Brooklyn Nets: 5 takeaways from 110-108 overtime win at Detroit
By Phil Watson
2. Nets survive to win close game, but not without hiccups
The Brooklyn Nets were awful in close games last season, one of the reasons their record of 28-54 was actually three games worse than what their offensive and defensive averages should have yielded.
Their late-game sequences Monday night got fairly dicey at times, as well. Brooklyn led 93-88 with 4:27 remaining before the Pistons ran off six straight points to take the lead. The Nets ledn came back to lead by three at 97-94 with 2:12 left.
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D’Angelo Russell put the Nets up 102-100 with a pull-up 3-pointer from 25 feet out with just 11.4 seconds remaining.
But after a Detroit timeout, the Net defense lost track of Reggie Bullock, who took a feed from Andre Drummond on a backdoor cut and laid in the game-tying shot with 7.2 ticks left.
To be fair, even the Detroit broadcasting team thought the Pistons would go for a go-ahead 3-pointer rather than risk taking a preseason game to overtime.
With 7.2 seconds left, the Nets did a poor job of executing the sideline inbounds play after their timeout and were left with Russell’s 35-foot desperation 3 as time wound down.
In the overtime, Brooklyn roared out to a quick 110-104 lead, scoring on their first three possessions on back-to-back 3-pointers from Caris LeVert and Jared Dudley and a dunk by Jarrett Allen off a nifty interior feed by a driving LeVert.
Then … it got interesting. As Alan Tudyk’s character Hoban Washburne said in the 2005 film Serenity when asked how to define “interesting:” “Oh, God! Oh, God! We’re all going to die.”
It didn’t quite get that interesting for Brooklyn. Just close to it.
Jarrett Allen missed a layup after Detroit closed to 110-106. Russell misfired on a 3-pointer with a 110-108 lead, but Allen saved the day with an offensive rebound … before turning and basically handing the ball to Bullock.
The Nets’ bench had called a timeout after Allen struggled to control the ball, negating the turnover … temporarily.
LeVert bounced a ball into Allen’s feet while attempting a mid-air pass and Drummond — a large, lumbering center — decided to play point guard, driving the length of the court. Drummond was called for a charge and the turnover gave the Nets a break with 1:25 left.
The only shot Brooklyn could get on their next possession was a step-back jumper by Treveon Graham that was off the mark, but Drummond missed a short turnaround hook at the other end.
Allen got the rebound, but the Nets again struggled to get a shot. Russell’s corner 3 whistled over the rim for a shot-clock violation, but Drummond missed a final layup with 2.2 seconds left as Graham did his best to stay in front of the Pistons’ big man after a switch.
That sort of execution in late-game situations won’t get it done most of the time. The Nets were fortunate that Drummond couldn’t hit the broad side of a barn Monday night (and that Graham maybe, possibly, sorta got away with a foul on the last shot).
It was good enough on Monday, but this is something the Nets still need to tighten up.\n