Nets Road Trip Recap

Ty Lawson, Steve Nash, and Chris Paul. All three pg's somehow managed to miss their game vs. the Nets.

The Nets have just concluded one of their longer road trips of the season, finishing with a 1-3 record on the trip and a 3-11 record overall on the season. Seeing how badly the Nets have played this season, they should be happy with a 1-3 record in 4 western conference cities. However, in reality, this record is terrible, mainly because of one reason. The Nets got incredibly lucky on this trip. Of the four teams they faced on this trip, three of the teams’ best player is their point guard. These teams are of course the Denver Nuggets with Ty Lawson, the Phoenix Suns with Steve Nash, and the Los Angeles Clippers with Chris Paul (no offense to Devin Harris of the Jazz, but Al Jefferson is better than you). Somehow, these three point guards all got injured for the one game they were playing the Nets. They had all played the game prior and all played the game following (though we do not know yet about Chris Paul, but his injury is not serious). Because of this freak injury situation, the Nets really should have went at least 2-2, if not better. If they were an average team, they could have went 3-1, and if they were a good team, they should have went 4-0. The bottom line is that 1-3 is very disappointing, especially considering that the Nets were as healthy as they have been this year (which is not very).

Deron Williams as a musical note (or whatever the singular form of Jazz is)

Moving on to the most newsworthy story of the road trip, Deron Williams and his return to Utah. I think definitely the biggest surprise of the trip was how Deron was received by the Jazz fans. I didn’t think his reception would be that bad, considering he was traded by the Jazz, didn’t demand a trade like Carmelo, and didn’t ruin the Jazz’s season last year, but he still got the Vince Carter treatment in Utah. For those of you who don’t know, after Vince demanded a trade out of Toronto to the Nets in 2004, he was booed every time he touched the ball in Toronto whenever he returned. I think Raptors fans continue to do this now even though it was so long ago. See the video here (and yes, at one time Brian Scalabrine started on the Nets). D-Will did not have a good game at all in Utah, shooting only 3-15. Aside from the Phoenix game, his best game as a Net, Deron has had a very bad season this year, shooting the ball at under 37%. He needs to get better if the Nets are to ever win another game.

Marshon Brooks has been great for the Nets so far.

I realize that I have been very negative talking about the Nets so far in this article (deservedly), but now I want to look at the few positives that I have seen. First of all, though it pains me to say it, Mehmet Okur was a positive for the Nets on this road trip. This may only be because he had been so bad before this road trip, but I have seen some improvement from him recently, knocking down shots and averaging over 10 points per game over the four games. Though Mehmet has been getting better offensively, he is still extremely soft. Other positives include Anthony Morrow and Jordan Farmar. Morrow, surprisingly had a streak of 6 straight games with at least 10 points and 2 3’s made before it was snapped today against the Clippers. Even though he has appeared to look pretty bad so far this year, he is shooting the 3 ball at about 45%. Wow. He has really picked it up after his slow start. Farmar is another Net who started slow this year, but has began picking up his game with 4 nice games on the cross-country trip, highlighted by a 26 point effort against Denver. He is becoming a very solid backup NBA point guard. Whatever. The biggest bright spot for the Nets this season is no question Marshon Brooks, and he continued to perform well over the last four games, averaging about 15 ppg. His ability to create his shot continues to improve and he is learning very quickly. The Nets should not treat him like a rookie because he is better than all of them.

Looking ahead at the Nets’ schedule, they will return home on Wednesday for a three game homestand against Golden State, Oklahoma City, and Charlotte and Bob’s Cats. If I’m thinking positively, maybe they can win 2/3 of the games, losing only to the mighty Thunder. Realistically, the Nets will be lucky to go 1-2, hopefully being able to pick up their first home win of the season and gain some more home leads. According to my calculations, they have led at home for approximately 1.5 minutes out of 192 home minutes so far this season. So, yeah, that’s not too good.

NBA Draft Lottery Preview

Tonight, the order of the top 14 picks in the upcoming NBA draft will be decided in the draft lottery at 8:30 on ESPN (ugh). This time last year I was very upset at the Nets missing out on John Wall and landing only the third pick in the draft (which was Derrick Favors) even though they finished with the worst record in the league. This year, the Nets traded their pick in the Deron Williams trade to the Jazz, who have two picks in the top 14 including what would have been the Nets’ 6th position. I will be rooting for the Jazz to get a bad pick so that it makes the Nets’ trade look better in the long run. Luckily, I don’t think that there is any especially good talent in the draft this year and I am not too upset that the Nets don’t have a lottery pick. However, the nets still will have 2 picks in the draft, the Lakers number 27 pick (part of the Sasha trade) and the 35th pick, which is their own. Hopefully they will trade at least one of these picks to get Dwight Howard, but maybe I’m just dreaming. Now, I will look into Cristina’s crystal ball (a disgusting ball that I had when I was 5 that Cristina made me bring in for the Spanish play) and pick what order the lottery will be this year. I think that the NBA controls the lottery and only created it so that they can give good players to the teams that they want to give them to.

