GT#53: Denver Nuggets @ Brooklyn Nets |2/13| 7:30pm | YES

[PetroNet]

ball movement looked better but let's be debbie downers for a minute, Denver were without Iggy and Gallo.... i'm happy we won that game(like we SHOULD'VE won vs the spurs) but I won't easily get too excited...

the spurs are a better team then us, with or without duncan/manu

without duncan/manu, we should've won considering our "core 4" was intact.... to lose by 1, that's something manageable, to lose by 20+ to Parker n Co. not acceptable for me as a fan....

It says a lot about the Nets and it's not good things... we're not into the first month of our season, we're in February, sh*t like this needs to be cleaned up and straightened out...

im not sure why you are suprised we lost. us healthy is not a better team then the spurs without duncan/manu. and on top of that, they are a horrible mismatch for us because their elite strength(half court execution off the pick and roll) is our achillies heel.

im suprise we even kept it close as long as we did

[Paradise]

^ The Spurs without Manu, Duncan, Parker nearly beat Miami IN miami and beat Chicago in a blowout in Chicago. So, It's a poor loss but it's not like they aren't dangerous without them either.

And I'm not even surprised NetsDaily is stupid enough to think we won the last 2 games because of no Deron. In fact, their not intelligent enough to think no Deron FORCES the team to play better and with a sense of urgency or else they know they will get blown off the floor.

You know, teams with their best players out usually play better and teams usually underestimate teams without their best players.

It's not rocket science but of course, NetsDaily would think the opposite. Sad excuse of a fanbase for so called "Nets fans".

[CalamityX12]

im not sure why you are suprised we lost. us healthy is not a better team then the spurs without duncan/manu. and on top of that, they are a horrible mismatch for us because their elite strength(half court execution off the pick and roll) is our achillies heel.

im suprise we even kept it close as long as we did

That's the problem, I was actually not surprised therefore that's what pissing me off. My expectations for the team is going down and down. Like, just speaking on my feelings, I can't trust this team to play right because they haven't done so consistently.

I have to believe our team healthy(or close to) should be a team that can beat the spurs without Duncan and Manu..... if they can't do that then there's something wrong with the team...(and there is, but by losing just solidifies it)

we had a lead, a good lead, then poof... no heart, careless play, terrible rotations and adjustments, leads to a 20 pt loss... at home....

[Paradise]

And they learned from the loss and brought better awareness the next two games. Which matters the most. Everyone is going to lose to a team at the end of the day, but if you do not rebound from it like a true good team would then that's what makes you question the team.

Beat Indiana on the road in the best stretch of basketball they have played in years is how you start.

[NyCeEvO]

Deron should sit more often if he can't be bothered to put forth the kind of effort that his back ups have shown over the last two games.

But this begs the question why his backups, CJ in particular) haven't put forth such efforts earlier when D-Will was playing.

CJ played like utter garbage for a large chunk of the season as a backup. Even in the first game of D-Will's absence, he didn't play well, and he was obviously on fire last night. We can't expect Watson to go 5-6 from 3 every game.

The one thing I was excited about but at the same time upset about was JJ.

Where was all of this energy before? The last two games that D-Will was still here, we saw him pick up his energy a bit, but last night he was going at it.

He needs to stop this passive crap and play like this all of the time. And with D-Will in the backcourt, it should be even easier.

Last night was the first time where I felt JJ and Brook + plus the rest of the team put forth a playoff team effort and they played well.

There's absolutely no reason why they shouldn't be able to play at this level.

Last night was the version of the team that I thought with a healthy D-Will could put up a serious fight with most playoff teams. (Granted I though Tele would be a bit better than what we've seen so far) but if you can get Josh Smith and if he can his head on straight and if we can play like we know we're capable of playing, then we should be contenders, not 1st round garbage like we've been looking like for most of the season.

[vincecarter4pres]

A big bottom line of all of this is, the straight obvious...

With 3 high usage options on offense, this team has to play at a faster pace if simply just to get all of them the looks they thirst for and flat out just need.

[NyCeEvO]

A big bottom line of all of this is, the straight obvious...

With 3 high usage options on offense, this team has to play at a faster pace if simply just to get all of them the looks they thirst for and flat out just need.

Do you remember the first time we played the Cavs?

