Brooklyn Nets Weekly: The Season Opens with a Humbling Defeat
No, the sky isn’t falling in Brooklyn just yet.(NBA.com photo)
One down, 81 to go. The Brooklyn Nets didn’t get off to the start they wanted, as they struggled all the way to the finish line of a grind-it-out loss against Kyrie Irving‘s Cleveland Cavaliers, 98-94. Deron Williams was limited in the opener to just 22 minutes and actually sat the entire fourth quarter. He finished with seven points and nine assists on the evening. The Cleveland Cavaliers got a monster effort from Tristan Thompson, a guy who was so bad last season the Cavs turned him into a righty. He poured in 18 points and hauled down nine rebounds in just under 35 minutes of action.
Looking Back
For the Brooklyn Nets, there were bright spots throughout the evening and then, well, not so much. Brooklyn opened up the game on a 12-2 run, playing terrific defense early on and getting six quick points from Paul Pierce. Cleveland would dominate the rest of the game up until the fourth quarter despite the fact that Kyrie Irving was both ineffective and in foul trouble the entire night. The Nets trailed by 10 heading into the fourth before storming back behind a hot stretch from the always fearless Jason Terry, who at one point connected on two consecutive triples to tie it. In the end, Kyrie Irving and Anderson Varejao made a few plays when Brooklyn couldn’t and Cleveland snuck out a monster home win against a team projected by many to be an Eastern Conference powerhouse. Brook Lopez had his moments, scoring 21 points and blocking three shots, but five rebounds isn’t going to cut it. Not on a night where Cleveland dominated the glass, edging the Nets 49-38 in total rebounds when the final buzzer sounded. Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett both played less than 30 minutes tonight. It remains to be seen if that’ll be the norm. Brooklyn’s bench outside of Jason Terry was awful, finishing 5-for-22 overall from the floor.
MVP-Paul Pierce
Pierce did all he could to keep the Nets in it. (NBA.com photo)
We saw passive play from just about everyone on the Nets roster in this opening game at Cleveland, as players appeared to not want to step on each other’s toes. Everyone, that is, except for Paul Pierce. “The Truth” scored Brooklyn’s first six points and scored some big buckets late, finishing with 17 points on 5-of-8 shooting from the floor, including 3-for-4 from 3, while adding four rebounds and two assists as well. In a game where rotations were questionable at best (come back soon, Jason Kidd!) Pierce managed to have an extremely efficient night despite playing less than 30 minutes. Honorable mention to Jason Terry for getting hot in the fourth quarter. This guy fears no shot and will become a fan favorite extremely quickly if he can keep posting games like the one he had in Cleveland.
LVP- Andray Blatche
Blatche was a mess everywhere in Cleveland and a microcosm for the entire Nets bench in this one.(NBA.com photo)
It became clear that the Nets missed Andrei Kirilenko tonight when a bench believed to be a team strength jumped up and bit the team in the back in some crucial moments throughout the evening. With Kevin Garnett on what appears to be a strict minutes limit, Andray Blatche is going to need to put up some extremely strong efforts while playing big minutes for these Nets. It didn’t happen tonight. Blatche’s final tally? Zero points (on 0-of-5 shooting), three rebounds and three turnovers in 20 minutes. Yuck.
LOOKING FORWARD
At the end of the day, it’s one game. As Kevin Garnett bluntly stated in the locker room after a difficult defeat, “The Cavs ain’t no (expletive) team.” The Brooklyn Nets will have to regroup quickly; a home opener against the defending champion Miami heat looms on Friday night. It remains to be seen if Deron Williams will still be limited and/or if Andrei Kirilenko will make his Nets debut. Jason Kidd will not, as he’ll be serving the final game of a two-game suspension for a DUI he received last summer. As for the Heat? They’ll likely be pretty determined in this one after a brutal road loss to the Philadelphia 76ers, arguably the NBA’s worst team.
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