Official Game Thread #2: Kings 100 Nets 106 Final

[D Facial Favors]

stevie noooooooooooo!!! It's a trap!

[mikhailjordan]

stevie noooooooooooo!!! It's a trap!

You would know all about traps...

[D Facial Favors]

I MAD.

[vincecarter4pres]

Hey hey, consecutive 20 page game threads!

Had to watch this one on DVR, entertaining game though.

Umm, the Nets are legit...

On a serious note, just a few casual observations:

1) Avery almost botched this one up completely. That lineup he had out there for the final 3 minutes of the third was hair pulling failtastic.

2) Turnovers!

3) Refs really controlled this one, although I think most all the calls were fair and legit.

4) We are actually closing games and showing resilience. As much as I don't like Avery, I have to give credit where it is due. He has these guys playing with confidence and without fear and absolute sloppiness aside, he has them executing when it counts.

5) Lopez looks fantastic on offense in general, but he's still struggling with double teams although much improved. His defense is looking a lot better too.

6) Cousins is the mixed bag that was advertised.

7) Favors looks really good. Will he become a star or even a really good player? I don't know. What I do know is he looks pretty comfortable out there and makes some small heady plays most of the time. He doesn't look lost much, most of his turnovers and bad plays are just of the normal rookie fair. That was the fear that was building from preseason. He looked so damn lost that it was scary. Even if he never becomes a real big time player, I think from the awesome productivity that he is showing in limited minutes, it's safe to say even this early into his young career that we're looking at a Joakim Noah type star role player at worst in a couple years.

8) T Will looked pretty terrible most of the game and it showed in his face. He looked disappointed in himself after nearly every turnover or bad shot and although I love the fact it showed he has self accountability, I would also like him to shrug it off and have more confidence in himself. What I did see that I loved was his enthusiasm on the bench and his passion and happiness for his teammates and team. It just seems like he's probably a good guy to be around in the locker room, on the plane etc. You can see how excited he is to be winning and who can blame him after last season? Enjoy the moment young man.

9) Brook Lopez body language and facial reactions are aggravating at times to put it lightly. As a so called leader of this team he needs more perseverance and more faith in himself and especially teammates. You can't go getting all disgusted at other people on the team every time they make a mistake, you make your fair share yourself...

10) Farmar is night and day. For all the fanfare he is getting for hitting clutch shots and defending well(and rightfully so), is the same ignorance to his terrible play for about two thirds of the time he is on the floor.

11) Outlaw looked much better, but truthfully he was playing basically the same as the first game, it just so happened a bunch of the bad shots he was taking were going down for him this time. His defense looks solid though.

12) Devin Harris! Dude looks good, really good. There is a lot of Devin Harris hate brewing lately within the Nets fan nation and I kept beating people in the head with the fact it was unwarranted. I kept saying he went from one of the most overrated players in the NBA during his All Star season to one of the most underrated in the league last year. The tale of the tape will be consistency and if he can stay healthy. He is a legitimate top 10 point guard in this league when properly coached and when putting his mind to it. I felt like he didn't force anything unless he had to and is really learning how to run an offense as a true point guard even though he is always going to be score first. He's playing defense again too! I mean real deal in your shirt defense with only the occasional lapse. His shot looks improved and he's picking his spots very well. His pick and roll play is still shoddy.

13) Morrow is meh. His shot just doesn't look nearly as good as I remember it, but on a high note, he doesn't look like a negative most of the time.

14) Petro. He makes some boneheaded plays and jacks a shot every now and then that makes you scratch your head til bleeding, but he plays solid defense, rebounds pretty good and looks decent as a spot minute guy. Not necessarily impressed, but I'm starting to not hate the signing.

15) Joe Smith is a heady vet that made some great plays on defense and hit a couple jumpers when we were in a funk. I imagine he's a good locker room and practice player as well.

16) Kris Humphries really looks good, lol. Never thought I'd say it, but he does. Nice hustle player and Avery has him curbing his appetite for terrible shot jacking.

17) This team, if healthy looks like a playoff team. Seriously. They probably aren't going to beat many of the good teams many times at all and if they make it they'll be a 5 game sacrificial lamb for a higher seed, but it is what it is. There are so many questionable fake teams throughout the league and especially in the East, that I could see this team making it with around 42 wins. Don't know how I feel about that for the long term, but as a fan I'm in the moment right now and we're gonna rock it til the wheels fall off. My main fear is the same though. Similar team to Brook's rookie season, where we fall off due to injuries and bad play after the All Star break, miss the playoffs, yet still have 30 something wins, so bye bye top draft pick...

18) Go Nets!!!

[D Facial Favors]

Hey hey, consecutive 20 page game threads!

Thank you sir, I deserve rookie of the year.

9) Brook Lopez body language and facial reactions are aggravating at times to put it lightly. As a so called leader of this team he needs more perseverance and more faith in himself and especially teammates. You can't go getting all disgusted at other people on the team every time they make a mistake, you make your fair share yourself...

Excellent point. You're one of the leaders, you're supposed to encourage not make other players feel worse.

11) Outlaw looked much better, but truthfully he was playing basically the same as the first game, it just so happened a bunch of the bad shots he was taking were going down for him this time. His defense looks solid though.

I didn't see those bad shots, maybe 1, but he was just hitting his open shots, and he got to the line pretty well. Let's see what he does with LePippen.

