GT: The Evil Empire (BKN) vs Bahstan Saltics: NBA Playoffs Round 1, Game 1 (5/22/2021 8pm EST ABC)

[Openheimer]

Kyrie really looked good on defense man. I thought his third quarter was great. Durant wasn’t efficient but his big shots and bothered Tatum with his length!. Harden moved the ball player a solid floor general game. Thought he wasn’t overly aggressive looking for his but I like to see more drives and pick and rolls with the bigs but he was good

[Whiskey Slick]

Let the loud mouths in the media tell us again how the Nets can't win a championship because of their defense, after we literally held Tatum to ZERO FG's in the entire second half and Kemba Walker barely more than ZERO.

The only time Kemba hit two meaningless 3's was in garbage time.

Yep. Tatum got shut down. The refs bailed him out on a BS flagrant foul call otherwise dude would have posted a donut in the 2nd half.

That was literally the worst flagrant foul call I have ever seen. It's almost like the referees were ABC executives determined to keep the audience tuned in till the end, by hook or by crook.

[DarkXaero]

Btw, Robert Williams was terrifying tonight. Dude turned into an elite/all time level defensive anchor against us tonight. Without him, the game would have been over a lot sooner.

[NyCeEvO]

I'm starting to think that we don't even run plays lol

We do have plays, but we mostly utilize actions.

At the beginning of the season, Nash said he had offensive sets that he’d slowly roll out over the course of the season because he didn’t want to inundate the team with too much too quickly. I haven’t seen anything new over the course of the season to suggest that we’ve added new things to the offense. We’ve just added new players with new skillets. I think adding more talent has largely masked what has been lazy offensive tactics and schematics.

There’s a reason why MJ didn’t win until Phil Jackson took the ball out of his hands and forced MJ to rely upon his the triangle and lead trusted his teammates. Obviously, Jordan could score on any one and any team, but Phil’s point was to ask whether he should score every time down.

By getting everyone involved and letting the team score, everyone gets the reps to stay warm and ready while your main stars get to coast on offense until crunch time. If things are still tight by the 4th quarter, that’s when you deploy your superstars in ISOs, and it’ll be more effective then because the opposition will have been worn down from guarding the whole team for the first 3 quarters while your stars are still relatively fresh.

Spamming ISOs all game is idiotic. It needlessly tires out your stars, makes the offense disjointed and predictable. If your offense is disjointed, you won’t score as efficiently, and if it’s predictable, the opposition won’t have to work as hard to defend you because they already know what you want to do. If the opposition doesn’t have to work as hard to guard you, they’ll have more energy to run their own offensive sets and beat you down in the trenches and on hustle plays.

Even though we won against Chicago, I was upset because I saw all of this stuff in-person then. The only reason why we won was because the difference in talent was too great for the Bulls to overcome. It’s the same reason why the Celtics will probably eventually lose the series, even if they win tonight.

I’ve already seen enough from Nash and co. to know that their philosophy for problem-solving isn’t too think critically, but rather to just keep doing what you’re doing because eventually it will work. It’s only going to get harder against better teams. I honestly fear what’s going to happen if things don’t change, but Nash and co have given me no reason to believe that they will. I want them to surprise me. I really do.

I’ve been quiet during much of the second half of the season. I’ve been praying that the things I’ve been picking up would be addressed as the season went along. They haven’t. Now I’m just hoping against hope our stars play lights out throughout the playoffs and we don’t run into teams that exploit our weaknesses.

Yeah honestly the Big 3 will need to play out of their minds to win 15 more games.

We have got to move the ball better, we need to use the lob threat. I doubt Nash reinforces this. Our talent will have to prevail.

You know what gets me upset the most though?

I know a lot of us rip Nash for not being great, but I’ve been reluctant to blame him because Nash didn’t hire himself.

The bottom line is Sean Marks hired Nash. Marks could’ve hired a better, more experienced coach, but he chose his friend and pitched the idea that Nash’s high EQ would be more valuable to a team as talented as we are rather than someone with more IQ.

