GT#18: Golden State @ Brooklyn - 12/7 - 7:30pm on YES

[jerseyjac]

Wanna know why JJ bricked that last shot so bad?

Well...he had an open shot, decides to put the ball down, dribble between his legs a few times which let the defender get closer to him, and by the time he took the shot, it was a faded contested jumper.

No more ISO....

Quick decisions, please!
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This defense is a mockery of what should be NBA basketball. Absolutely awful. There's no excuse for this lack of defensive skill.

both him and Deron have been over dribbling and its starting to catch up with them...

[therealbig3]

The main issue with Deron, which has made him passive, and is actually a pretty big negative about him...he feeds off his outside shooting. When his shots fall early on, he gets that bounce in his step and plays the way he should. When he struggles with his shot, he becomes very passive and decides not to do anything. Which is frikin annoying.

As people have said, a true superstar imposes his will on the game, and stays aggressive whether he's individually struggling or not.

As much as Westbrook pisses me off at times, whether he's 12-17 or 2-17 from the field...he's in constant attack mode.

[vincecarter4pres]

There is no question to me that Westbrook is the 2nd best point guard in the league now and Deron has fallen to 3rd or 4th.

I think it's something of a toss up with him and Rondo. I still feel Rondo is a blatant stat padder and his impact would be severely limited on a team that doesn't have the scorers he has to toss the ball to, in a system built around his stat padding, but he's still a very good player.

I'd still take Deron though and I say that even after going on a rant against him.

But Deron has certainly fallen out of the top 10 players in the league, as arbitrary as those rankings can be. He's playing more on the level of a guy in the 20 to 30 range, but I think simply his talent still keeps him somewhere in the top 15, at worst top 20.

Really sad and frustrating.

Yes the injuries are very real and not just an excuse, but the passiveness in clutch situations is unacceptable.

[jerseyjac]

The main issue with Deron, which has made him passive, and is actually a pretty big negative about him...he feeds off his outside shooting. When his shots fall early on, he gets that bounce in his step and plays the way he should. When he struggles with his shot, he becomes very passive and decides not to do anything. Which is frikin annoying.

As people have said, a true superstar imposes his will on the game, and stays aggressive whether he's individually struggling or not.

As much as Westbrook pisses me off at times, whether he's 12-17 or 2-17 from the field...he's in constant attack mode.

Definitely a lot of truth to that...I just believe our offense system can become so stagnant, it affects his style of play...but I definitely agree w/ your theory since he has worn a Nets uni...

[NyCeEvO]

And here's the cold truth, one of the biggest reasons why the Knicks are winning is because of their passing and selfless play.

Both times they played the Heat, there isn't a team in the league that whips the ball around the perimeter faster and in a more accurate fashion.

They don't have the best ballhandlers, but you don't need the best ballhandlers if you can spread shooters around the floor and let them bomb away after delivering them a great pass.

They're maximizing efficiency by NOT dribbling, but by smart passing.

If Melo isn't going ISO and just getting into the paint, the Knicks are usually just passing around the perimeter and the second the defense lapses, they're bombing a 3.

We, on the other hand, are just grinding our offense to halt by pounding the rock to the ground, going into the dumbest isolation plays, and forcing up bad contested shots.

I don't think it's a coincidence that JJ and D-Will haven't played pretty good games together.

For the most part, JJ has been bad, while D-Will has been better, and the few times where JJ has been good, D-Will has been awful and vice versa.

[xam2k7]

guys, i hope we all now realize how great lopez is and how important he is to this teams success. we do not have a rim protector without him nor do we have a go-to high percentage scorer. As great as blatche's stats have been in the starting role its so important to have him in the bench scoring role. to always have a constant post scoring threat throughout the entire game is invaluable.

once we get lopez back there will be no complaints because we will be playing great basketball and knocking off 5 wins here and there constantly.

[NyCeEvO]

guys, i hope we all now realize how great lopez is and how important he is to this teams success. we do not have a rim protector without him nor do we have a go-to high percentage scorer. As great as blatche's stats have been in the starting role its so important to have him in the bench scoring role. to always have a constant post scoring threat throughout the entire game is invaluable.

once we get lopez back there will be no complaints because we will be playing great basketball and knocking off 5 wins here and there constantly.

I don't agree entirely.

Yes, I agree that we are more successful and a better team with Lopez in, but his return doesn't fix everything.

