Official Game Thread:Nets 116 Kings 114 Final/OT

[aussienet]

Sorry Guy's i was a bit negative in my last post about how much of the highlights i would get to see. I said we would get 15 seconds of highlights, well i was wrong we got 20 seconds!!! And about 12 of that was showing VC's hamstring (cramp?) 1.2 was taken up with Devon's three dribbles stop spin and drop (man that was freaky quick, I rewound it about eight times, am still in disbelief) The rest showed jacksons failed three point attempt. Like I said God i hate this country.

I don't wanna sound negative after a gutsy win. But one thing that i did see, that as a coach really Irk's me, was Devon's (attempt?) at perimeter D. Very close to a foul i thought. Miller had been kickin out all night. I thought Devon over committed on the sag (help) defence. Which left a wide open three look. Yes he has good closing speed. but it seems he is relying on that too much. Did anyone else pick this up? Or am I being too harsh?

Thoughts?

Cheers

[Birth of the Cool]

I don't wanna sound negative after a gutsy win. But one thing that i did see, that as a coach really Irk's me, was Devon's (attempt?) at perimeter D. Very close to a foul i thought. Miller had been kickin out all night. I thought Devon over committed on the sag (help) defence. Which left a wide open three look. Yes he has good closing speed. but it seems he is relying on that too much. Did anyone else pick this up? Or am I being too harsh?

Thoughts?

Cheers

First off, Happy Thanksgiving to the US posters.

Luckily on that particular play Harris busted his ass to recover (he might have even run around a mid screen..not sure..) & challenge & perhaps even slightly alter/touch that Jackson 3pt attempt. Harris obviously has better closing speed than Vince, where Vince gets burned more often giving up a good 3pt look after not being able to recover from help D in the paint. Jackson did try to sell it as a foul - in the NBA he should know whistles are almost always put away on last second shots (dumb imo).

Now is this a problem with the players (over-committing to help D in the paint) or the coaches (defense predicated on first & foremost defending the paint & then outwards). It's a tough call...if the wing player doesn't fully commit to paint D help there's a chance that his help comes too late or that he's stuck in no man's land and not helping in the paint & also leaving the perimeter player open. Someone more slow footed like VC I feel should give a step or 1/2 step positioning towards the perimeter - the risk being he will be too late to help in the paint / position himself to take charges / etc or worse he get's stuck defending neither the paint or perimeter but I hate seeing him caught down low and hearing the opposing team's "swish" soon after.

On another forum I believe there was statistical breakdown that shows because of Frank's no-paint philosophy the Nets are actually competent in defending the paint area but the obvious reaction to that is they are poor in defending perimeter scoring. Also, a big factor in the Nets porous defense is like many young teams they get tagged for tons of fouls fair (mostly) or otherwise (Yi seems to get alot of what I call touch fouls called against him).

on another note regarding this game I didn't mention in my original post:
One, Vince gave Mikki a big hug pregame (Mikki was fantastic for the Nets during his brief tenure here & he had a great pick & roll connection with Vince, picking & then fading for crazy consistent mid-range jumpers) - then he went on to block the hell out of Mikki..haha.

Two, Vince & SWat seem to be pretty close - SWat's a rah-rah guy to begin with but he was out there checking up on Vince after the cramp for a long time & Vince is always talking him up to the media. Hayes & Vince seem to have a good camaraderie too esp. on the court - this is just a good bunch of guys to root for really despite whatever complaints I have occasionally of their on-court performances.

[jerseyjac]

Its great to see the Nets bounce back after losing to the Lakers, or folding like a lawn chair around with around 4 minutes left in the 3rd...(2-0 in OTs)

Lopez has been a rock for this team...finally a true center comfortable in the post who's presence is felt vs every center he has matched up against...one way or another...

as Netsforce stated, I'm worried that Yi's downfall with consistency could be that of Tim Thomas...but as BOC said above, Yi does get called on a lot of ticky-tack fouls...and I agree Frank does have the Nets locking down paint, with our defense folding on penetration...but we have left too many jump shooters wide open...the opposition have been getting to much room on the perimeter to operate...there needs to be better balance...