Posts Tagged ‘Brook Lopez’

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Nets Look To Kidd For Another Culture Change

June 13, 2013  ·  12:15PM

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SAN ANTONIO – The Brooklyn Nets have a great culture outside their arena. Inside their locker room, not so much.

The Nets have talent, starting with three guys — Deron Williams, Joe Johnson and Brook Lopez — you can run an offense through. That’s three more than a lot of teams in this league have. But their first-round defeat at the hands of the Chicago Bulls made it clear that the Nets lack the character, the drive and the cohesiveness to make the most of that talent.

Enter Jason Kidd, a New York Knicks point guard as of two weeks ago and the Nets’ new coach as of Wednesday evening. There are plenty of questions about such a quick, player-to-coach transition, but Kidd may be just what the Nets need.

There have been three trades over the last 15 seasons that have truly changed the culture of a franchise — moves that not only made a team better at basketball, but made its locker room a completely different environment.

A year and a half ago, the Clippers’ acquired Chris Paul and not only became the best team in L.A., but also a group that finally had it’s head on straight. In 2007, the Boston Celtics traded for Kevin Garnett, who turned them into defensive force and a championship contender.

And in 2001, the New Jersey Nets traded Stephon Marbury for Kidd, who changed them from “Clippers East” to the best team in the East. The future Hall of Famer led them to two straight Finals and six straight playoff appearances. In their 37 years in the NBA, the Nets have reached the conference semifinals just six times. Five of those trips took place in Kidd’s six full seasons with the team.

Kidd obviously played a big role, both on the floor and in the locker room, when the Dallas Mavericks won their only championship in 2011. And his influence on Carmelo Anthony and the Knicks this season was clear to most observers. He has a brilliant basketball mind and the respect of the greatest players in the world, having mentored a lot of them – including Williams – at the 2008 Olympics.

But mentoring players as a teammate and leading them as a coach are two different things. And with the rise of analytics, defenses designed to take away a team’s top options, and offenses that use misdirection to get defenses off balance, coaching in the NBA has never been more complicated.

Kidd will have to learn how to run a practice, put together a game plan, make adjustments on the fly, figure out the best role for every guy on the roster, develop an offense that works for three very different 20-point scorers, and put together a defense that the Nets can rely on when the shots aren’t falling.

That makes Kidd’s staff a critical part of his success or failure. He has pushed for former Nets and Pistons coach Lawrence Frank to be his top assistant, a hire that’s not done yet.

Frank led the Nets to within a few possessions of knocking off the eventual champion Pistons after he took over for Byron Scott in 2004. And in his first two full seasons as the coach, the Nets ranked in the top 10 defensively. But as the roster was stripped of its talent, the Nets regressed on defense.

In 2010-11, Frank was the lead assistant in Boston when they ranked No. 2 defensively, but wasn’t given much to work with in his two seasons in Detroit. While the Nets have three go-to guys offensively, they have plenty of questions on the other end of the floor, where they ranked 19th this season and where they got embarrassed by an undermanned Bulls team in Game 7.

Improved defense starts with buy-in from every guy in the roster. And Kidd’s history as a mentor to the likes of Williams, Anthony and LeBron James indicates that players will buy what he’s selling. In the Nets press release announcing the hire, Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov said that Kidd has “the fire in the belly we need,” making it clear what the team’s priorities were when it sought a new coach.

When you’re looking to change the culture, you call on the guy who did it before.

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Small Markets Scrap For Success

May 23, 2013  ·  10:57AM

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HANG TIME SOUTHWEST – When a couple small-market Western Conference teams battled for seven grueling games in the semifinals of the playoffs two years ago, who could have foreseen that they would meet again this postseason — after each was forced to deal with the inescapable repercussions of the new Collective Bargaining Agreement?

Rudy Gay was injured and out of that postseason two years ago. But at only 24 and locked into a lucrative contract, the No. 8 pick of the 2006 NBA Draft was a central figure for the fast-rising Memphis Grizzlies. Yet on Jan. 30, 2013, Gay, the team’s leading scorer, was traded to Toronto.

In Oklahoma City, the Thunder were coming off a loss to the Miami Heat in the 2012 NBA Finals when, days before this season began, Thunder general manager Sam Presti dealt former No. 3 pick James Harden, just 23 and an integral part of the team’s success, to Houston.

In a postseason marked by a surprising domination of small-market teams — all four teams remaining in the playoffs are in the bottom half of the league in market size — the second-round showdown between the Grizzlies and Thunder (won by the Grizzlies in five games) demonstrated just what many teams have to do to thrive in the era of the still-new CBA.