One of the biggest problems that we have as a team is that we start off well, but don't finish well.

You remember what happens when Brook is in, right?

1st Qtr - 3.4/5.1 FGM/FGA (7.6 points) TS% 67.8%, USG% 30.6%, 0.9/1.3 FTM/FTA, 0.7 TO, 9.4min
2nd Qtr - 1.2/2.6 FGM/FGA (3.1 points) TS% 49.4%, USG% 27.7%, 0.6/1.2 FTM/FTA, 0.2 TO, 5.1min
3rd Qtr - 1.8/4.1 FGM/FGA (3.8 points) TS% 44.1%, USG% 27.5%, 0.2/0.5 FTM/FTA, 0.6 TO, 8.6min
4th Qtr - 1.8/3.6 FGM/FGA (4.5 points) TS% 54.0%, USG% 27.8%, 1.0/1.3 FTM/FTA, 0.3 TO, 7.4min

Without a doubt, we always start off the game giving Lopez the ball and doing so frequently. He racks up like 8-12pts easily.

Then he gets a big break in the 2nd qtr, so he doesn't get that many attempts.

Many teams weather our first quarter offensive barrage, and they slowly start to creep back.

Why? Because you don't win games in the 1st quarter. Even if we win the first quarter by a good margin, the other team has 3 more quarters to come back.

In the 3rd quarter, we go "oh shoot, we lost our lead" and we force feed Brook, but this time the opposition has talked at half-time and has made sure that Brook doesn't go off.

As you can see, he gets touches in the 3rd quarter, but he's nowhere near as efficient as he was in the first quarter. In fact, he only shoots above 50% in the 1st and 4th quarter.

The 4th quarter comes and guess what happens, Brook gains in efficiency but he takes less shots than he did in the 3rd quarter.

If Brook is so good in the first, why does he get so few FGA attempts in the 4th? The 1st quarter and the 4th quarter should be his most aggressive quarters, because in the first he sets the tone and in the 4th, he leaves his stamp on the game.

Instead, he goes off in the first and then we never give him the ball back at the rate, he got it in the first quarter.

And you know what that speaks to?

The opposition adjusting to Lopez's 1st quarter and our inability to adjust back to get him in new spots.

Lopez volume of shots should go way back up. Close to what it is in the first quarter but it doesn't happen.

All credit goes to....

[jerseyjac]

Congrats on the win! we have a lot of crow to eat especially Avery...

On the flip side I was surprised by all the angst I saw over here. The Nets are in 5th place in the east and are loaded with talent. Curry had to go nuts in order to squeak out a win. I can get why some are upset about missing some key box outs (we have the same issue with Lee all the time), but aside from that the Nets looked really good to me.

Why do you say Avery has to eat crow? Did he make some promise about this game? That doesn't sound like something he'd do.

This team CAN be so much better than what they are...we've been beaten by the Warriors both with Lopez and without...Our organization has talked a lot about who the Nets are as a team, "our time is now"...IMO, our time will never be now w/ Avery as a coach...I just do not see him fitting our team on the offensive side...I believe he does a good job on defense getting our team to buy in as well as with practices and players...Players have supported him stating he is a player's coach...but I truly feel he fails with our rotation in key moments of the game, substituting guys in when its not needed or not making a move at all...Our offense has no substance (obviously even more w/ Lopez out) and we find ourselves ISOing non stop where our point guard has less of a true role in manufacturing offense with the Nets becoming a jump shooting team...

As much as we were beaten on the glass and w/ Curry shooting the lights out, our coach rarely makes an in game adjustment which we benefit from offensively...we usually win out on pure talent...

[NyCeEvO]

^^Couldn't have said it better myself.

I don't think we really understand how detrimental Avery is.

We don't have the talent level of the Heat, who can win in spite of Spo's coaching deficiencies.

Avery's coaching skill can be the difference between us being a 1st round exit team and a ECF darkhorse. I know no one wants to lose games but just think at what happens if Avery gets another deal, because Proky thinks he did a good job.

[MrDollarBills]

I don't think we really understand how detrimental Avery is.

We don't have the talent level of the Heat, who can win in spite of Spo's coaching deficiencies.

Most people have been calling for everything short of Avery being assassinated.

If Prokhorov resigns this idiot, I'm not watching this **** anymore.