Dwyane Wade
The Brooklyn Nets got blown out tonight by the defending champion Miami Heat in South Beach, 103-73. Miami was led by Lebron James, who scored 22 points to go along with 12 rebounds and 8 assists. Dwyane Wade also chipped in with 22 points and 5 assists. For Brooklyn, Kris Humphries had his first double-double of the season with 11 points and 11 rebounds. Marshon Brooks scored 12 points, but they mostly came in garbage time.
The Nets kept this game close in the first half but got blown out in the third quarter where they were outscored 29-15 to lose this game. They were down by 23 points heading into the fourth quarter and the game was already over. There were many, many reasons why the Nets lost this game. I will just name a few:
- Lebron James is the best player in the NBA and played like it today. Nobody on the Nets had a chance of stopping him, especially without Gerald Wallace playing.
- Deron Williams had his worst game in a long time. He turned the ball over way too much and didn’t give the Nets a chance.
- Speaking of turnovers, they were really bad tonight. The Nets had 19 of them which led to plenty of fast break opportunities for Miami, which is where the Heat kill you. The Nets had no chance of stopping Wade or Lebron on a fast break.
- Shooting: After shooting very well from 3 in their first two games, the Nets shot terribly tonight, 3-21 from long range. In contrast, Miami was 10-24.
- Selfishness: The Nets’ ball movement in this game was terrible. They only had 12 assists. Deron Williams had more than that alone in the Nets’ last game. Miami had 25 assists. There were too many iso situations that didn’t end up with a basket. When the Nets tried to pass, they threw the ball to a Heat player or out of bounds if they were lucky.
Brooklyn needed to play a near-perfect game to win tonight without Gerald Wallace, and they clearly didn’t, thus they got blown out by 30 points. This game reminded me a lot of New Jersey Nets games last season. The Nets kind of hung around in the first half but had no chance in the second half. With a healthy Deron Williams, Joe Johnson, and Brook Lopez, this team should never, ever lose by 30 points.
In the last 5+ quarters, the Nets have been outscored by 63 points. That is an average of being outscored by about 11 points per quarter. Yuck. The Nets have a lot of work to do.
For a box score of this game, click here.
Player grades and notes:
Kris Humphries: A-
Surprisingly, Kris Humphries was the offensive superstar for the Nets in this game, but that is not a good thing. Kris should not be the focal point of the offense like he was tonight. He was aggressive on the glass and did a good job of drawing fouls. He was the one bright spot for the Nets tonight.
Brook Lopez: C-
Brook played very poorly tonight. He was not aggressive, did not get to the foul line (he only had one foul shot!), and looked slow on defense. He did an ok job rebounding with 7 boards, but he needed to do more both on offense and defense.
Deron Williams: D+
Deron looked like he was playing for the New Jersey Nets in this game. He was very frustrated which led to a whopping 7 turnovers! He threw the ball away way too many times and did not look comfortable. Additionally, Deron only had 3 assists, which means a very bad assist-to-turnover ratio. Deron will not be happy with how the team played tonight and I expect him to be hard on himself too.
Joe Johnson: C-
Joe Johnson has been a disappointment in his first 3 games. He only scored 9 points tonight on 4-14 shooting and was badly outplayed by Dwyane Wade. He was not involved in the offense, played bad defense on Lebron James (but I can’t blame him for that), and yet he somehow took 14 shots. Brooklyn’s Backcourt didn’t give the Nets a chance to win this game.
Mirza Teletovic: D
Mirza had a very bad game. He came in early tonight but played very poorly throughout the night. He shot 1-8 from the field and 1-7 from 3. The Nets are paying him to make 3’s, that’s it. He needs to play better. And obviously on defense, he was terrible. When he was guarding Lebron it was just funny. The other EuroNet, Toko Shengelia made his debut in the fourth quarter tonight. He scored 2 points on 2 free throws. He also guarded Dwyane Wade which was equally funny to Mirza guarding Lebron.
C.J. Watson: C
C.J., like most other Nets tonight, shot poorly and had too many turnovers. There’s not much else to say.
Marshon Brooks: B+
Marshon played mostly in garbage time and actually played pretty well, not that it mattered. He shot 5-7 and had 12 points. I expect him to be more in the rotation in the next game because of how much better he played than the rest of his teammates tonight. He also has a strange connection with Reggie Evans on offense, much like his connection to Shelden Williams last season. They seem to play well together. Marshon assisted on a Reggie layup and also led him to draw a couple of fouls.
Reggie Evans: B+
Reggie Evans is the most consistent player in the NBA. You know exactly what you’re gonna get from him every night. He played mostly in garbage time today and got his 5 rebounds as usual.
The Nets will now head north up Florida to Orlando where they will face the Dwight Howard-less Magic on Friday night. We will have full coverage of that game on FRWD.