10) Farmar is night and day. For all the fanfare he is getting for hitting clutch shots and defending well(and rightfully so), is the same ignorance to his terrible play for about two thirds of the time he is on the floor.

*Puts a little star next to vc4p's name on the Farmstar hater list.*

Welcome to the playoffs bus vc4p, you can choose a passenger seat next to me if you wish, I am driving this b*tch.

[xam2k7]

if theres one thing ive taken away from these two games, its the attitude the nets have with farmar on the court... there is something about the mindset that winning 2 rings has given him that is infectious when he is on the court. in both games the nets fall down late by 8 points and farmar comes on and literally wills the entire team to not give up. farmars championship attitude is the best addition weve made this summer even if he can be erratic at times with his play his attitude stays the same and he has always performed in the clutch. this same attitude has been re-awakened in harris as well from his dallas days and the entire team is coming together to close out games like we havent done since the kidd days.

[halfHAVOC]

so upset i haven't been able to watch any games yet =\ but its sounding like we have a bright future =D

[jerseyjac]

Hey hey, consecutive 20 page game threads!

Had to watch this one on DVR, entertaining game though.

Umm, the Nets are legit...

On a serious note, just a few casual observations:

1) Avery almost botched this one up completely. That lineup he had out there for the final 3 minutes of the third was hair pulling failtastic.

2) Turnovers!

3) Refs really controlled this one, although I think most all the calls were fair and legit.

4) We are actually closing games and showing resilience. As much as I don't like Avery, I have to give credit where it is due. He has these guys playing with confidence and without fear and absolute sloppiness aside, he has them executing when it counts.

5) Lopez looks fantastic on offense in general, but he's still struggling with double teams although much improved. His defense is looking a lot better too.

6) Cousins is the mixed bag that was advertised.

7) Favors looks really good. Will he become a star or even a really good player? I don't know. What I do know is he looks pretty comfortable out there and makes some small heady plays most of the time. He doesn't look lost much, most of his turnovers and bad plays are just of the normal rookie fair. That was the fear that was building from preseason. He looked so damn lost that it was scary. Even if he never becomes a real big time player, I think from the awesome productivity that he is showing in limited minutes, it's safe to say even this early into his young career that we're looking at a Joakim Noah type star role player at worst in a couple years.

8) T Will looked pretty terrible most of the game and it showed in his face. He looked disappointed in himself after nearly every turnover or bad shot and although I love the fact it showed he has self accountability, I would also like him to shrug it off and have more confidence in himself. What I did see that I loved was his enthusiasm on the bench and his passion and happiness for his teammates and team. It just seems like he's probably a good guy to be around in the locker room, on the plane etc. You can see how excited he is to be winning and who can blame him after last season? Enjoy the moment young man.

9) Brook Lopez body language and facial reactions are aggravating at times to put it lightly. As a so called leader of this team he needs more perseverance and more faith in himself and especially teammates. You can't go getting all disgusted at other people on the team every time they make a mistake, you make your fair share yourself...

10) Farmar is night and day. For all the fanfare he is getting for hitting clutch shots and defending well(and rightfully so), is the same ignorance to his terrible play for about two thirds of the time he is on the floor.

11) Outlaw looked much better, but truthfully he was playing basically the same as the first game, it just so happened a bunch of the bad shots he was taking were going down for him this time. His defense looks solid though.

12) Devin Harris! Dude looks good, really good. There is a lot of Devin Harris hate brewing lately within the Nets fan nation and I kept beating people in the head with the fact it was unwarranted. I kept saying he went from one of the most overrated players in the NBA during his All Star season to one of the most underrated in the league last year. The tale of the tape will be consistency and if he can stay healthy. He is a legitimate top 10 point guard in this league when properly coached and when putting his mind to it. I felt like he didn't force anything unless he had to and is really learning how to run an offense as a true point guard even though he is always going to be score first. He's playing defense again too! I mean real deal in your shirt defense with only the occasional lapse. His shot looks improved and he's picking his spots very well. His pick and roll play is still shoddy.

13) Morrow is meh. His shot just doesn't look nearly as good as I remember it, but on a high note, he doesn't look like a negative most of the time.

14) Petro. He makes some boneheaded plays and jacks a shot every now and then that makes you scratch your head til bleeding, but he plays solid defense, rebounds pretty good and looks decent as a spot minute guy. Not necessarily impressed, but I'm starting to not hate the signing.

15) Joe Smith is a heady vet that made some great plays on defense and hit a couple jumpers when we were in a funk. I imagine he's a good locker room and practice player as well.

16) Kris Humphries really looks good, lol. Never thought I'd say it, but he does. Nice hustle player and Avery has him curbing his appetite for terrible shot jacking.

17) This team, if healthy looks like a playoff team. Seriously. They probably aren't going to beat many of the good teams many times at all and if they make it they'll be a 5 game sacrificial lamb for a higher seed, but it is what it is. There are so many questionable fake teams throughout the league and especially in the East, that I could see this team making it with around 42 wins. Don't know how I feel about that for the long term, but as a fan I'm in the moment right now and we're gonna rock it til the wheels fall off. My main fear is the same though. Similar team to Brook's rookie season, where we fall off due to injuries and bad play after the All Star break, miss the playoffs, yet still have 30 something wins, so bye bye top draft pick...

18) Go Nets!!!

I would of started out by saying consecutive Nets wins...but other than that...and the turnovers driving me crazy, you gotta be pleased we're sticking together...what a difference a year makes...