“With the rules set up the way they are, there’s minimal room for error,” said Jason Levien, the first-year CEO of the Grizzlies under a new ownership group led by one of the world’s youngest tech billionaires, Robert Pera. “You’ve got to be very thoughtful in your approach to how you build your team, how you build a roster, and you’ve got to keep the cap and the tax in mind.”

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Avoiding the taxes

Cap and tax are at the forefront of the strategy the Oklahoma City management team is using under the ownership of billionaire energy mogul Clay Bennett. Presti, who has managed to re-sign superstars Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook, plus emerging power forward Serge Ibaka, to long-term deals that fit within the team’s cap structure, chose to hold firm to a policy of not commenting on matters related to the CBA.

In Memphis, where the Grizzlies will look to start digging out of a 2-0 hole against the San Antonio Spurs in Saturday’s Game 3 of the West finals (9 p.m., ESPN), Levien has defended the trade of Gay (for veteran small forward Tayshaun Prince and youngsters Ed Davis and Austin Daye) as being made to improve the team.

While that might be true — Memphis won a franchise-best 56 games after a strong start with Gay — the Grizzlies also got out of the $37.2 million owed to Gay over the next two seasons. Memphis will pay Prince, Davis and Daye a combined $26 million over that span ($22 million if Daye is not retained beyond next season). With Zach Randolph, Marc Gasol and Mike Conley owed a combined $40.9 million next season, keeping Gay and a payroll under the tax line (this season it was $70.3 million) would have been a near-impossibility. (more…)

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Noah Fulfills Promise With Huge Game 7

May 5, 2013  ·  1:03AM

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NEW YORK – There’s no way to avoid it. This was about toughness and defense.

Actually, it was about Joakim Noah, who, in turn, is about toughness and defense.

It was Noah who promised that his team would win Game 7 in Brooklyn on Saturday. And it was Noah who was most responsible for that promise being fulfilled, leading the Chicago Bulls to a 99-93, series-ending victory.

“We’re going to go into a hostile environment, and we’re going to win,” Noah said after his Chicago Bulls lost Game 6 of their first round series with the Brooklyn Nets on Thursday.

From the outside, it seemed a little far-fetched. And if you’re reading this, you already know the circumstances. No Derrick Rose. No Kirk Hinrich. No Luol Deng. Taj Gibson? Banged up. Noah? Banged up. This was (and still is) the M.A.S.H. unit of all M.A.S.H. units.

Meanwhile, the Nets had seemingly found their footing after their brutal collapse in Game 4, earning this Game 7 on their home floor with two series-saving victories. They had outscored the Bulls by 20 points over the course of the first six games. But never underestimate the heart of a … team that’s got more heart … and better defense.

Noah set the tone early, grabbing (or tipping) three offensive rebounds in the first three minutes on Saturday. Eventually, he took his offense to the outside, knocking down a couple of jumpers and attacking the Nets’ sagging defense from the high post.

Oh yeah, the Nets’ defense. It was terrible, especially in the first half.

The legacy of this Nets team may be that they didn’t care. More accurately, they didn’t defend. And appropriately, they started their summer vacation a little early by allowing a really bad offensive team (missing two key components) to score 61 points in the first half of the most important game of the season.

The killer stretch was the end of the second quarter, when Chicago scored on 13 of its final 15 possessions. And one of those two empty possessions was a wide-open corner 3-pointer for a guy – Daequan Cook – who won the 3-point shootout a few years ago. The Nets simply couldn’t stay in front of the Bull with the ball, whether he was guard or a big. Carlos Boozer drove right past Andray Blatche. Noah drove right past Reggie Evans. Marco Belinelli drove right past Gerald Wallace for maybe the biggest basket of the game.

Rinse. Repeat. See you next season.

“They got too many easy layups, easy baskets,” Deron Williams said. “Our defensive principles we didn’t execute today.”

The Bulls’ defense was far from perfect. It allowed the Nets, when they finally played with some energy, to score 31 points in the third quarter and climb back in the game. Brooklyn actually finished with more offensive rebounds (19) than Chicago (13), but they couldn’t convert them as well. And not coincidentally, it was the better defensive team that got the stops it needed down the stretch.

Noah, of course, was the anchor, and he kept Brook Lopez (21 points on 9-for-20 shooting) from ever getting much of a rhythm. Noah himself finished with 24 points, 14 rebounds and six blocked shots. All effort and energy.

“We were asking him to do a lot, basically be everywhere on our defense,” Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau said. “Defend the pick-and-roll, sprint back to the basket, close out, block out, pursue the ball. In every aspect of our defense, he’s exerting a lot of energy. He’s in unbelievable shape and he can make plays that very few can.”

Of course, Noah wasn’t in great shape a couple of weeks ago, dealing with plantar fasciitis that kept him out of 13 of the Bulls’ final 16 regular season games.

“The day before the playoffs, I was barely walking,” he said.

