Brooklyn Nets vs. Philadelphia 76ers Recap: Reggie Rebounds, Nets Win
By Jonah Mars
Reggie Evans
The Brooklyn Nets again had one of their best performances of the season Tuesday night as they crushed the Philadelphia 76ers 109-89, highlighted by an incredible third quarter (gasp!). The best performer of this game was clearly Reggie Evans, who had a career high 23 rebounds. Deron Williams and Andray Blatche scored 22 points and 20 points respectively. Jrue Holiday had 19 points and 8 assists in the game, but almost all of those came in the first half.
This game was very close in the first half. Jrue Holiday and Spencer Hawes were playing very well and the Nets only held a 1-point lead at halftime. However, in the third quarter, the Nets actually pulled away for maybe the first time this season. Usually in Nets third quarters, they blow big leads and get outscored by many points. But today, they outscored Philadelphia 35-14 in the dreaded third quarter and didn’t even have to play their starters in the fourth quarter. This was the second consecutive dominant performance for the Nets and their 3rd in 4 games, all wins.
Reggie Evans had a pretty incredible performance and outrebounded Philadelphia through 3 quarters. He did not play in the fourth quarter because the game was such a blowout. Rebounding really was the story of this game. Brooklyn outrebounded Philadelphia 50-32 in the game, so the Sixers never really had a chance. Shooting-wise, these teams were nearly identical. Both teams shot 48% from the field and 41% from 3. However, the Nets got many more shot attempts and foul shots because of their rebounding.
For a box score of this game, click here.
Player grades and notes:
Reggie Evans: A+++++
Reg-gie! Reg-gie! Evans was unbelievable tonight. The rebound gods love Reggie Evans and he showed why tonight. In only 27 minutes, Reggie grabbed a career high 23 rebounds. Because the Nets had such a big lead, he didn’t play a minute in the fourth quarter. Too bad, because he could have easily had 30 rebounds had this game been close. Through 3 quarters, Reggie outrebounded the entire Sixers team 23-22, which is as unbelievable a stat as I have seen this year. To go with the 23 boards, Reggie only had 2 points, a classic Reggie game.
Gerald Wallace: B-
Wallace has been pretty quiet since P.J.’s takeover. Tonight he had 11 points, 5 assists, and 3 rebounds, but the Nets didn’t need to much from him tonight. He only played 21 minutes in the game because it was such a blowout.
Brook Lopez: B-
The Nets didn’t get much from Lopez tonight, but they didn’t need much from him. In 23 minutes, Brook had 13 points but only 2 rebounds. However, the Sixers weren’t taking rebounds away from Brook. Reggie was. The Nets need to involve Brook more in their offense. In the first half, which was very close, Lopez wasn’t getting enough touches and this hurt the Nets’ offense.
Deron Williams: A-
D-Will had his best shooting game of the season and looked like the Utah D-Will tonight. He shot 7-11 from the field and 5-5 from the foul line and also made three 3’s. His 5 assists were below his season average, but that’s ok because he played under 30 minutes in the game. This was a very effective game for Deron.
Joe Johnson: A-
Joe Johnson also had a good game with 15 points, 4 rebounds, and 5 assists. He made his open shots and also got his teammates involved.
Andray Blatche: A-
Despite everything that has been going on with Blatche in the past 24 hours, he came out and had one of his best games of the season against the Sixers. He scored 20 points on 8-15 shooting and also grabbed 7 rebounds. He showed that he wasn’t distracted at all and used all of his spin moves and behind-the-back dribbles to get off typical-Blatche shots. Hopefully his off-the-court problems don’t cause problems for the team down the line.
After their second consecutive blowout win, the Nets will have another two days off and return home on Friday to play the mediocre Phoenix Suns. We will have full coverage of that game at FRWD.