Tristan Thompson with one of his many dunks of the night over Petro.
The Nets’ slim playoff hopes took another huge hit Monday night as they fell to the Cleveland Cavaliers 105-100 at The Rock. It was the Nets’ 17th home loss on the year, worst in the Eastern Conference (yes, even worse than Bob’s Cats). This was yet another game where the Nets fell behind early, but they were actually able to make a comeback. They had the lead for much of the third and fourth quarters, but Cavs rookies Kyrie Irving and Tristan Thompson were just too much down the stretch. Combine that with D-Will making bad plays in crunch time, and you end up with a Nets loss. First I will talk about individual player notes and then the implications and what is ahead for the Nets.
Deron and Kyrie Irving was the matchup of the game. Kyrie clearly won the matchup, and the game.
Every game for the Nets ultimately starts and ends with Deron Williams, and it definitely did tonight as well. In the first quarter, Deron did not play well and got in foul trouble. He even got hit with a technical, which is rare for him. There were some terrible calls, but he still should have played better against a terrible Cavaliers defense. When he came back in the second quarter, he played like he was on a mission and like the world was against him. He scored 17 points in that quarter and was able to do whatever he wanted. At that point, I thought he would score 40 easily. But in the second half he cooled down a bit and passed the ball more. I think the reason he scored so much in the second quarter was because the Nets were losing 30-17 after the first quarter and the Nets were doing nothing offensively (or defensively for that matter, but that’s a whole other story). Deron knew that if he didn’t score, nobody would. The game came down to the Williams-Irving matchup, and Irving clearly won, as did the Cavaliers. In the last minute Deron missed an extremely easy layup and threw a pass away when the Nets could have tied the game. Irving hit clutch 3’s and made his foul shots. Although it is debatable whether Irving or Williams is better, I don’t think it is debatable that Irving is a more clutch player. Irving has come up big in crunch time all year, while Williams has missed layups and had turnovers. The ending to this game was eerily similar to the ending when the Nets lost to the Hornets on Saturday. This game seemed to be swinging the Nets’ way for 3 1/2 quarters, but Deron really blew it in the end. Of course, I hope the Nets can keep Deron in free agency, because without him, the Nets would not have even been in this game, but he really has to step it up in crunch time. He did have a huge dunk though, which you can see below:
D-Will was the 2nd quarter star for the Nets, but the star for the game, and the Nets’ best player, was clearly Gerald Wallace. After a disappointing first game as a Net where he only scored 11 points, Crash scored 27 and pulled down 12 boards tonight, in a night where rebounding was a major, major problem, but I will get into that more later. He was also able to draw a ton of fouls, and made his foul shots (10-11). He really couldn’t have played any better offensively. And defensively, he had the play of the game. The Nets were down by 6 with the ball. Gerald Green hits a 3 to cut the lead in half with 20 seconds to go. So what? The Nets are just going to foul, the Cavs will make their shots, and the game will be over. “Not so fast!” said Gerald Wallace. He takes a charge from Kyrie Irving on the inbounds pass and it is Nets ball! Thanks to Crash, the Nets had an opportunity to tie the game. Too bad Deron Williams threw the ball to nobody in particular and secured the loss. I really liked Wallace’s passion and hustle tonight as well.
Crash was the player of the game tonight for the Nets.
Moving on to the other starters, The Hump had his runs tonight, and finished with 13 points and 11 rebounds, but really didn’t play that well. He was obviously outplayed by Tristan Thompson, but that may have been more Shelden and Petro’s faults. Marshon had his typical game: 10 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists. Not much more to say there. Moving on to the bench, Gerald Green was not nearly as involved in the offense as he usually is tonight. This is likely because of Gerald Wallace’s presence, but Green only had 5 points. He did have a huge 3 at the end to keep the Nets alive, though. He obviously still needs to learn to play with Crash, and this chemistry will take time to develop. After one of the better shooting performances I have seen from Morrow, he really did not play well today. He shot 3-10 and missed his open shots. He is paid to shoot the ball and he did not do it well tonight. After the game ended, he was clearly frustrated and threw his headband across the court. At least he is upset about the losing. Petro is absolute trash. Fans were booing him all night. I might have been the loudest one, and because I was sitting about 7 rows behind exactly where Avery was standing, whenever Petro was in, I yelled at Avery to take him out. I’m positively sure he heard me; I was very loud.
What a mismatch
The defense tonight obviously wasn’t good, but the much bigger problem was rebounding, and rebounding from Tristan Thompson. This guy was the 4th pick in the draft, but he really isn’t that good, averaging 6.7 points and 5.7 rebounds per game. Tonight he had 27 and 12, and devoured the Nets on the glass. 8 of his 12 rebounds were offensive, and most of those rebounds were followed by a layup or dunk. I really don’t want to know how many dunks he had tonight. Antawn Jamison also had 6 offensive boards. Wallace had 12 rebounds and The Hump had 11 (though he could have had much more), so I mostly blame Shelden, Petro, and even Gerald Green for this. Petro had 0 rebounds in 16 minutes. Completely unacceptable for a 7 footer. If not for the rebounding, the Nets would have easily won this game. Alonzo Gee fouled out of the game. This made me happy.
The Nets definitely looked like a dejected team after tonight's loss.
This was a game that I very much want to forget. The Nets were outplayed and outhustled by a bad team at home, which made this such a Nets game. Unfortunately, it seems that we are seeing more and more Nets games as the season goes on. The Nets will welcome a team into The Rock on Wednesday, who has also played their share of Nets games this year, George Washington’s Wizards. The Nets last played the Wiz on opening night, a Nets victory which gave fans unfulfilled hope for the remainder of the season. Both teams have went straight downhill since that game, which makes Wednesday’s game an instant KHH classic. Hopefully I will be in attendance, but unfortunately KHH favorite Javale McGee will not be. He was traded to the Nuggets at the trading deadline, which is really a shame for KHH fans. I was really looking forward to seeing him, but now I might just have to settle for Andray Blatche and Brian Cook. Ew. This is sure to be a very ugly game where a ton of points are scored because of a lack of defense. It is very possible that the Nets and Wizards are the worst two defensive teams in the NBA.
Kim Had Humps 