Ultimately, I can’t fault Nash for not knowing what he doesn’t know. Everyone knows (and even Nash stated himself) that he jumped the proverbial line and Marks allowed him to do so.

If we end up getting outcoached during the playoffs because the opposition has a coach with better IQ, just remember that Marks was the one who thought it was ok and better to have Nash rather than any other coach.

It was always really ballsy to immediately give Nash the reins to a championship caliber.

It’s like gifting a kid a Ferrari for their first car. Do you blame the kid for crashing the car or the parents for gifting him a car that few people know how to drive safely and properly? I blame the parents (i.e. Marks) in this case. He should’ve known better.

We just gotta pray that we succeed in spite of Nash, because we’ve only got a few years to take advantage of our stars’ primes. Hopefully, Nash doesn’t piss away a team that (barring injury) has no excuse for not winning a title.

[DarkXaero]

KD is uber-elite off the ball and when he makes quick decisions as soon as he gets the ball.

I haven’t looked it up, but I have the feeling that the longer he holds the ball and operates as a primary ball handler, the worse off he is as a player and we are as a team. I don’t trust his decision making. I don’t understand why KD operates as a PG sometimes despite being on the floor with Harden and Kyrie. It doesn’t make sense to me.

It's not so much that I don't trust his decision making, it's more that I don't trust his handles, his passing ability, and his ability to make shots as much. I know he has had an illustrious career full of clutch plays/shots, but we haven't really seen it here on the Nets. The only one that comes to mind is his 3pt shot against Denver early in the season.

I would prefer Kyrie to take on more of the ISO load. I would like to see KD do more screening, catching, and shooting over the switched defender in the midrange or three point line.

I am fine with posting up KD when he has a mismatch in the post. But giving him the ball at the 3pt line against a lengthy, high level defender, I'm not comfortable with that yet.

[Whiskey Slick]

KNIG: KD
KNIGHT: Kyrie
JESTER: The ref or refs who made that horsesh*t flagrant foul call on KD, following that review.

[spre8well]

Still amazed that KD is able to walk away from that fall like nothing happened

Omg I thought he broke his arm the way he fell on it. I was shocked he had nothing wrong with him

So many things can go wrong with how he landed.. Smart.. don’t trust him..I remember him trying to injure Joe one time..

[andrewww]

Kyrie was the best player for the Nets tn.

Also Claxton needs to be utilized as a lob threat better. Similar to how GSW preferred Zaza over Mcgee when a rim running lob threat is the best way to keep the defense honest.

Griffin and Harris along with the big 3 was not a good quintet tn.

Also if Shamet isnt hitting shots he needs a short leash, play Mike James or TJ in his spot instead.

[Whiskey Slick]

Where's my girl Malika Andrews in the post game press conference?

She covered the Nets all year and ABC/ESPN pulls her off the Nets for our first playoff game?

[LOUiS-D]

Btw, Robert Williams was terrifying tonight. Dude turned into an elite/all time level defensive anchor against us tonight. Without him, the game would have been over a lot sooner.

his instincts, timing and patience tonight makes mitchell robinson look like sean williams

[NyCeEvO]

Rough game but that 2nd half was our kind of basketball.

Also, we had a great crowd in the building tonight. So much for the narrative that no one in NY cares about the Nets.

On its own, Brooklyn would be the 4th largest city in the US.

Even if most of the town was comprised of Knicks fans, that would still leave room for a ton of Nets fans.

The only people who push the narrative that the Nets have no fans are desperate Knick fans (not all of them do this though). Since they haven’t won recently, fanbase size is the only thing those can cling to in arguments about Knicks vs Nets. Those fans are praying we don’t win because if we do, it’s only a matter of time before the Nets fanbase grows even larger.

A perfect parallel of this is what has happened in Manchester, England in soccer.

Manchester United is a historic team with global recognition. They dominated English soccer throughout the 90s and 2000s.