He played just 13 minutes in Game 1, but gradually started to feel better. And he obviously felt great on Saturday. Promise fulfilled.

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John Schuhmann is a staff writer for NBA.com. Send him an e-mail or follow him on twitter.

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Nets Have Much On The Line In Game 7

May 4, 2013  ·  11:05AM

BROOKLYN – After a brutal loss in Game 4 of their first-round series with the Chicago Bulls, the Brooklyn Nets have fought their way back and earned a Game 7 on their home floor on Saturday (8 p.m. ET, TNT).

Game 7s are always huge for both teams, but these 48 minutes will absolutely define the Nets’ season. It will be the difference between accomplishment and disappointment.

The guys Tom Thibodeau puts on the floor will fight for every possession, but the Bulls basically punted this season with the moves they made (or didn’t make) last summer. Their star player hasn’t played a single minute and four more key players are far less than 100 percent. If they lose, we understand that they were undermanned and they retool for next season. They’ve already established a culture of defense, toughness and resilience, which will be there as long as Thibodeau is on the bench.

The Nets, however, haven’t established anything other than a willingness to spend money. There’s a lot of culture outside the Barclays Center, but not necessarily in the locker room.

But if the Nets win Game 7, they’ve at least established themselves as a top-four team in the Eastern Conference and put themselves in a conference semifinals matchup with the juggernaut Miami Heat, where no one will expect them to win more than a game. They will have proven that they too have some resilience, becoming only the ninth team in NBA history to come back from a 3-1 deficit.

If the Nets lose, what are they? They’re a team that didn’t come close to making the most of their talent and lost to a depleted team held together by gauze tape.

Derrick Rose and Luol Deng are not playing. Kirk Hinrich probably isn’t playing either. Joakim Noah and Taj Gibson are banged up and Nate Robinson was throwing up on the bench on Thursday. No, the Nets aren’t 100 percent, but their issues are nothing compared to those of Chicago’s M.A.S.H unit.

So Game 7 is truly a referendum on all things Nets. Here’s who has a lot on the line Saturday:

Billy King: The Nets general manager got his contract extension, but still has a lot of work to do if he wants to turn this team into a true contender. Brooklyn was the league’s most improved team this season, because King spent a lot of Mikhail Prokhorov‘s money.

But $139 million of that money is going to Gerald Wallace and Joe Johnson, who are both on the wrong side of 30 and who both had disappointing seasons. There’s spending money, and there’s spending money wisely.

A playoff victory doesn’t necessarily validate the trades that brought Johnson and Wallace here, but the Nets aren’t necessarily done putting this team together either. A series win is something to build on and maybe something to help convince veteran free agents (and/or a great coach) that this is the place to be.

The Nets’ defense: The Bulls are a pretty bad offensive team. They ranked 24th on that end of the floor in the regular season, and that was with some of their players healthier than they are now. But they’ve been able to hang with the Nets in this series, in part because the Brooklyn defense has been rather porous, especially when trying to stop Chicago’s pick-and-roll attack.

Chicago basically has two guys who can beat you: Carlos Boozer and Robinson. And Robinson is just as likely to shoot the Bulls out of a game as he is to shoot them into one. If the Nets can’t stop these guys, they’ve got a lot of ‘splaining to do.

Deron Williams: Williams has silenced his critics, playing much better over the last 2 1/2 months and making it clear that his early-season struggles were injury-related. But if he’s truly back to being an elite point guard, he has to prove it on Saturday. He has got to be aggressive offensively, get his team to move the ball, and put it on himself to stay in front of Robinson defensively.

Talent has never been a question with Williams. Leadership, however, has. To win a Game 7 against a resilient opponent, the Nets will need a leader on the floor.

Brook Lopez: Returning from two foot injuries suffered last season, Lopez has established himself as an All-Star and the best offensive center in the league. Just as important, he has taken a step forward defensively.

Lopez has been the best player in this series, but has struggled in the second half of some of these games. He has shot 8-for-24 in the third quarter, in which the Nets have struggled most of the series (and most of the season too).

In fact, in the second half of 10 total games against the Bulls this season, Lopez has shot just 28-for-70 (40 percent). The final regular season meeting ended with Lopez turning the ball over, getting blocked by Nazr Mohammed, and missing a jumper to tie at the buzzer, allowing the Bulls to escape with a two-point victory.

It’s one thing to be an All-Star. It’s another to be a guy your team can count on to get you big buckets in a do-or-die situation. And even before we get to the closing moments of Game 7, Lopez’s pick-and-roll defense will also be in the spotlight.

P.J. Carlesimo: It seems like a foregone conclusion that the Nets’ interim coach won’t be asked to return this summer, and he probably won’t receive much credit if the Nets win this series. But he’ll clearly get much of the blame if they lose, because it’s supposed to be the coach’s job to make the most of his team’s talent.

