Jeckyll & Hyde/Defenseless Against Seattle
Well, perhaps delusions over the five game win streak was seriously masking a coming defensive crisis for the Nets. After last night's game, when no comeback could be found, and even less defense, we truly saw the signs of a team in defensive turmoil.
Think about it - three straight comebacks from down deep preceeded this one. The ability to play defense for 10 or 15 minutes helped them overcome deficit and sharp end-game play helped win things in those three games. But underlying it all was the late-first quarter/second quarter slump that put the Nets seriously behind the eightball in all three games.
Happened again last night, when Kidd left the floor, but this time even the starters couldn't overcome it in the second half.
Not only is that not a good sign, because no fan of the Nets in their right mind would ever think outscoring the opposition is a good plan for New Jersey to take, but the level of competition amps up sharply in the second half of the month. After a creampuff game against Seattle tonight (and perhaps without Kevin Durant, and already without Chris Wilcox), it starts anew on Friday night against the Celtics.
Yup, not a time for a defensive crisis.
What might be even more troubling is it didn't appear to me that this was simply one of those "lack of effort" nights. Even with effort, it didn't appear the Nets could have stopped the Bobcats (and granted, they also had one of those shooting nights where nearly everything went in) no matter what they tried. So, if this sudden breakdown inside (there have been 106 points in the paint scored in the last two games against the Nets) isn't just a lack of effort, expect Garnett and Pierce to get about 40 points each on Friday night.
The other funny thing about this Nets team - you never know when you should panic. Efforts are always uneven, they never have a blowout to make you think "aha, they've finally put it together", and at 17 - 17, it's starting to get a bit late in the season to be feeling that his is a 45 + win team.
In fact, they still might struggle to be a 41 - 41 team.
Not exactly what everyone signed up for.
Of course, tonight's game against the Sonics is no measuring stick (especially if Durant is held out - I'm still searching for info as of this moment that tells me how bad it is) given their uncertain prospects this season. But as we've already seen, even the Sonics aren't an easy out.
I'm off to Cleveland for an overnight, so I'll catch up with a game review on Thursday night. I will put something in the blog after tonight's game, even though the site won't update.
And that means no Seattle opponent file, but I've done such a horrible job keeping up with those anyway, that's it's probably no great loss.
-Joe
Think about it - three straight comebacks from down deep preceeded this one. The ability to play defense for 10 or 15 minutes helped them overcome deficit and sharp end-game play helped win things in those three games. But underlying it all was the late-first quarter/second quarter slump that put the Nets seriously behind the eightball in all three games.
Happened again last night, when Kidd left the floor, but this time even the starters couldn't overcome it in the second half.
Not only is that not a good sign, because no fan of the Nets in their right mind would ever think outscoring the opposition is a good plan for New Jersey to take, but the level of competition amps up sharply in the second half of the month. After a creampuff game against Seattle tonight (and perhaps without Kevin Durant, and already without Chris Wilcox), it starts anew on Friday night against the Celtics.
Yup, not a time for a defensive crisis.
What might be even more troubling is it didn't appear to me that this was simply one of those "lack of effort" nights. Even with effort, it didn't appear the Nets could have stopped the Bobcats (and granted, they also had one of those shooting nights where nearly everything went in) no matter what they tried. So, if this sudden breakdown inside (there have been 106 points in the paint scored in the last two games against the Nets) isn't just a lack of effort, expect Garnett and Pierce to get about 40 points each on Friday night.
The other funny thing about this Nets team - you never know when you should panic. Efforts are always uneven, they never have a blowout to make you think "aha, they've finally put it together", and at 17 - 17, it's starting to get a bit late in the season to be feeling that his is a 45 + win team.
In fact, they still might struggle to be a 41 - 41 team.
Not exactly what everyone signed up for.
Of course, tonight's game against the Sonics is no measuring stick (especially if Durant is held out - I'm still searching for info as of this moment that tells me how bad it is) given their uncertain prospects this season. But as we've already seen, even the Sonics aren't an easy out.
I'm off to Cleveland for an overnight, so I'll catch up with a game review on Thursday night. I will put something in the blog after tonight's game, even though the site won't update.
And that means no Seattle opponent file, but I've done such a horrible job keeping up with those anyway, that's it's probably no great loss.
-Joe
posted by Joe Netsfan at 10:13 AM
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