A foreign owner bought the cross town rival (Manchester City) in the late 2000s and has spent a ton of money on their team. Now they’re currently dominating English football.

Many ManU supporters who grew up in the 90s are begrudgingly envious of Man City. They constantly talk about Man City is a plastic club that has no fans.

But guess what? Kids in Manchester and across the world don’t care. You’re seeing more and more Man City fans pop up everywhere. Their fan base is growing by leaps and bounds.

Instead of hating, Manchester United fans should stop hating and start hoping that their team can win. Eventually, the “bigger fanbase” schtick is going to go away if Man City keeps winning and ManU doesn’t.

The same advice applies here for the Knicks. If they want to remain top dog, they gotta win. If you let the other team rise up and dominate, few people will care about your greatness from yesteryear. They need to win before we do or the Nets wave will only grow larger.

[GTR11]

NyCeEvO spitting some gems tonight. Preach brother!!!

[GTR11]

it was horrible game plan from the door. We did adjust a little in a second half defense wise yet our offense was trash to put it nicely.

Nash is a rookie and all, D'Antoni Voughn should help and come up with much better game plan next time. This ISO trash won't work vs Bucks or Heat.

[NyCeEvO]

I honestly don’t care that we won. I’m not happy. Just like the Chicago game I saw in person that we won. The foundation of the offense is mainly ISO. You cannot win this way in the latter stages of the playoffs against better defenses.

There’s no excuse for a team with this collection of offensive talent to not blow out this Boston team by 30pts (especially without Jaylen Brown). It wasn’t a blowout because we don’t run through good, quality offensive sets not let the others do the heavy leg lifting for most of the game and make way for the stars to close out.

I actually do not agree with this at all. It's actually the opposite, ISO offense becomes more valuable as teams go deeper into playoffs.

You’ve created a straw man. I did not say ISO offense becomes less valuable as the playoffs go on.

The best teams almost always have the best creators. I’ve always championed the belief that you need ISO players (especially those adept at drawing fouls) who can get you points when your regular sets aren’t working.

What I am saying is that you’re supposed to turn to ISO after your sets don’t work.

My issue is not that we that ISO, but rather that we go straight to ISO before even running full plays.

[NyCeEvO]

Let the loud mouths in the media tell us again how the Nets can't win a championship because of their defense, after we literally held Tatum to ZERO FG's in the entire second half and Kemba Walker barely more than ZERO.

The only time Kemba hit two meaningless 3's was in garbage time.

Yeah, our defense was surprisingly solid. I’m glad that we turned up on that end.

If we can expect that level of defensive intensity going forward, I’d feel much better about our chances. The offensive problems are much easier to fix than our defensive problems.

[NyCeEvO]

Look how triggered some of these dudes are:

African Canadian Steve Nash thinks the NewyorkBA giving him a team and a championship will make people forget how his wife did more with the Phoenix Suns roster than he did?



New Jersey were putting in crowd noise over the speakers in the 1990s. Nothing has changed, just sold it to some foreign guys, moved to a stadium where the Beastie Boys live.





Irvine is so fake.

Shouldn't he be in Estonia solving the hunger problem.

Instead of playing the basketball, go take them some food.

Don't just talk big things, actually do it.

Take them some burritos, and steak sandwiches, and steak sandwiches.




Neither team has a real coach.

The Knicks do.




Nets' MVP for the game: Kemba!


John Carroll is watching the Celtics, thinking that he is a better coach than what they have.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It must be hard living with such anger and hatred of people who have done nothing to them. The insecurities are bursting through. It’s rather sad.

[DarkXaero]

Rough game but that 2nd half was our kind of basketball.

Also, we had a great crowd in the building tonight. So much for the narrative that no one in NY cares about the Nets.

On its own, Brooklyn would be the 4th largest city in the US.

Even if most of the town was comprised of Knicks fans, that would still leave room for a ton of Nets fans.

