Brooklyn Nets Weekly: This Team Stinks Right Now
After an embarrassing wire to wire loss to the lowly Sacramento Kings, the Brooklyn Nets find themselves in a 2-5 hole searching for answers.
The Brooklyn Nets are bad. Like, bottom of the Eastern Conference bad. Wednesday night’s blowout loss to a Sacramento Kings team that happens to be a virtual certainty for the NBA lottery and is currently mired in the midst of a five game losing streak seems to be as close to rock bottom as you can get in the NBA. This was a Nets team that many projected would finish as high as second in a much improved Eastern Conference and after a win against the Miami Heat in their home opener, it was easy to see why pundits were so excited about the makeup of this roster. But Brooklyn has now lost three straight and hasn’t won a road game yet this season. Right now, there are more questions than answers surrounding an organization with championship aspirations for 2013-14. Newsday Nets beat writer Rod Boone said it best on twitter: “Overheard in the Kings press room just now: ‘I thought the Nets were supposed to be good.'” Is it time to panic yet?
LOOKING BACK
Last week’s results: 0-3 (2-5 overall)
The week started off with about as demoralizing a defeat as any team has had this year to date. The Brooklyn Nets had trouble last season matching up with the athleticism of the Washington Wizards, and that trend has officially carried over into 2013-14, as Bradley Beal‘s 29 points helped pace Washington to a 112-108 overtime victory. It was a game that saw the Nets blow an eleven point lead with under five minutes to go in the fourth quarter. Defense has been an issue for the unlikeliest of Nets, Kevin Garnett, who has won a Defensive Player of the Year award and is often considered the best defensive player of this generation. Brooklyn’s prized offseason acquisition got roasted down the stretch by Washington power forward Nene, who scored the game tying basket in regulation and finished with 20 points on 8-12 shooting. For the Nets, Brook Lopez got off to a fast start but was invisible late. He finished with 23 points.
Things didn’t get much better for the Nets when the undefeated Indiana Pacers made their first visit of the season to Barclays Center. Brooklyn swept this team last year, going 3-0 against the Pacers and winning twice on Indiana’s home floor. That was last season. This year’s Pacer team may be the NBA’s best, and they showed why in a tough, grind it out type of game on the road. Paul George is a friggin’ stud and his leap into superstardom continued on this night. Indiana’s franchise player finished with a game high 24 points and added six rebounds. The Nets had opportunities late, but after Joe Johnson missed long on a game tying three pointer, Indiana held on. In a battle that often felt like a playoff game throughout, the Pacers were the more composed team.
Brooklyn had three days to let that loss sink in, and theoretically a three game road trip presented the perfect opportunity to galvanize a team still getting familiar with each other. But the Nets stunk up the gym in what was their worst performance of the season against the Sacramento Kings, losing 107-86 in a game they never led. Brooklyn shot 37.8 percent from the floor, including a vomit-inducing 3-13 from deep. Isaiah Thomas was unstoppable in pick and roll sets, scoring 19 points and adding six rebounds and six assists off the bench. Marcus Thorton lit it up in a reserve roll as well, finishing with 24 points. For the Nets, Mirza Teletovic checked in with two minutes to go in a game that had already been decided and took the team’s final field goal attempt. The shot missed everything, drawing jeers from a downright giddy Sacramento crowd. It was a microcosm for Mirza Teletovic’s career as an NBA player so far and a perfect snapshot to sum up the Nets season through seven games.
MVP-Brook Lopez
Brook Lopez is the only guy who has shown up consistently for the Brooklyn Nets so far.
For the second week in a row, the Brookie Monster was the best player in Brooklyn. This week, he played Indiana center Roy Hibbert to a virtual draw and grossly outpointed Demarcus Cousins, physically overwhelming him on both ends of the floor in a losing effort. Defensively, he continues to protect the rim extremely well, averaging over two blocks per game while anchoring this struggling Nets offense. Simply put, Brook Lopez has been a star yet again this season, but will someone give the poor guy some help already?
LVP-Kevin Garnett
Does Kevin Garnett have any basketball left in him? (NBA.com photo)
Is KG cooked? It’s a fair question to ask at this point. We’ve all heard about leadership and culture changes and the like. But at some point, Kevin Garnett is going to have to be held accountable for his production. Six points per game isn’t cutting it. Neither is 6.7 rebounds. Not when he isn’t playing defense at the level we’ve all grown accustomed to. Maybe Jason Kidd needs to get “The Big Ticket” more minutes so he can get into a rhythm. Or, on a scarier note for Brooklyn fans, maybe Kevin Garnett’s odometer has reached it’s limit.
TIME TO PANIC?
As of Thursday morning, the Brooklyn Nets are fourteenth in the Eastern Conference. They rank 21st in rebounding and are being outscored by over five points per contest. They’ve lost three in a row, Kevin Garnett looks like a corpse, and they appear to lack the athleticism to keep pace with some of the younger teams in the NBA. So, again, is it time to panic?
Probably not. Brooklyn started 11-4 last season, only to end up 14-14 after 28 games. The Miami Heat’s “Big Three” started off 9-8 in their first full season together. This is going to take time. Head coach Jason Kidd has remained cool as a cucumber in press conferences, preaching “patience” and explaining that this, just like anything else, will be a “process.” Garnett’s play is a cause for concern. Certainly Andrei Kirilenko‘s health so far has been a bit unsettling. But big picture here, there is still a long way to go and this still one of the more talented teams in the NBA. They’ll figure it out, right?
NEXT UP
Brooklyn stays out west for two more. First, Friday night against a Phoenix Suns team that has overachieved so far and is playing with a ton of confidence. That’s a game that will be no cakewalk. The following night, Brooklyn heads to the Staples center to take on the Clippers. Think Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce will want this one against Doc Rivers‘ new squad? Add in Blake Griffin, Brook Lopez, the Deron/Paul matchup, and this should make for some delicious NBA theater. We saw Garnett on both ends of Brooklyn’s first back to back this season. It’ll be interesting to see how Jason Kidd manages KG’s minutes this time around.
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