First off, great win. -I was impressed by the team defense, keeping Washington to 85 points at home despite their good shooters. Lopez, Boone and even Anderson and Yi blocked some shots and patrolled the paint well. Lots of smart fouls, too, nobody got off an easy shot under the basket. -VC was efficient (9-17), didn't force up shots and kept the team above water in the clutch. Plus, he drove to the basket a lot instead of settling for jumpers and the results were great: either a dunk, layup, foul or a kick out to the open man in the corner (unfortunately, that was usually Bobby Simmons who was cold tonight). -Jarvis Hayes...wow. 14 points on 6-9 shooting, 5 rebounds, overall a solid game. His shooting was key for us tonight. -Harris is still struggling to fit into his new role BUT he did a pretty good job as PG tonight. Most importantly, he was efficient and didn't shoot too much, unlike in the pre-season. -Our big men, as I said, played good D inside. Lopez forced up the fadeaway hook shot a bit too much tonight. Anderson proved that he can shoot from NBA range but to me it looks like he has to put in too much effort into his shot from deep. -Yi was great again, despite foul trouble early on. He can definitely shoot from anywhere on the court. -Finally, I was disappointed with Dooling who IMO didn't do well as the point guard on offense. His defense was good, but he too forced up too many tough shots including a floater in the paint which was obviously going to get swatted (McGee had the honor).
Sean Williams simply did not earn the minutes, best answer I can come up with. Honestly, he did not do anything in pre-season that showed growth.
Dooling isn't a true point. What you saw tonight is what he does. He missed too many tough shots, but he did get to the line. His defense was there and he was a steadying influence when he was on the court with the three rookies. I also like Lopez aggressively attempting to score down low - even if he's not consistent with it yet. It only makes defenses have to prepare harder to stop the Nets' offense. Ryan Anderson's quickness was much better than it was in summer league. I don't know if he was injured then, but both he and Lopez can run the floor and are very quick in their rotations. Lopez closed out on the perimeter all night. He is so long, he can affect shots even if he can't get all the way to the shooter. Yi is a very hard worker. He always works to get position. I saw him push Etan Thomas 10 feet out of the paint. He's also extremely competitive and has absolutely no "confidence issues". In fact, none of the Nets do. I love how he glares at the refs. One thing Krstic never understood is how to work the officials. He was getting rookie treatment in his 4th year. And, finally, Lawrence Frank and the staff deserve a lot of credit for getting the team prepared and ready to win this game, not just "compete" and look good.
I agree, a great job by the Frank and company. Very well-prepared team, and it showed in the defensive improvement and diminished turnovers (vis-a-vis preseason). Speaking of Yi and officials, my favorite moment of the game was when Yi poked that ball away for a breakaway dunk, got fouled, and then waved his arms animatedly after the ref swallowed the whistle. I'm pretty sure I even read his lips say "Fuck!" when he was going back down the court, LMAO. When you're cursing in English, have to believe the cultural adaptation is pretty complete.
Someone needs to take a screen shot of the standings, make it into a banner, and on opening night at the IZOD center have a banner raising ceremony. We're number one!
Def didnt earn his minutes. I mean when I saw him yawn tonight during a time out that really pissed me off. Najera was ready to jump out of his suit to play...and here is Sean sitting on the bench yawning. Pretty disgusting.
Ryan Anderson looked lost on a few defensive plays. He let Blatche (I think) slip right by him for a back-door. He's gotta keep track of who he's defending and not stare at the ball. I think it should be chalked up to rookie mistakes. I definitely love his potential on offense though.
They are going to be erratic, and will lose nearly all their games against the WC teams. But they are better than people realise--I think the "experts" are overrating the depth and quality of some of the other EC teams. In one preview, for instance, the heat were pegged for the playoffs because they have a "big three" of Wade, Marion, and Beasley (???), and Daequan Cook has "potential." wtf? I think this team was built carefully. they're not perfect, but they won't embarass.