Cristina's Crystal Ball

Here is my prediction:

1. Cleveland
2. Minnesota
3. Washington
4. Toronto
5. Sacramento
6. Utah (from the Nets)
7. Cleveland (from LA Clippers)
8. Detroit
9. Charlotte
10. Golden State
11. Milwaukee
12. Utah
13. Phoenix
14. Houston

The Nets’ Top 10 Games of the Season

To begin my recap of the Nets’ season, I will countdown the best 10 games of the season. The list is not in any order.

• Detroit 98 at Nets 101, October 27: This was the first game of the season and it sure was a fun one. The Nets outscored the Pistons 13-3 to end the game including a go-ahead 3 by Morrow with 26 seconds left. This game gave Nets fans hope that this season would be better than last.
• Chicago 94 at Nets 96, January 5: The Nets had a five game losing streak going into this game and were able to come away with a win against the number 1 seeded Bulls. Sasha scored with 5.3 seconds left to seal the win. The Hump also showed what he was capable of in this game finishing with 20 points and 11 boards.
• Cleveland 101 at Nets 103, January 24: This was one of the worst games ever. The Cavaliers were in the midst of their record losing streak and the Nets snapped a losing streak of their own. Daniel Gibson missed an open 3 at the buzzer that would have given Cleveland the win. Joey Graham made a big 3 in this game to tie it before Lopez made the game winner after Ryan Hollins tried and failed miserably to foul him.
• Denver 99 at Nets 115, January 31: This game proved to Nets fans that the Nets didn’t need Carmelo Anthony. At home, they killed the Nuggets and showed that they were good enough to compete without Anthony. Even though Anthony had 37 points, Brook had 27 and the Nets beat down the Nuggets. This was a great win for Nets fans as well as Anthony Morrow, who said, “This was something I never experienced before with the trade situation, so not just me, everyone was fired up”.
• New Orleans 101 at Nets 103, overtime, February 9: This was a great game. Chris Paul shot an in-and-out 3 as time expired in overtime to give the Nets a win. This was a break-out game for Sasha who scored 25. David West scored 32, but it was not enough. Chris Paul had too turnovers down the stretch and the Nets were able to get a win.
• Phoenix 104 at Nets 103, overtime, Febuary 28: This is the only Nets loss in this list. It was DWill’s first home game and the Nets were almost able to beat Steve Nash and the Suns. Channing Frye made a game winning 3 in overtime to give Phoenix the win. Brook Lopez added 28 and 10. Deron Williams had 13 and 18 dishes in his home debut.
• Toronto 136 at Nets 137, triple overtime, @London, March 5: In London, the Nets were able to get 2 wins over the Raptors including this exciting triple overtime affair. Brook had 34 and 14 but fouled out in the second OT. Travis had a terrible game until the third overtime where he was able to take over and score most of the Nets’ baskets. Andrea Bargnani missed a shot at the buzzer to give the Nets a win.
• LA Clippers 98 at Nets 102, overtime, March 11: The Hump had 19 and 20 boards and the Nets beat the Clippers at home in overtime. Blake Griffin missed a foul shot at the end of regulation that would have given the Clippers a win. The Nets were at one point trailing by 20 points and pulled off their biggest comeback of the year.
• Boston 79 at Nets 88, March 14: This win capped a 5-game win streak for the Nets and gave hope to Nets fans of a playoff birth. DWill had 16, 9 assists, and 6 rebounds, including a huge 3 to clinch the game and upset the Celtics. The Hump also had 16 and 15, continuing his great season. “I think we are playing good right now, we are gelling pretty well, having such a short time together. We’re having fun,” Williams said. “These games are important right now, not only because we have a chance to make the playoffs, but for the future and going forward next year.”
• Minnesota 105 at Nets 107, April 5: DWill’s first buzzer-beater in New Jersey was an exciting one. Even though this game did not matter at all, it was still fun and exciting. Despite Michael Beasley’s best efforts, Deron and the Nets were able to win.