This team hasn’t done that. The offense has been inconsistent and the defense has been mediocre, at best. Reserves MarShon Brooks and Mirza Teletovic, who could possibly have contributed more (and helped space the floor), failed to develop.

Carlesimo wasn’t put in an easy position, of course. He was handed a team that had lost 10 of its last 13 games in late December. He deserves credit for righting the ship and getting the Nets’ best players playing better. That probably won’t save his job though.

In this series, Carlesimo has been slow to adjust. His starting lineup has struggled offensively, but has played the most minutes (119) of any lineup in the postseason (no other Nets lineup has played more than 13 minutes). He has navigated his team through two elimination-game victories, but has one more to go and can’t let a bad lineup stay on the floor for too long.

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Misfiring Offensively, Nets Turn To Defense, Force Game 7

May 3, 2013  ·  1:03AM

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CHICAGO – For 130 of the final 139 seconds of Game 6 Thursday at United Center, the Brooklyn Nets never could put the Chicago Bulls more than three points back in the rear-view mirror. There were repeated opportunities for the Bulls to tie or take the lead, plenty of chances for the Nets to slip up or let up on the road, in a noisy gym, their postseason survival on the brink.

Offensively, they were melting down. They shot 4-of-19 in the third quarter, 6-of-17 in the fourth. And still, Chicago never could catch them. The Nets led by six at halftime and won by three, 95-92. Three times the Bulls got as close as one point. And that was it.

Brooklyn’s defense earned them their Game 7 shot Saturday night. So many weapons offensively, so much hand-to-hand combat when those weapons misfired (Brook Lopez, Joe Johnson and Deron Williams combined for 12 points in the second half.)

“The first half we didn’t play any defense,” Nets coach P.J. Carlesimo said. “The second half we didn’t have any offense. … It was a heckuva win but it wasn’t Xs & Os, anything like that. It was two teams played real hard and our guys found a way to win.”

The Nets zinged Chicago for 60 points through the game’s first 24 minutes. That earned them a little cushion over the next 24, but not enough to absolve their shooting and scoring woes.

So when they shot 21.1 percent in the third, they made sure Chicago did no better than 27.3. When they burped along at 35.7 percent in the fourth, they saw to it that the Bulls were even worse at 32.1.

And while it stung to miss five of their 11 free throws in that final quarter, it wasn’t fatal because Chicago only shot two. All that defending, so little fouling (2 in the period).

“Be physical with ‘em. Get ‘em off their spots. [Carlos] Boozer‘s good, those guys are good getting to their spots and getting comfortable,” forward Gerald Wallace said, sharing from Brooklyn’s “book” on the Bulls. “The main thing is, we’re playing 48 minutes. We’re not dropping our heads when our shots not falling. We’re keeping the defensive pressure up on ‘em. These last two games, we’ve relied on our defense a lot more.’

Set aside the bloated  numbers from Game 4, the Bulls’ 142 points and 53.2 percent shooting in triple-overtime, and Brooklyn’s defensive prowess has been good. The Nets have held the Bulls to 88.2 points, on average, in the other five games and 44.8 percent shooting.

They learned their lesson against Nate Robinson, too. Since his Nate being Nate-ness in Game 4 — 34 points off the bench, all but five from the fourth quarter on, Robinson has been contained by Brooklyn’s guards and help up front. He scored a combined 38 points on 16-of-34 shooting in Games 5 and 6 but he hasn’t spent more than a few brief stretches in takeover mode.

The Nets’ defensive focus on Robinson? Forward Reggie Evans smiled at the question.

“We ain’t focusin’ like that,” Evans said. “You know what I’m saying? Nate’s a good player but he ain’t a focus to the point where you’re like … if you asked me what’s our focus against Derrick Rose, it’s something different. You’re talking about an MVP player.

“We’re talking about Nate Robinson — he had a good game [in Game 4]. No disrespect to him because he’s a good player but, c’mon, they’ve got Luol Deng who’s an All-Star. [Joakim] Noah who’s an All-Star. Boozer, who’s a former All-Star. So don’t you think they’d be a little more of a bigger focus?”

Actually, the Bulls did not have Deng Thursday — he was sent home sick, and reportedly had a detour to a local hospital in the 24 hours prior to Game 6. Robinson was sick too — visibly at one point, in a towel-and-bucket way — as was forward Taj Gibson. Gibson showed the worst effects, fouling out after just 17:46 of raggedy play. And the Bulls’ 16 turnovers, many unforced, made Brooklyn’s defense look peskier than it truly was.

