Brooklyn Nets: 5 takeaways from satisfying win over Knicks

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2. This Nets team can defend

Enes Kanter was an offensive force on Friday for the New York Knicks, scoring 29 points on 12-of-18 shooting. But the rest of the Knicks struggled to get the ball in the hole because there just weren’t a lot of open looks to be had.

The Brooklyn Nets did a really solid job in this game of challenging shooters and it showed in the numbers — New York was just 39-for-97 in the game and made only 9-for-28 from deep. Tim Hardaway Jr. scored 29 points on the night, but needed 25 shots to do so.

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The Nets could still stand to ratchet up the defensive pressure when it comes to forcing turnovers — the Knicks had only three in the game — but they are doing a much better job so far in the early going of accounting for opposing shooters.

They held Detroit 42.4 percent shooting overall and just 25 percent from 3-point range and in two games, those numbers are now 41.3 percent and 28.8 percent, respectively. You’re going to win a lot of games if you can hold teams to that sort of shooting.

Of course, you’ll win them much easier if you don’t give the ball away 20 times a game, but we’ve already discussed that.

Jarrett Allen’s development as a rim protector is a big part of the overall defensive improvement of the team. Perimeter defenders can afford to snug up to their assignments, knowing they have The Fro behind them to clean up potential messes.