We were running and gunning, the offense was beautiful and we were straight beasting. At the time, I thought "if this is the team for the season, this is going to be a fun season".

Then Avery just absolutely kills our pace and I thought "Why are we changing what worked so well against the Cavs? It was not only a beauty to watch but we really imposed our will on them that game."

Since then, the team never re-captured that pace save for last night. Last night was the first time since that Cavs game where I saw us really pick up the pace and just play free going. It was a beauty to see.

If we could only sure up our defense so that we don't blow 20pt leads in 2 minutes, we'd be pretty dangerous.

[vincecarter4pres]

I just deleted that game off my DVR the night before the Pacers game, which I subsequently deleted as well just to clean it up.

[MGrand15]

PJ has to go out of his way to get this team to push the pace. We need to play faster and get into our offensive sets earlier. I think that was the main difference without Deron. He often walks it up court and has no sense of urgency until we're down big. Today, CJ made a concerted effort to attack earlier. Get the offense going early. If Joe's post up didn't lead to anything, there was still 13 seconds on the clock to get something going. Same with Brook's post ups. We moved the ball from side to side and if we're STARTING to run a play with 13 on the clock, there's just no time for that.

We need to start getting games into the 100 range or we're going to be in trouble. This is an offensive team talent wise playing like a defensive team philosophy wise. That leads to our offense being bad and our defense being a BIT better but still bad since we don't have the personnel to shut teams down.

[Ronito]

Playing faster would be so great for Joe because he can stroke it and the faster we play, the less he thinks.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/pla ... elog/2013/

Sort it by game score and just go through he scores/pace/possession counts of his top games.

[NyCeEvO]

I just deleted that game off my DVR the night before the Pacers game, which I subsequently deleted as well just to clean it up.

Well, you can re-watch it. Remember the link rb3 posted?

[NyCeEvO]

Actually, don't watch that game.

I'm almost done with right now. We scored a lot of points but mainly because CLE is terrible at defense.

Although, you do notice that the Nets try to push the ball when they have the opportunity to.

Also, D-Will definitely had a bounce in his step in that game. He slices through their D (and Kyrie sliced through ours as well).

It wasn't a clean game from us. We got away with a lot of dumb mistakes because CLE is too young to know how to take advantage of them.

[MGrand15]

Playing faster would be so great for Joe because he can stroke it and the faster we play, the less he thinks.

http://www.basketball-reference.com/pla ... elog/2013/

Sort it by game score and just go through he scores/pace/possession counts of his top games.

Yeah, I think it's no coincidence he plays better. The slower we play, the more he's stuck isolating with 6 seconds left on the shot clock. With no ball movement, he's basically stuck playing 1 on 5. The thing that blows my mind is that everyone on the team is a willing passer. Lopez is probably the only player who just doesn't have the skills to always make the right read. So in theory, we should be great at moving the ball.

Also, this is really random but does anyone else think if Joe Johnson added the Paul Pierce pumpfake and jump into the defender to his game, it'd add like 3 or 4 FTA per game? He does it it once every 10 games or so and every time I see it, I wonder why he doesn't do it more. It's one of the ways Pierce gets to the line consistently even though he's not great at getting to the rim. He's a jump shooter, so people bite on his fakes, especially when he's in the post - I should send him an email

[jerseyjac]

Taylor needs to have more control, he leaves the ground a hell of a lot then if the shot isn't available tries to alter from a shot to a pass on his way down. He beat Lawson there with ease and had tons of space but just charged straight at the Denver big man there. If he was more controlled he could've dropped it off to Lopez or look for another option.

He was going 150mph there

That is my biggest issue with him, playing in control, having different gears and using them accordingly and leaving his feat for no reason or to make passes...its like I'm playing Live 03, etc...

[Paradise]

To be fair, all rookies say they come into the league and try to play as fast as it seems in their head. By their 2nd and 3rd year, they slow it down and understand it better.

Long as he gets more PT and gets to continue to get better understanding of the NBA pace, he will get better and learn from it but knowing our incompetent coaching staff, he will rot on the bench starting next Tuesday and never develop.

Look at Brooks for example.

[vincecarter4pres]

Brooks is just garbage with low BBIQ. Not every young player is automatically a stud prospect just because they are young.

The coaching staff hasn't ruined Brooks, they have only ruined his trade value, he's god awful.