So was Chicago easier to guard, without Deng, without point guard Kirk Hinrich (bruised left calf), without that Rose guy? Sure. But a Nets club that often lapses into the bad habit of trying to outscore the other guys went the other way Thursday. They have looked capable of doing both when the games are at Barclays Center, so Brooklyn seems set up nicely for Game 7.

“Beating ‘em to the punch,” Evans said of the Nets’ tactics vs. Chicago. “Rebounding the ball whenever they miss it. Understanding the tendencies of each individual player and trying to make that come together as a unit. Once things get to clicking, and everybody communicating, good things happen.

“It was a grind game for both of us. No matter how you shoot, that don’t determine your defense. Like they say, offense sells tickets and defense wins games for you. So when you don’t got it going, that don’t mean you don’t got to play defense.”

Remembering that is big. Doing it is bigger. Doing it in a Game 7 to earn an Eastern Conference semifinals series against the NBA’s defending champions, that would be biggest of all, so deep into Brooklyn’s special season.

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Lopez, Blatche Power Up Nets’ Run

May 2, 2013  ·  12:11PM

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CHICAGO – In this league of small ball and limited or specialized, defense-and-rebounding big men, the Brooklyn Nets have been going old-school middle on the Chicago Bulls in their first-round Eastern Conferene playoff series.

Brook Lopez, the NBA’s 10th-leading scorer during the regular season (19.4 ppg) against defenses both good and bad, ranks sixth in playoff scoring, getting his 23.6 points per game against one of the league’s most lockdown and locked-in defensive units. The 7-foot Lopez has topped 20 points in all five games and is pushing higher (21, 21, 22, 26 and 28). Lopez grabbed 30 rebounds in the three games heading into Game 6 Thursday at United Center, and his 3.4 blocked shots is tops in the postseason.

Then there’s Andray Blatche, who has backed up the best season of his eight-year, underdeveloped career with equal impact for the Nets in this series. Blatche, who carries more weight at 6-foot-11 than his roster-claimed 235 pounds, has almost identical numbers against Chicago as he had across 82 games in his first season as a Brooklyn sub. He is averaging 19.8 minutes and, pro-rated out to 36 minutes, is playing at a clip of 19.3 points and 8.4 rebounds while shooting 52.3 percent.

And here is the best part for Nets fans: Together, Lopez and Blatche have been loads of trouble for the vaunted Bulls’ defense. Brooklyn coach P.J. Carlesimo has used them in tandem a total of only 36 minutes in the five games, but when they are on the court at the same time, the Nets have outscored Chicago by 38 points. That’s better than every other Nets tandem, including Lopez and Deron Williams (plus-28 in 171 minutes) and Williams and Joe Johnson (minus-2 in 166 minutes).

Some of that may be attributed to small sample size, but it’s also an indication of Brooklyn’s advantage with two offensively gifted big men against a Bulls front line that is playing hobbled (center Joakim Noah‘s plantar fasciitis, forward Taj Gibson‘s sore knee). Lopez and Blatche have given the Nets relief valve’s against Chicago’s shifting, aggressive defense, asserting the middle on a unit that breaks the court down strong side vs. weak.

“Well, they’re skilled,” Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau said of the Nets’ big men. “The thing is, both Lopez and Blatche can shoot the ball, they can put it on the floor, they can post the ball and they can get to the offensive board. When you add to it the greatness of Deron Williams and Joe Johnson, it spreads you out pretty good.

“You may defend the initial part fairly well and then it’s the second and third part that you’re recovering, and making a second and third effort as a team, not just individually. Now when the ball is shot, you have to get back to bodies,,and that requires a lot of discipline and commitment.”

Play in the paint has dictated swings in this series. The Nets were at their best in Game 5′s victory, with 54 points in the paint to Chicago’s 42, a 24-12 edge in second-chance points and 17 offensive rebounds to 22 on defense for the Bulls. Lopez grabbed six of those, with Reggie Evans and Kris Humphries taking three each. Meanwhile, Blatche scored 10 of his 13 points in the fourth quarter, helping the Nets own that period 33-18.

“Defensively and with rebounding, we have to do better,” Thibodeau said. “At playoff time, the more you go after, the more you’re going to get. Having a multiple-effort mentality is critical.”

Brooklyn’s mentality seems to be driven by taking that NBA playoffs’ “BIG” slogan seriously.

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Nets Do It All Offensively To Stay Alive

April 30, 2013  ·  12:15AM

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BROOKLYN – When you score 110 points in a slow-paced playoff game against a top-five defense, you’re doing a lot of things right. And the Brooklyn Nets did a lot right in their 110-91 victory over the Chicago Bulls on Monday, avoiding elimination and sending this first round series back to Chicago for Game 6 on Thursday (8 p.m. ET, TNT).

There are four factors when it comes to scoring efficiency: Shooting from the field, turnovers, free throws, and offensive rebounds.

