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3rd Consecutive Year Making the Post Season

Regular Season Leaders:
PPG: Brook Lopez 17.2
RPG: Brook Lopez 7.4
APG: Deron Williams 6.6
STL: Thaddeus Young 1.3
BLK: Brook Lopez 1.7
PER: Brook Lopez 22.7

Barely made it in as the 38-44 8th seed but off to face the 60-22 #1 Atlanta Hawks





Key Matchup:

Atlanta's Coach Mike Budenholzer


vs

Lionel Hollins (and Billy King's shadowy influence)



X Factors:

Deron Williams



Bojan Bogdanović



Brook Lopez



Player to defend on Hawks:

Kyle Korver



Let's win this series!

No one is giving us a shot. So I'll be the first to say my heart wants to say Nets in 7. My head is saying Hawks in 5.

I'll say Hawks in 6 if Joe goes playoff Joe and Brook goes back to Hulk. Otherwise Hawks in 4-5


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i personally think Hawks will win in 4 or 5 but could you imagine if the Nets steal game one.... things could get interesting then

Brook averaged 17 PPG, he's the team leader, not Joe...

I think 4 or 5 is pretty realistic expectations. Our defense is still prone to dribble penetration, which against the Hawks will mean endless open shots thanks to how they move the ball.

Even if Joe or Brook goes HAM, I don't feel our defense has enough to stop their offense consistently to make it a prolonged series.

Also, if we need to win the "key matchup" to win any games in the series, that's a sweep lol

If Alan Anderson plays this series we could have a much needed wing defender and toughness we been missing.

Lamak wrote:If Alan Anderson plays this series we could have a much needed wing defender and toughness we been missing.

The biggest thing about having AA is less D-Will/Jack combo

matnautico wrote:Brook averaged 17 PPG, he's the team leader, not Joe...

Thanks for the correction, rushed but going back and editing some

Will AA be playing at all for you guys in this series? I rhink he could be one of those "dark horse" difference makers for you guys in a game or two. He's a great wing defender.

Obviously I'm pulling for the Hawks but honestly I just want competitive basketball from both sides. I want you guys to test us and get us mentally tested and prepared for the second round.

I'm thinking Nets are going to get swept...seriously. But it would be cool if the Nets pulled off some 2007 Golden State Warrior miracle.

Whoops, didn't know this thread existed lol

I believe the Hawks are worse without Sefelosha. Only 13-10 without him (prior to the leg injury).

Outside of Carroll, the Hawks have no size on the wing to defend Bogey and Johnson. If Joe actually shows up for once, we could possibly make this a much more competitive series.

I'm not making predictions...we got here and its time to just be a fan and root my ass off hoping for the upset.

as far as the series, its a bad matchup for deron and joe. if we are going to win, we need joe/thad/bogs to really have great series'. it seems a bit of scouting has teams not letting lopez get a clean catch on the pick and 'push' and are forcing our ball handlers to prove they can get to the rim and forcing our wings to prove they can hit open threes.

defensively im even more worries. our 1-5 pick and roll defense whether it is dwill/jack/lopez/plumlee is a weak point and they run that pnr to perfect and get a ton of secondary action on it. offensively i can see guys stepping up but defensively i really am not sure what we do to approach it

This will be a sweep, I can see us maybe stealing one game if we play them tough like we did the last time, but really haven't see anything in the past 3 games that says to me we'll be remotely competitive. Teams have figured out how to neutralize Lopez and since Williams and Johnson are dead weight out there I can't fathom us being able to take this beyond 5 games.

A lot of bitter Knicks fans around right now, saying how lucky we were to get in and that we only got in because teams rested players, but the reality is, that actually we had probably one of the toughest end of season situations of the teams competing for the spot. Let me explain:
* Only two teams truly rested players against us and took it very easy: Washington who played without Wall. We blew them out as a result. And Portland who had a tough b2b and chose to rest.
We had 2 games in the last month against ATL who had clinched the top seed and rested players against everyone else and took it easy, but played us with full fury.
Game against Milwaukee, they played with full fury to clinch their spot in the playoffs. Bulls played us really aggressively, to clinch home court. Orlando wanted to play as good as they could, because it was their chanche to make a difference in the standings, and no motivation to tank, as they were locked into the spot.

* The team I saw us knocking out of playoffs was Boston, as they had the toughest schedule theoretically. But then Cavs who were considered easy losses for Boston, tanked against them, because they had clinched, then Toronto did play them quite tough, but not much to play for them aswell. Then Milwaukee had already clinched by the time they met. But the main difference being, that Cavs tanked against them hard, at the same time ATL who is on the same level, played us extremely hard.

* Indiana had it quite tough as well, but after Miami game they had the Knicks who tank, Detroit who were also eliminated and had motivation to tank. OKC was tough, but that was one-man team. Washington was playing them very tough, but only for pride. I think that a lot thanks to them, they were unable to fight real hard against MEM. We owe a bit to Washington as a result, they really could have rested that game, but fought quite hard. Also We owe one to the Pelicans who pulled it together and beat the Spurs, thus motivation Memphis to really keep it going in the second half.

In summary, what bothered me the most was Cavs tanking and at the same time ATL tanking everything else but our games. That made it easy for Boston and really tough for us.

Everyone around other teams forums are quite bitter about us making it and noone believed it, but we are here, lets make our mark and fight hard, we have seen this team capable of it. As a fan I wont be predicting Atlanta sweep or anything, I say we got a fair shot of making this a 7 game series and its a toss-up in the 7th game. We just gotta see some players step up and get in the roll that we were in during better part of last month.

My expectation is that these playoffs will be coming out party for Bojan, he has started to show flashes in the last month of his old self and as a fan I have seen him really step up in the games that matter. I expect him to be our X-factor. Him and Joe should be able to get Demarre Carrol into foul trouble without a good backup after they lost Sefolosha. Thats our best chance.

Knicks fans are bitter because they were in the exact same situation as us last year. High payroll, don't control their own pick, fighting to get in the playoffs and they missed out. We got in.

Seeing on Twitter that AA looks like he will play Sunday. Said he would've played had last night been a playoff game. Having the game on Sunday also helps: getting an extra day of rest/rehab for AA and rest for the other guys. I mean I don't see us giving them much problems either way, but those things do help a bit and I'll take it

Piffbreezy wrote:... my heart wants to say Nets in 7. My head is saying Hawks in 5.

My heart wants to say Hawks in 5. My head is saying Hawks in 4.

MaxZaslofskyJr wrote:

Piffbreezy wrote:... my heart wants to say Nets in 7. My head is saying Hawks in 5.

My heart wants to say Hawks in 5. My head is saying Hawks in 4.

Lol exactly.

Having AA back will be great. It seems like things went into the toilet as soon as he went down.