Brooklyn Can't Dig Out of Early Hole

Brooklyn Nets

Brooklyn Can’t Dig Out of Early Hole

December 29, 2018

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Brooklyn quickly fell behind last night in Charlotte. With 4:49 left in the first quarter, the Hornets had opened up a 20 point lead in the rematch of Wednesday night’s double overtime thriller. The Nets attempted to claw their way back into the game all night, but Charlotte always kept them at an arm’s length distance. Brooklyn got the lead down to 5 on two separate occasions in the fourth quarter. However, Tony Parker erupted against the Nets zone defense to carry the Hornets to victory.

Observations

1. In The Zone

Both Brooklyn and Tony Parker were in the zone last night. After giving up 33 points in the first quarter, the Nets decided to start the second in a zone defense. For the remainder of the night, Brooklyn spent most of its time on defense playing in a zone.

It worked until it didn’t. The Hornets scored 21 points and 19 points in the 2nd and 3rd quarters, respectively. Then the 4th quarter happened.

Tony Parker was born to exploit a 2-3 zone with his mid-range game. Parker scored 17 points in the 4th quarter on 8/10 shooting from the field. His two misses were his lone three-point attempt in the quarter, and a layup that D’Angelo Russell blocked.

Parker easily found his way into the open space of Brooklyn’s zone, and continuously killed them with his floater or pull-up jumper.

Parker was also considerate enough to bust out his vintage spin move.

2. Shabazz!

Shabazz Napier has sporadically been seeing time lately. Last night, however, he was single handedly keeping Brooklyn afloat ffrom the end of the 3rd quarter through the beginning of the 4th. Napier went 5/5 from the field, including 1/1 from three, for 11 points. In the 3rd quarter, he victimized Willy Hernangomez on consecutive possessions with his lightening quickness.

Afterwards, I have to imagine this was what Hernangomez was like in the team huddle.

3. Bad PA

Toward the end of the 2nd quarter, the PA announcer for Charlotte played an electronic organ version of the beat for Still D.R.E. This video clip doesn’t give a great sense of it, but you’ll probably hear it and think to yourself, “wait, that’s Still D.R.E. somehow?” Exactly.

Questions

1. Was This a Moral Victory?

Brooklyn shot 4/27 from three and lost by 13. If they had went 8/27 from three (still below 30% aka terrible) they lose by 1. Charlotte also caught the Nets on a night where Spencer Dinwiddie went 1/7 overall for 3 points. Jarrett Allen had five times as many turnovers (5) as made field goals (1).

The zone defense also mostly worked. It forced everyone not named Kemba to beat Brooklyn, it’s just that Tony Parker rose to the occasion. The Nets held Charlotte to a 104.3 offensive rating for the game, even after the the 33 point first quarter.

Brooklyn just missed. It was an off night. They posted a 90.8 offensive rating. They even got to the line twice as much as Charlotte (20 free throw attempts to 10).

2. How Low is the Bar Tonight?

Speaking of moral victories, Brooklyn travels to Milwaukee tonight. It will be their third game in four nights, and the Bucks are currently in 1st place in the East, and have the best point differential in the league.

A 20 point blowout seems possible-likely. The point spread is hovering around +10 Brooklyn. Anything in single digits has to be considered a good showing before the Nets regroup to host the Pelicans five days from now.

Prediction

Brooklyn Gets Murdered Tonight

All that said, this is too grave a mismatch. The Bucks are 1st in net rating by a mile at +8.4, while Brooklyn is 21st and under water at -0.7. Not only is this the Nets’ third game in four nights but one of those games includes a double overtime tilt. They will have taken two different flights in the past two days before tonights game, while the Bucks have been in Milwaukee since the day after Christmas.

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