The Nets shot 50 percent from the field and 6-for-17 from 3-point range. Check.

The Nets committed just 11 turnovers, zero in the fourth quarter. Check.

The Nets got to the line 23 times and connected on 20 of the 23 attempts. Check.

The Nets grabbed 17 offensive rebounds and turned them into 24 second-chance points. Check.

All those checks enabled the Nets to survive a gut-check. They rebounded (literally and figuratively) from Saturday’s heartbreaking loss in Game 4, answered some questions about their heart and resilience, and put themselves in position to bring this series back to Brooklyn for Game 7 on Saturday.

And don’t let the final score fool you. The game was very much up for grabs late in the game. After leading by as many as 10 points in the third quarter, the Nets were up just one after Jimmy Butler began the fourth with a 3-pointer. They were still up only five with a little over four minutes to go.

At that point, any observer still had Saturday’s collapse – a 14-point lead gone in less than three minutes – fresh in their mind. But this was a different night, one in which the Bulls couldn’t stop the Nets, who didn’t go more than two straight possessions without a score over the final 32 minutes.

“The difference tonight was that we were able to sustain it for essentially a full 48 minutes,” Brook Lopez said afterward. “We really came together as a team, played through the entire shot clock, and turned our good looks into great looks.”

Brooklyn scored at least 25 points in each quarter and went off for 33 over the final 12 minutes. And they got critical contributions from everywhere.

Deron Williams clearly knew he could take advantage of the absence of Kirk Hinrich and a mismatch with Nate Robinson. He pushed the ball down the floor, got the Nets into their offense early, and took Robinson into the paint, totaling 23 points and 10 assists.

Lopez took advantage of the Bulls’ heavy strong-side defense by flashing from the weak side and attacking the basket. He shot 10-for-14 in the paint and registered 28 points and 10 rebounds.

Andray Blatche was good Andray Blatche on this particular night, mostly staying in control and scoring 10 of his 13 points in the critical fourth quarter. The Lopez-Blatche combo was a plus-14 in eight minutes on Monday and is now a plus-38 for the series.

And the much maligned Gerald Wallace came up huge in the final minutes, opening the game up with a sequence in which he drained a corner three, stole a Nate Robinson pass, and turned it into a breakaway dunk on the other end.

This is who the Nets can be. They ranked ninth in offensive efficiency this season, but have the personnel to be a top-five team on that end of the floor. They have three guys – Williams, Lopez and Joe Johnson – they can run their offense through. With Hinrich out and Joakim Noah still somewhat hindered by plantar fasciitis, they have distinct matchup advantages. And with the Bulls so limited offensively, they have plenty of opportunities to run the floor. They registered 21 fast break points on Monday.

It’s just a matter of energy and execution, keeping the ball and the players moving. If you have the talent, there are ways to beat the Bulls’ defense. The Nets have now played well offensively in three of the five games in this series.

“I believed we would respond,” Nets coach P.J. Carlesimo said. “As disheartening a loss as Saturday was, there have still been enough good minutes in this series.”

Indeed. Though they’re down 3-2, the Nets have now outscored the Bulls by 17 points over the five games. If they can keep that point differential moving in their favor on Thursday, they’ll have a Game 7 on their home floor, and Saturday’s collapse will be long forgotten.

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Time For The Nets To Show Resolve

April 29, 2013  ·  10:22AM

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The Brooklyn Nets aren’t going to out-tough the Chicago Bulls. No team can do that.

Led by Tom Thibodeau, Joakim Noah and Luol Deng, the Bulls are certainly the most resilient team in the league, Exhibit A being Saturday’s comeback from 14 points down with three minutes to go in regulation and the ability to outlast the Nets in three overtimes with Noah, Nate Robinson and Taj Gibson having fouled out.

“That’s been the nature of the team all season,” Thibodeau said Sunday. “They’ll keep battling. Things weren’t going our way, but there was no give-in. They just kept going.”

Now, it’s not like the Nets are pushovers. It takes a certain amount of toughness to build a 14-point lead in a hostile environment when you’re down 2-1 in the series. And the Nets managed to bounce back from blowing that 14-point lead to make some (just not enough) big plays down the stretch. Really, if just one of those crazy Robinson shots didn’t go in, this series would be tied 2-2.

It’s not though. And the Nets are now faced with the challenge of having to win three straight games. If they can’t, we can certainly declare their season a disappointment.

So Brooklyn will have to show more of its own resilience in Game 5 on Monday (7 p.m. ET, TNT). Playing well in the face of elimination is a mental thing, especially in the wake of such a heartbreaking loss.

But the Nets shouldn’t lack confidence going forward. They have put up big numbers against the staunch Chicago defense twice in the series thus far. And though they’re 2-6 against the Bulls this season, they’ve been outscored by just 12 total points over the eight games.