The only people who push the narrative that the Nets have no fans are desperate Knick fans (not all of them do this though). Since they haven’t won recently, fanbase size is the only thing those can cling to in arguments about Knicks vs Nets. Those fans are praying we don’t win because if we do, it’s only a matter of time before the Nets fanbase grows even larger.

A perfect parallel of this is what has happened in Manchester, England in soccer.

Manchester United is a historic team with global recognition. They dominated English soccer throughout the 90s and 2000s.

A foreign owner bought the cross town rival (Manchester City) in the late 2000s and has spent a ton of money on their team. Now they’re currently dominating English football.

Many ManU supporters who grew up in the 90s are begrudgingly envious of Man City. They constantly talk about Man City is a plastic club that has no fans.

But guess what? Kids in Manchester and across the world don’t care. You’re seeing more and more Man City fans pop up everywhere. Their fan base is growing by leaps and bounds.

Instead of hating, Manchester United fans should stop hating and start hoping that their team can win. Eventually, the “bigger fanbase” schtick is going to go away if Man City keeps winning and ManU doesn’t.

The same advice applies here for the Knicks. If they want to remain top dog, they gotta win. If you let the other team rise up and dominate, few people will care about your greatness from yesteryear. They need to win before we do or the Nets wave will only grow larger.

As a Man United fan myself, there's an important distinction to mention here in that analogy. Man United are the most successful English Premier League team, and had decades of titles. Knicks on the other hand haven't done **** really. So you can't really make that analogy. Man United are closer to the likes of Lakers/Celtics in terms of sports legacy. I agree with you on the general point that the United fanbase gets too caught up on the "plastic club" argument, and our fanbase has been in a pathetic state over the past few years as the club hasn't done anything really since Fergie left. But it is important to mention why United fans' arrogance is earned, while Knicks fans' arrogance is straight up delusion.

[Whiskey Slick]

I talked about this BEFORE THE GAME (see below) and it was my biggest concern.

That hardly makes me a genius. These slow starts have INEXPLICABLY been a problem all year.

For the life of me I can't understand why, but if it doesn't STOP it can cost us a championship.

We had a bad habit of sleepwalking thru the 1st Qtr in the regular season and spotting teams 10 to 15 Points leads before we woke up. Often we got away with it in the regular season, but you can't be spotting teams that much in the post season. We have to start these games with a sense of urgency.

[DarkXaero]

I honestly don’t care that we won. I’m not happy. Just like the Chicago game I saw in person that we won. The foundation of the offense is mainly ISO. You cannot win this way in the latter stages of the playoffs against better defenses.

There’s no excuse for a team with this collection of offensive talent to not blow out this Boston team by 30pts (especially without Jaylen Brown). It wasn’t a blowout because we don’t run through good, quality offensive sets not let the others do the heavy leg lifting for most of the game and make way for the stars to close out.

I actually do not agree with this at all. It's actually the opposite, ISO offense becomes more valuable as teams go deeper into playoffs.

You’ve created a straw man. I did not say ISO offense becomes less valuable as the playoffs go on.

The best teams almost always have the best creators. I’ve always championed the belief that you need ISO players (especially those adept at drawing fouls) who can get you points when your regular sets aren’t working.

What I am saying is that you’re supposed to turn to ISO after your sets don’t work.

My issue is not that we that ISO, but rather that we go straight to ISO before even running full plays.

I'm not even disagreeing with you on the current problems with our offense. I agree with the point that we're relying on isos before even running full plays. But I cannot agree with the implication that iso offense cannot work, especially in the latter stages of the playoffs against better defenses. When its playoffs time, all these teams already know what the other team is running. As they get deeper into the post season, the attention to detail increases, and the defensive intensity becomes greater, teams' playbooks often go out the window. That's where ISO offense value still remains in an era of analytics driven ball.

[DarkXaero]

Where's my girl Malika Andrews in the post game press conference?

She covered the Nets all year and ABC/ESPN pulls her off the Nets for our first playoff game?

She was at the Milwakee-Miami game today, much to my disappointment.