GT#31: Brooklyn @ Oklahoma City - 1/2 - 8:00pm on YES

[MrDollarBills]

I'm not sure what kind of verbal abuse that PJ laid into these guys, but this looked like a totally different team against OKC than the one that made me vomit on New Years Eve.

Crisp ball movement, gritty defense, and Deron playing like the guy we thought we were getting 2 years ago.

I would hope that they build off of this, but I will remain skeptical.

And thank god for Gerald Wallace

[MrDollarBills]

Hey guys I want you to play a game for me..... Even though the game is finished... Click on page 1....Read page 1... Then click on the furtherest page (in sequence) its usually page 5..... Read that page and look at the bottom of the screen page 8 or 9 will be available... If your not pissing yourself laughing at how you guy's change your mind more than I change my jocks....Then I think you need medicinal help!!!

I'm pretty sure that most of the longtime fans of this team need medicinal help

[jerseyjac]

Hey guys I want you to play a game for me..... Even though the game is finished... Click on page 1....Read page 1... Then click on the furtherest page (in sequence) its usually page 5..... Read that page and look at the bottom of the screen page 8 or 9 will be available... If your not pissing yourself laughing at how you guy's change your mind more than I change my jocks....Then I think you need medicinal help!!!

I'm pretty sure that most of the longtime fans of this team need medicinal help

Last night was the best medicine

[PetroNet]

Its great we are getting to the ft line and all.... but they are in the bonus and kevin martin is on wallace...just saying

I thought you said that wasn't a part of our game lol.

I told you that we can get free throws if we just attack the paint. I don't see why we can't play like this on a regular basis.

I know that JJ/D-Will/Lopez don't get a ton of free throws per game, but that's the only way we're going to win come playoff time.

I'm glad we showed mettle and fight. Hopefully the guys will remember this game and remember what it took for them to beat one of the best. They gotta play like this all of the time.

Its not part of our game.... we didnt really get to the free throw line because we attacked the basket. we got to the free throw line because OKC got into the bonus super early after 2 loose ball fouls in there end and westbrook running over dwill twice 40 feet from the basket.

from then we did do a good job being aggressive, but its not like we were just getting in the lane at will....

also, i think my original point was misconstrued by everyone. we were in the bonuz and kevin martin was gaurding wallace. how do you now go to him in the post there? its either a bucket or foul gauranteed.

As far as Joe Johnson goes, he really isnt doing anything differently then he has done the past 2 months, other then hit the wide open corner/wing three. he still is getting most of his points/attempts on mid range and high post looks or backing his man down. eventually the wide open looks were going to start to fall, and now they are.

its not like with williams, williams needs to be mroe agressive getting in the lane and drawing defenders. he did that more today

[PetroNet]

We switched our starting line-up and let Deron play point guard, and PJ yelled at our players.


great coaching job by him, awesome stuff

Im also glad to see we arent going small with wallace at the 4 to start games.

[PetroNet]

Last night was the way the team should be playing all the time. They showed how they can play together and play hard. I think it will take performances like that from the big three to win and make a impact in the season and play-offs.

offensively we were great. we played hard on defense too... i think we match up well against OKC because they are such a ball dominant/iso team. We really struggle vs teams that make us switch and trap and run a ton of pick and rolls. OKC didnt do that much, and when they did we had the luxury of going under and letting westy hero chuck them out of the game. If we played the spurs again, with the effort we had last night, i still think they would have gotten a ton of layups

JJ- made almost every shot he released last night. I don't expect that from him every game but he has got to hit the open ones every game. He moved well and defended well and he took over the offense when the rest of the nets couldn't score. That's his role.

the open shots thing is key. he must have missed 50 wide open threes the first 2 months

Props to PJ though.... he went with tyshawn and resisted the urge to every put brooks in the game. he also screamed at blatche at least 5 times and humphries the one time on that awful pass

[Keith Van Horn]

MVP of the game is between Deron and JJ...I think I'd give it to JJ, because when that lead was disappearing, he was the only one getting us baskets, and after the game was tied at 85, he scored the next 4 points to put us up 89-85, and we never looked back after that.

Deron controlled the offense all game though, and he played GREAT defense.

they tied the game just under the 7min mark, amazing how we were able to close...finally

now imagine if we weren't having these third quarter lulls... it would be tremendous to watch this team play every night the way they did last night.

[Born_Ready]

The energy in Chesapeake last night was sort of blah from the moment of walking into the arena. You could kind of get the sense that Thunder may have not worried to much about their opponent, however, the Nets had other plans; which you could see from the opening tip when the Nets jumped out early. I think the Thunder figured the Nets would collapse as usual and never really worried to much about making a comeback.

A couple observations that I'm not sure if you can see on the TV, but Russell Westbrook's first step is ridiculously fast. I never realized his explosion so much before, but for some reason last night it stood out.

Secondly, it seemed like momentum changed when Kris Humpries entered the game early on. I'm not sure why though. Also, Kendrick Perkins can not hold Brook Lopez at all. Is it me, or is Kendrick Perkins vastly overrated? He's my least favorite Thunder player.