“I don’t think it’s difficult for our guys to feel that they’re capable of doing this,” Nets coach P.J. Carlesimo said. “I think that they feel we can beat the Bulls. Have we done it? No, we haven’t done it enough. But they know that we can do it.”

The Nets have seemingly been a team without character all season. They’re to be praised for taking care of business against bad teams (they were 35-7 against teams that finished below .500) and for compiling the league’s fifth-best road record (23-18). But they’re to be questioned for their 14-26 mark against winning teams and their defense, which wavered ranged from poor to mediocre most of the season.

Maybe that’s just who the Nets are, a good team that can’t hang when the going gets tough. Or maybe they haven’t shown us everything they have.

If the Nets are to show some resolve on Monday, it must manifest itself in execution as much as energy. They can continue to beat the Bulls’ defense if they get into their offense early, keep their stars – Deron Williams, Joe Johnson and Brook Lopez — on the move, and knock down some shots. The absence of Kirk Hinrich — out with a calf injury — should benefit Williams on the perimeter.

Defensively, the Nets need to cut off Robinson in the pick-and-roll and put more pressure on Carlos Boozer at the high post. No other Chicago player has really been able to hurt them and the Bulls have been somewhat fortunate in that they’ve shot so well (54 percent) from mid-range. That number is not sustainable, especially if Brooklyn does a slightly better job of challenging those shots.

It’s all right there for the Nets. Chicago is certainly the tougher team, but not necessarily the better team. Down 3-1, proving that will be difficult, but nothing worthwhile comes easily.

It starts with Game 5.

***

Hinrich’s absence (is status beyond Game 5 is unknown) could be a real killer for the Bulls. Here are some numbers that don’t paint a pretty picture for Chicago…

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Posted in 2013 NBA Playoffs / Comments (5) /

Nets’ Offensive Sputters Might Require ‘Last-Resort Guy’ Brooks

April 26, 2013  ·  8:20PM

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CHICAGO – MarShon Brooks, the Brooklyn Nets’ second-year shooting guard and deep reserve, was on the floor for the entire fourth quarter of their Game 3 loss to the Chicago Bulls Thursday night at United Center. It wasn’t a bad 12 minutes in what otherwise was a clunker: Down 17 points with 8:35 left, the Nets outscored their hosts 20-6 the rest of the way.

Brooks (two points, two rebounds) was part of that in a stint that coach P.J. Carlesimo said was better than his individual numbers. He even was in the middle of Brooklyn’s last gasp, passing up a 3-pointer contested by Chicago’s Luol Deng to set up C.J. Watson, open in the right corner, for one that missed.

So maybe Brooks – who got more opportunities on a bad Nets teams as a rookie (29.4 mpg, 12.6 ppg) than on this season’s upgraded squad (12.5, 5.4) – could be an “X” factor for a team struggling to score.

“To be thrown into the fourth quarter, that’s probably the most intense part of the game,” the 24-year-old product of Providence said Friday at the team’s hotel. “I would like to play more and if I play more, I feel like I would contribute more. Especially when we have a hard time scoring – that’s kind of what I do.”

To a fault, frequently. Brooks is considered a liability on defense and he can frustrate teammates with his black-hole tendencies. He benefits from “backup quarterback syndrome,” with a segment of Brooklyn fans clamoring for him, wanting increased minutes and scoring chances because he has so much, y’know, potential.

But even Brooks knows that isn’t likely to happen.

“Honestly this year, it is what it is,” he said before the Nets’ video session and meeting. “I’ve been kind of a last-resort guy. If it’s not working for everybody else, that’s when they throw me out there. That’s just the way it’s been. … Down by 10, we need a spark, throw me out there.”

Guess what? The Nets are down by 10 figuratively, trailing in a series 2-1, home-court advantage gone and showing no sustainable offensive breakthroughs. They have shot 34.9 percent in the two losses (21.4 percent from the arc). In a span of 13:45 across the first and second quarters Thursday, Brooklyn took 25 shots, missed 24 and got outscored 28-4.

Sure, Chicago’s halfcourt defense is stifling. That’s a given. It still is on Carlesimo, his staff and the players too to add wrinkles to their attack and iron out ones that don’t belong.

One issue has been the high number of pipefitters and bricklayers on the Brooklyn roster. Reggie Evans, Gerald Wallace, Keith Bogans, Kris Humphries and aging Jerry Stackhouse aren’t exactly lithe offensive thoroughbreds – they’re relative Clydesdales and they have largely been neglected by Bulls defenders, who instead load up on Deron Williams, Joe Johnson and Brook Lopez. Yet those guys, coming free, haven’t made Chicago pay with put-backs and second chances.

