Tyreke did it! I knows it! The details of what he did are a little shaky, but I KNOW he did it, and will think of something.
So, tired Cuz, NO DEFENSE!!! (until the late run led by Reke and Williams, maybe our two best defenders), no bench (other than Williams) = another fugly unnecessary loss. If anything positive could be taken from it, it would be a message that I doubt Smart will be receptive to, that Reke and Williams together represent the possibility at least of causing Havoc (get it?) when paired in the backcourt defensively.
Boxscore
Evans ( A- ) -- went about causing us to lose in the sneakiest of fashions, being one of the leaders in an excellent unselfish first quarter for us (well, excellent offensively at least), as well as the leader of the 4th quarter defensive comeback attempt. Started the game picking off a crosscourt pass for the first of his four steals, but saw a familiar superathlete (Gerald Wallace) come flying in from behind to block another of his layups, as he has been doing all season. Looked very confident and active in the early going, playing a major role in the early passing game, including a ncie drive and dish to Cousins for a dunk. Was almost defiantly taking jumpers, possibly in reponse to Smart's contention that he should just shoot whenever he's open even if he knows its not a good shot for him. More fell early than late. Struggling to hold down the rebounding on the backside of the zone as he was repeatedly matched against Wallace or Humphries and was picking up fouls fighting the bigger Nets forwards. When he returned our backups had lost all momentum for us, and our starters never picked it bacl up. Had a strong move to get to the hoop and score on our final possesion of the half as we finally got a quarter ending shot to go. No idea what happened to us in the third as we came out and suddenly looked like 5 strangers out there. Reke's little corner of strangerdom wasn;t going any better than anybody else's, and its not often you see him visibly agitated, clapping his hands and yelling "come on!" whether to himself or others. After he went out things went from bad to worse, and by the time he got back in in the 4th we were pretty much dead in the water and went down 19 several times. So came back in with urgency and just tried to juice us himself with very active defense and charges out on the break. Spectacular spin on the break and dish to Donte for the dunk and found a fellow runner and defender in Terrence Williams as we mounted the first defensive charge I can recall in a long time and held the Nets to 20pts in the quarter. Reke was playing PG at the time too, and played some excellent defense on Deron. But it was too little too late, and while everybody was trying, not enough were knocking down their shots, and there was a desperate borderline out of control edge to everything leading to TOs and mistakes. We came up short, but at least it wasn't for lack of effort, at least out of the closing crew.
Thompson ( C+ ) -- one of those games where the 10 and 10 numbers sound better than the game actually was. Running the floor hard and mopping up early, but wasn't on the glass and on defense our bigs were flying around like chickens with their heads cut off as guys went around them, snuck in behind them, scored over them, whatever. Got in foul trouble as well. Missing little post moves and getting a lot of balls slapped away. With Cousins dead legged out there and Hayes suffering from a terminal case of shortness JT was kind of the big guy by default in the 4th. Did a little better on the boards, but never effective and struggled to even get shots off, let alone make them.
Cousins ( D+ ) -- well phooey. Wanna see another DeMarcus split stat? Cousins on back to backs: 27.4min 15.2pts (.399FG%) 10.3reb 0.8ast 1.2stl 1.2blk. Cousins with at least 1 day of rest: 31.3min 18.5pts (.454FG%) 11.4reb 1.8ast 1.4stl 1.3blk. Guess which Boogie we had tonight? Never really looked lively or relentless at any point, but was being set up repeatedly in the early going by the little guys and converting them all. Was probably a bit of a mirage as if you scratched the surfacce you could see trouble brewing. I've mentioned before that I think DeMarcus at this time is very reactive to nto feelign 100% physically, and the markers were there. He wasn't on the boards the way he normally is, and the defense was so undiscplined that you had him just abandoning the post and shooting gaps up top trying to pick off passes for breakaway steals. Both Petro and Humphries scoring entirely too easily and he was just sloppy. Had all fo his points early. We tried to go to him in the third, but he was getting blocked and stripped repeately and not responding with his normal all out hustle scrapping for boards and finishes. Took him out, got nothing out of the Chuckwagon, and tried to being him back in to support the Reke & Terrence show in the middle 4th. There was just nothing there though, he was sluggish and picked up his 5th foul, and we actually eneded up swapping out DeMarcus Cousins in favor of Donte Greene to get a little life inside for our comeback attempt.
