Joe Johnson
Joe Johnson hit a contested jump shot with 0.7 seconds remaining in the second overtime to give the Brooklyn Nets a wild 115-113 win over the Washington Wizards Friday night. This was one of the craziest games I have ever witnessed and it seemed like it would never end. Brook Lopez, Deron Williams, and Andray Blatche all had double-doubles for Brooklyn. Bradley Beal and Jordan Crawford combined for 47 points for Washington.
The Brooklyn Nets did not play well in this game, especially on defense, and didn’t deserve this win at all. The first half was pretty ugly and the Nets trailed by double digits to a 4-win team. Still, they closed out the second quarter on a bit of a run and only trailed by 3 heading into the second half. Brooklyn didn’t have its first lead of the game until the fourth quarter, which was a back-and-forth affair with lots of lead changes. Eventually, in a tie game with under 4 seconds remaining, Gerald Wallace missed a layup, but Brook Lopez was there to slam home a dunk to give the Nets a 2-point edge. However, Nene answered Lopez with a hook shot of his own and the Nets didn’t have any timeouts to advance the ball. In the second overtime, the game appeared to be over when the Wizards opened up an 8-point lead. However, led by a Keith Bogans 3-pointer, the Nets quickly climbed back into the game and eventually took a 3-point lead with 10 seconds left. Washington had the ball and Bradley Beal made a 3-pointer to tie the game at the buzzer. In the second overtime, the Nets again appeared to have control, but Washington refused to go away. With the game tied and 15 seconds remaining, the Nets had possession and Joe Johnson hit his dagger 3-pointer with 0.7 seconds remaining to give the Nets an insane win. For a video of Johnson’s buzzer beater, click here.
Neither team deserved to win this game. Whenever a team seemed to be in control, they quickly gave the lead right back. Luckily, Joe Johnson bailed out the Nets tonight. The Nets had plenty of problems tonight, starting with turnovers. The Nets had 2o of them with only 22 assists, a terrible ratio. Another problem was shot selection. The Nets struggled to get into their offensive sets tonight and looked like a different team from the team that beat Oklahoma City two days ago. They only shot 46% from the field and 33% from 3. From the foul line, they were only 69%, and that is with Brook Lopez’s 11-14 from the line.
Another issue was on defense. Against the worst offensive team in the NBA, the Nets allowed Washington to shoot 47% from the field and 50% from 3. Luckily for Brooklyn, Washington was only 18-31 from the foul line, and that might have saved the Nets.
For a box score of this game, click here.
Player grades and notes:
Reggie Evans: C
Reggie did not play very well in his start tonight. Although he had 8 rebounds, he had no offensive rebounds for the first time in a very long time. Also, in only 24 minutes, Reggie fouled out of the game in the second overtime. On offense he scored 3 points.
Gerald Wallace: C-
Gerald Wallace has not done much at all on offense this year. He only had 7 points tonight, but added 3 rebounds, 5 assists, and 3 blocks. He did have one big layup at the start of the second overtime. His defense on Bradley Beal/Jordan Crawford wasn’t very good either.
Brook Lopez: B+
Lopez played pretty well tonight. He had 27 points, 13 rebounds, and 3 blocks. He was 8-15 from the field and 11-14 from the foul line, which made a huge difference. However, he also had 7 turnovers and made a couple of very bad plays where he gave the ball away too easily. He had many big buckets and foul shots in this game, including a tip-in dunk to give the Nets the lead with 3 second remaining in regulation. He did a good job of not fouling out of the game because he had 5 fouls for most of the second overtime. Brook’s stats have been much better since P.J. Carlesimo has taken over as head coach.
Deron Williams: B-
Deron got off to a very good start in this game but in the fourth quarter and overtimes, he stopped hitting shots. He finished with nearly a triple double: 24 points, 10 assists, and 7 rebounds, but he also had 4 turnovers. He played great in the first half and nearly had a double-double at halftime. He was actually shooting pretty well for the first half of the game, but finished shooting only 9-23 overall. D-Will needs to get more consistent.
Joe Johnson: A++++
Thank you Joe Johnson for ending the 3 hours of madness. JJ hit a contested jumper with 0.7 seconds remaining to give the Nets the win. It was his second basket of the season in the last second of double overtime to give the Nets a win. He also did it against Detroit a few weeks ago. He is probably the first player in NBA history to ever do that twice in the same season. However, other than that shot, Joe did not play very well. He was pretty good in the first half, but turned into invisible-Joe in the second half and overtime. He did not play well, but a buzzer beater gives him an A++++++.
Keith Bogans: B
Keith Bogans had a very weird game. In a season high 37 minutes, Bogans had 8 points and 5 rebounds. However, he did not score at all until the first overtime and scored 5 points in the second overtime. He was only 3-9 from the field and 1-6 from 3, but he did have some huge plays that kept the Nets in this game.
Andray Blatche: A-
Andray Blatche is probably happier than any other Net to get this win in his return to Washington. Wizards fans gave ‘Dray the Vince Carter Toronto treatment: booing him whenever he touches the ball. He didn’t care. He had 13 points, 12 rebounds, and 4 steals in only 19 minutes. I don’t know why P.J. didn’t give him more playing time. He earned it. Of course, he is still Andray Blatche, and he still had some Andray Blatche plays. He had one play where he tried to play point center and quickly turned the ball over. But for the most part, he played well tonight.
The Brooklyn Nets will be back in action tomorrow night when they return home after the 3-game road trip with a showdown against the Sacramento Kings. FRWD will have full coverage of that game.