“If they are going to load up,” Carlesimo said, “we have to get offensive rebounds and take better care of the ball.”

Anything else? “We can set better screens,” the Brooklyn coach said. “Spacing, too. … When our bail-out spots are what they’re supposed to be, we should be able to move the ball. Because they load so much to the strong side of the floor, there’s usually at least one extra guy there. If you position yourself where you’re supposed to be, there should at least be a pass available.

“When you don’t space it well, when you don’t set solid screens, when you don’t set sides of the floor against them, you don’t score. Against other teams, you can not do those things and still overcome it. You can’t overcome it against a really good defensive team, which they obviously are.”

Carlesimo said he would alter his starting lineup only if Johnson, battling plantar fasciitis in his left foot, were unable to play. But he did say he would go to his bench sooner or tinker with player combinations if points continue to trickle in. Brooklyn can’t simply wait and hope it replicates its offense from the series opener (55.8 percent shooting, 106 points in the Game 1 victory). Too much unpredictability.

“We’re not unique but we’re at times our own worst enemy and at times it’s refreshing,” Carlesimo said, “the fact that there’s not always a correlation between what we’re going to do tomorrow and what we did yesterday.”

That might offer a glimmer of hope even for the last-resort guy.

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No ‘D’ In Brooklyn But Nets Get It Done

April 25, 2013  ·  4:00PM

CHICAGO – Halfcourt basketball is a staple of the NBA playoffs. But with so much talk about Brooklyn’s offense and Chicago’s defense in the Nets-Bulls first-round Eastern Conference series, some might assume the teams actually are using just half a court, like a pickup game at some crowded playground.

The sad truth is, without Derrick Rose, the Bulls’ attack often is as entertaining as watching Dad re-grout the bathroom floor. As for the Nets’ defense, the voters spoke loud and clear: While 21 different players received votes for the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year Award announced Wednesday, none of them play for the Nets.

The numbers suggest that while Brooklyn has improved its performance when the other guys control the ball, that wasn’t exactly a priority when GM Billy King went shopping prior to this season with another $330 million of owner Mikhail Prokhorov‘s money.

Statistically, the Nets brought defensive improvement along on their move from New Jersey to Brooklyn, just not any dramatic reimagining that way. In 2011-12, their defensive rating of 109.6 ranked 28th and they were 28th in opponents’ field-goal percentage, 29th in foes’ 3-point percentage, 19th in steals and dead last in defensive rebounds and blocked shots.

This season, the Nets got their defensive rating down to 106.2 and their ranking up to 17th. They ranked 23rd in opponents’ field-goal percentage, 21st in 3-point percentage, 19th in steals, 21st in defensive rebounds and 18th in blocks.

No less an authority than Chicago’s Tom Thibodeau sounded sufficiently impressed with what interim coach P.J. Carlesimo and, before him, Avery Johnson did starting in training camp.

“It starts with Brook Lopez,” Thibodeau said of Brooklyn’s All-Star center, known primarily as a dangerous scorer and occasional rebounder. “He’s gotten a lot better at challenging shots and blocking shots. [Forward Reggie] Evans has been an excellent defender. Gerald Wallace, every year you can make a case for him, all-league defense. I think P.J.’s done a great job with them, as did Avery, having a defensive philosophy.

“There’s been tremendous growth, I think, in the last two to three years. They have size, they have versatility. [Keith] Bogans, C.J. [Watson], I had both those guys here and they’re really terrific. [Veteran Jerry] Stackhouse is a little older now but he was a terrific defender for a long time and his team defense is very, very good. [Backup big man Andray] Blatche has very good feet.”

Yeah, Thibs, but are they any good when it comes to that five-guys-on-a-string stuff?

“They’ve got shot-blocking at the rim, they’ve got Wallace who can guard, they’ve got Johnson, who’s big,” Thibodeau said.

Like he was going to say anything different, right?

As for the DPOY award and Chicago placing three players – Joakim Noah (4), Luol Deng (15) and Jimmy Butler (T18) – among the 21 vote-getters, Thibodeau said he was proud of his players. But he also spoke of the multiple, sometimes contradictory factors that influence the balloting.

“I don’t know the metrics that are going into it,” said Thibodeau, whose work in Boston and Chicago since 2007 have led to greater defensive appreciation throughout the league. “I think it’s very difficult to measure the impact of a defensive guy. It’s not like a pitcher against a hitter in baseball and you can say, ‘This is what he’s doing.’ It’s five-man offense, five-man defense and a lot of variables that go into it: there’s rotations, there’s switches. Often a guy gets credit and maybe he wasn’t the person responsible.”

That, the Bulls coach said, is “why you could make a case for several guys who are on the same team.”

Or none on a middle-of-the-pack defensive team such as Brooklyn.

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