Thornton ( C ) -- after a quiet start quickly heated up in the latter stages of the first as Evans found him for a three and an alley oop, but the most impressive play was a fullcourt wraparound dish to Cousins along the baseline as Marcus joined the first quarter passing party. But never really regained that rhythm, and his attempts for the rest of his minutes were often forced or out of rhtyhm, and then finally quit coming at all as the passing game dried up. Defense was confused as always, although he wasn't primarily responsible for the Morrow explosion. Did show some good energy on the boards, particularly as the 3rd quarter wore on, and that was really his biggest contribution to this one. Otherwise never really a factor and sat out almost the entire 4th as Reke and the reserves tried to make the comeback.
Thomas ( B- ) -- passing well early, own offense was not effective, but found guys moving down the lane repeatedly. Began to get it in gear himself as the half wore on, but not entirely sure tht was for the better as our passing dried up and there were a few forces. Real problem on the other end as not able to impede Deron on defense as he got physically bumped and passed over (because Reke is bigger than any PG, its easy to forget that Deron is actually one of the bigger more powerful PGs out there). Nice job on one play in the third, when Cousins had the ball and IT screamed and pointed to a wide open Reke that Boogie hadn't seen. Running steal from behind on Humphries coming from his blindside in the mid thrid. Somewhat mysteriously subbed out for Jimmer in the late 3rd, given that he was one of the guys who had helped us make a mini-run at that point. But we were getting beaten like a drum on defense, and there were a couple of times where IT just got totally lost behind screens, so that might have been the deal. Although not sure what the odds are that putting in Jimmer was going to fix that.
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Bench
Greene ( B- ) -- tough take to the hoop in the final minute of the first quarter. Not really playing well on defense or hitting outside shots, but was playing big around the glass. Got the alte minutes with Hayes and Cousins ineffective, and had a few moments running with Reke, inclduign a dunk off a Reke open court spin move and a big steal and dunk with a minute left to make it 9 again. Lot of shots in his limited minutes, and did not think the defense was as good as normal, although was helping Reke and TWill disrupt in the 4th. Might be half a grade high here.
Hayes ( F ) -- well, kind of a botttoming out here that I was going to call some sort of D, but how do you do that on a 13min 0pts 0reb 2TO and 0-3 shooting night? In that case what's an F?. Questionable attempts to use Chuck as an elbow high post passer, where the bailout was him taking it to the hoop for those ridiculous stubby gallops. Lack of offense really hurt in the early 4th as the Nets were just completely ignoring hi to double Cousins. Could not stay with Wallace obviously when matched on him. Just generally ineffective.
Fredette ( D+ ) -- quick burst of offense at the end of the first with a drive and runner and a long three. But that would have to serve as the highlight in this one for Jimmer for a long time as things went badly sideways for him and us. Not able to get it over Wallace to close the first quarter. Then missed 3 in a row in the early 2nd as the offense stalled, and a number of them were good open looks set up by teammates. Had no chance athletically against Gerald Green in the late 3rd, but was getting torched by Morrow as well, and may have been involved int he backbreaking play when he fouled Morrow in transition on a three point shot for a 4pt play to put us down 17 all of a sudden. Finally hit another three in the early 4th on a nice unselfish pass by Williams, but this was two little offensive hits with a big Oreo filling of rotten cream.
Garcia ( C- ) -- didn't accomplish anything in his first half stint. Was in there with the Reke/Williams bench squad that made a run at things, but just could. Not. Hit. A damn shot. Set up repeatedly for open shots in crunchtime, missed them anyway. Also was responsible for some of Morrow's outburst as Cisco wasn't stopping anybody tonight either.
Williams ( B ) -- not effective in his first half minutes -- tried to drive and dish to set up several Kings in the corner, but we got no points out of it. Back in and nice pass to a cutting IT. Too, let's say "confident" just dribbling down and taking jumpers off his dribble. Big play on a tough +1 finish with 8 seconds to go in the third, but missed the +1 so lead stayed at 15 heading into the 4th. Nice unselfish pass to Jimmer in the early 4th to send Jimmermania to the bench with some tatters of respectability. Big contibution came when he reamed with Reke to really give us an athletic defensive push in the late 4th. But despite the hustle and defense, was unable to hit the tough threes in the late 4th we needed to complete the comeback.
Outlaw ( F ) -- open court pass from Thontotn just went right through Outlaw's hands. Inhumanly bad jumpshooter anymore. Might as well play me. Not reacting on rebounds. Missed some ridiculous 1 on 1 dribbling take against Gerald Wallace that had the Nets bench yelling "he's going left!" to Gerald long before Outlaw made his move and....went left for a contested fading 20footer. Boxscore says he had 2 blocks. I don't remember them. IF you can prove to me they existed I might give him a D-.
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