Lastly, it was good to see my 1st favorite player on my favorite team, Joe Johnson, playing my 2nd favorite player, Kevin Durant in his house. This is a first for me with Joe being in Brooklyn, so I was mostly in shock more than paying attention to the game really. I've seen Joe live countless times since his Arkansas days and in a Hawks uni once. So it was a fun night for me all around being that he is now a Brooklyn Nets player.

One thing that I could tell you is the crowd or the the OKC players were not really to fired up for this game. The didn't really get loud until Kevin was ejected. They were pissed. I had my Brooklyn long sleeves shirt on, but I could feel eyeballs gazing me down. Luckily, some colleagues were wearing their Thunder gear, so I felt safe. The fans were irate though. I've been to many Thunder games since their inception to the state, but I had never seen the lack of energy in this arena like last night. That was most surprising.

Great win for the Nets indeed. They played inspired ball all night and OKC really had limited opportunities to really get the game flow they are accustomed too. If the Nets play like this going forward they can win a lot of ball games. Anyone that knows me, knows that I am Anti-Carlesimo, but he deserves tons of credit for having the players focused on their task and found a way to sneak one out. Props, P.J.

[NyCeEvO]

Its great we are getting to the ft line and all.... but they are in the bonus and kevin martin is on wallace...just saying

I thought you said that wasn't a part of our game lol.

I told you that we can get free throws if we just attack the paint. I don't see why we can't play like this on a regular basis.

I know that JJ/D-Will/Lopez don't get a ton of free throws per game, but that's the only way we're going to win come playoff time.

I'm glad we showed mettle and fight. Hopefully the guys will remember this game and remember what it took for them to beat one of the best. They gotta play like this all of the time.

Its not part of our game.... we didnt really get to the free throw line because we attacked the basket. we got to the free throw line because OKC got into the bonus super early after 2 loose ball fouls in there end and westbrook running over dwill twice 40 feet from the basket.

from then we did do a good job being aggressive, but its not like we were just getting in the lane at will....

also, i think my original point was misconstrued by everyone. we were in the bonuz and kevin martin was gaurding wallace. how do you now go to him in the post there? its either a bucket or foul gauranteed.

As far as Joe Johnson goes, he really isnt doing anything differently then he has done the past 2 months, other then hit the wide open corner/wing three. he still is getting most of his points/attempts on mid range and high post looks or backing his man down. eventually the wide open looks were going to start to fall, and now they are.

its not like with williams, williams needs to be mroe agressive getting in the lane and drawing defenders. he did that more today

Dude, relax.

You're taking it way too seriously.

That's why I ended my first sentence with lol.

We don't have aggressive personnel. I'm not expecting it to happen on a regular basis even though I wish we could.

[vincecarter4pres]

You can tell when someone is getting worked up on the internet when their spelling goes all dyslexic and they don't fix the typos before posting.

[NyCeEvO]

Secondly, it seemed like momentum changed when Kris Humpries entered the game early on. I'm not sure why though. Also, Kendrick Perkins can not hold Brook Lopez at all. Is it me, or is Kendrick Perkins vastly overrated? He's my least favorite Thunder player.

Who overrates Perkins?

I'm pretty sure most people realize that he's just a big body (a la Jason Collins) used to take up space and intimidate opposing centers.

If you're not intimidated by him, he can't really do much against you.

[jeff1624]

I remember a time when some people were convinced that trading Perkins was the reason Boston didn't get to the finals in 2011... People are stupid.

[Paradise]

I remember a time when some people were convinced that trading Perkins was the reason Boston didn't get to the finals in 2011... People are stupid.

No, that is very true.

KG/Perkins had a good chemistry on defense. There is no KG in OKC an them thinking Perkins would be was stupid.

[jeff1624]

They were beaten in 5 games versus Miami. We saw how useless Perkins was against the Heat whenever they went small in last years finals, the same would have happened in 2011. Perkins was their 5-6th best player... a team doesn't go from Contender to pretender because their 5th-6th best guy gets traded.

[vincecarter4pres]

Perkins is garbage.

Maybe the year they lost to LAL in the Finals when Perk got injured at the beginning of the series, in one of the handful of matchups where he provided such a big plus on defense when he was still mobile you could overlook the overall suck of his mere being...

Any other time? Yeah, let's stop. He's modern day 6'8 Jason Collins without the 15 footer.

[Paradise]

They were beaten in 5 games versus Miami. We saw how useless Perkins was against the Heat whenever they went small in last years finals, the same would have happened in 2011. Perkins was their 5-6th best player... a team doesn't go from Contender to pretender because their 5th-6th best guy gets traded.

That series was the year Rondo broke his arm cause of Wade and Pierce injured his Achilles. The entire team had nothing in the tank.When Perkins tore his ACL against the Lakers, they got outrebounded when Boston went with KG at C and lost the series.

The Celtics have yet to add a quality center since the trade and they are simply soft now. If Jeff Green paid off, they wouldn't be sucking so much.

[vincecarter4pres]

The thing is, Perkins isn't a quality center.

That trade was a lose lose for everyone but meme subtitlers.