had a nice double-double off the bench scoring 17 points on seven for 14 shooting with 13 rebounds.

Up next for the Nets will be the Orlando Magic, as the Nets will look to keep their winning streak going, and avoid a let down against a poor Magic team.

Knicks Lose OT Thriller in Brooklyn

Monday, November 26, 2012

Post Game Recap

Final Score: New York Knicks: 89 Brooklyn Nets: 96 OT

Knicks Lose Round 1 in OT Thriller

The Knicks lost the first round of the new found rivalry between them and the Nets 96-89 in an overtime thriller any basketball fan would have enjoyed.  Tonight’s game was the make-up from the season opener that was canceled because of the damage done by Hurricane Sandy.

The loss is hard enough to take, but losing Jason Kidd before the game to back spasms and then Ronnie Brewer to a dislocated finger in the fourth quarter made the loss that much harder to take. 

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The Knicks struggled mightily without Kidd, as the ball movement was not as crisp and more pressure was put upon Raymond Felton and Carmelo Anthony.  It was the first and not the last time Kidd will be out, as he isn’t making the trip to Milwaukee for Wednesday night’s game, and it showed.

Felton struggled with his shot all night, going three of 19 from the field and only getting five assists.  Deron Williams, Felton’s counterpart for the night, severely outplayed him throughout the night, as Williams struggled from the field shooting six of 17, scoring 16 points, but handed out 14 assists. 

The Nets assisted on 23 of their 37 baskets, compared to just 14 assists of 33 baskets for the Knicks.

One reason for the lack of assists was the offensive load was placed on the shoulders of Anthony and the multiple isolation situations he was placed in.  Anthony had to get open on his own and do everything basically on his own as Felton was unable to get the pick-and-roll game going.

The Nets threw everything they had at Anthony from the start, constantly double-teaming him as Anthony scored only four points in the first quarter; the first quarter Anthony has dominated all season, scoring 11 points per game in the first frame.  

Anthony heated up in the middle frames and early in the fourth quarter, as he finished with 35 points on 11 of 25 shooting from the field.  Anthony also added team high 13 rebounds, as the Knicks as a whole got working on the glass in the fourth quarter after sorely being out hustled there the first three quarters.

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Unfortunately for the Knicks, Anthony ran out of steam towards the end of the night, as he didn’t score a field goal the last seven minutes of the game.  Anthony also uncharacteristically missed free throws, going 10 of 16 from the charity stripe, missing four in the fourth quarter and overtime alone.

So much pressure was put on Anthony because Felton had an off night and the bench was atrocious.  The bench combined for only 13 points, never getting it going on the offensive end.  They didn’t match the energy level or intensity of the Nets bench either, as Reggie Evans grabbed 12 rebounds, five of the offensive variety.  

Marcus Camby in particular struggled with the energy level of Evans, as he was ineffective in his five minutes on the court, not securing a rebound and turning the ball over twice and committing two fouls.

J.R. Smith and Steve Novak were unable to get anything going on offense, combining to shoot just three of 10.  Smith did have seven rebounds, but the Knicks sorely missed his scoring punch with Felton struggling so much.  Novak struggled on the defensive end yet again, constantly losing his man for wide open three point attempts from the short corners.

Rasheed Wallace continued the trend, going just two of 11 from the field as he joined the long list of Knicks who were unable to get it going Monday night.  He grabbed eight rebounds, but didn’t have the normal impact on the game he had been having throughout the early part of the season.

The Knicks were -8 with Wallace on the court in large part because of his old college teammate Jerry Stackhouse.  Stackhouse knocked down four of five three point attempts, ending the night with 14 points and the best +/- of the night at +13.

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The only person to help Anthony in the scoring column Monday night was Tyson Chandler, who set a career high with 28 points.  Chandler went 12 of 13 from the field and set the tone from the start scoring eight points in the first quarter.

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Chandler came into the game with a lot of intensity, the only player who matched the level of the Nets for the whole night.  Chandler had his presence felt while he was on the court, as he grabbed 10 rebounds in addition to his 28 points, adding one assist and two steals as well.

The Knicks head back on the road with a game in Milwaukee against the Bucks Wednesday night at 8:00 P.M. ET.  The Knicks will not have Jason Kidd again and potentially could be without Ronnie Brewer as well, possibly leaving the Knicks thin in the backcourt against a team that sports Brandon Jennings and Monta Ellis as their starting backcourt. 

Nets Down Knicks in Overtime

ph.sports.yahoo.com

Nets vs. Knicks Post Game Recap 11/26

The Brooklyn Nets were able to win the first battle for New York against the Knicks in overtime 96-89, as with the win the Nets and Knicks are now both (9-4) atop the Atlantic Division.

Deron Williams despite the sprained wrist lead to another poor shooting game came thru in the clutch for Brooklyn while notching his sixth double-double of the season. Williams scored 16 points on 6 for 17 shooting, but had a season-high 14 assists, and was getting M-V-P chants while icing the game for the Nets at the line in overtime.

Center Brook Lopez in a battle with last years defensive player of the year Tyson Chandler had yet another great game offensively. Lopez finished the game scoring 22 points on nine for 20 shooting with 11 rebounds, and five blocks.

Joe Johnson who looked like he was starting to find his groove after two big games of scoring fell short in the big game against the Knicks. Johnson only scored eight points on three for 12 shooting.

Gerald Wallace had his best game of the season contributing on the offensive and defensive end of the court. Wallace finished with a season high 16 points on six for 13 shooting, and added two steals and two blocks.

The bench for the Nets outplayed the bench for the Knicks led by Jerry Stackhouse who at the young age of 38 showed he’s still got some game left in the tank. Stackhouse outscored the Knicks bench on his own, as he finished with 14 points on four for six shooting with all four baskets being three-pointers. Reggie Evans also had yet another monster game of rebounding, as he grabbed 14 rebounds in just 18 minutes.

The Nets will have to turn their attention to yet another Atlantic Division opponent, as they will be facing the Boston Celtics on Wednesday who will be looking to avenge the loss the Nets handed them earlier in the season.