All the major concerns were addressed, at least for one game... --Poor defense. They were atrocious in preseason. Tonight, not only did they hold the Wiz to 85 points, they held a good offensive team to 37% overall, 24% from deep (perimeter D? who knew?) and one field goal in the last six plus minutes of a close game. --Poor ball-handling. After a preseason filled with turnovers, they turned ti over only nine times. When was the last time a Nets team gave up only nine turnovers? --Scoring. After VC and Harris, who was going to score? How about just about everybody, including Yi and Hayes? --Coaching and player development. Nets were well prepared, looked in sync and the young players got enough minutes to show what they can do. Frank has also set up some nice competitions.
you know i'd love to atribute the struggles of the wizards to excellent D, but wizards only shot 38.9% in the preseason also. The nba season is a rollarcoaster. Its not good to get too high or too low after wins and losses.
I have to say, as an eternal pessimist, I was very impressed. Bottom line, as a Nets fan for roughly 10 years, I have seen what bad teams are like. Last year we had a bad team. The wins were either ugly slugfests, or games where they had a large lead, blew it all, and despite their best efforts still held on. What I saw tonight was NOT a bad team. Dare I say...this is a decent team. They are, barring injury, a legitimate 10 deep. Simmons had an off-night, but Hayes made up for it - and that's what we're going to have to hope for from that duo. Lopez and Yi were great, and Anderson showed some flashes. Dooling isn't exactly what you want from a backup PG, but the offense didn't lock up as we've seen with various Nets backup PGs over the years (Vaughn, McInnis, Marcus Williams) and has a stabilizing effect with the rookies. And I'm not so sure it was a mirage, like Milwaukee steamrolling the Thunder. Washington had no excuses. They were without Arenas last year, and basically traded off Haywood for Thomas. Other than that, the basic core of the 5th best team in the East was intact. My original prediction was 22 wins, and I don't want to get too excited after one win. But (while I strongly knock on wood), if they keep this up, keep improving, and stay healthy, I wouldn't be surprised if they doubled my bleak outlook. We'll really see what this team is made of Saturday night, as Golden State is not to be taken lightly - they are throwing everything at New Orleans tonight.
Get excited sure, hell i even said we could make the playoffs in the game thread. But looking back I didnt realize how crappy wizards played in the preseason. I dont think we can judge the team too much off one game. Sure the defensive rotations were crisp and they put a hand up on most shots, but wizards also didn't execute well. It's an 82+ game roller coaster man.
i posted it in the MVP topic as well... i loved the game as a whole... the team got better as it went along... just one complain... only one... REBOUNDING!!! washington had so many offensive rebounds esp in the first half.... but im excited... i can see this team is UNITED... and is backing each other up... i love how VC is the leader... and knows when his team needs a bucket... i love how in the post game interview he was talkin about Yi and he said he didnt want Yi to be happy of where he is now... he wants him to stay hungry cuz he can be an allstar... also devin did a great job at point... i love how the bench was cheering and smiling... lol also did u see when the 3 rookies went out in pregame? and the team let em go by themselves? LOL... this team is having fun... i think frank coached a great game... and im considered a frank hater. i love this team and it made my nite... now its 3:30 am and i have to study for my MIDTERM... but just finished watch the game hahaha
i think one point you didn't touch on was how much play the bench got. only one starter played more then 32 minutes. that wouldn't have happened the last few years. frank also went with that second unit to start the forth quarter and stayed with the alot longer then in the past. Positives one thing i hoped to see, and ended up being pleased with is that we now have not a one or two, but a bunch of SHOOTERS! it is so nice to see guys consistently knocked down open jumpshots. Simmons was a bit off but hayes, yi, and anderson all stroked the open J. in the past i was never confident we'd hit an open shot. 9 blocked shots. our size is clearly going to be a factor near the rim defensively. we gave up too many second chance points, but a few of them came after the first attempt was swatted away. It wont be an easy finish at the rim this year for opposing players. Lopez/Yi didnt have that 'deer in the headlights' look. Lopez came in, ripped down a rebound, threw down a dunk, and turned away a shot within his first 3 minutes. Yi came out looking to shoot and score. he didnt play timid at all. Negatives We did not defend the 3 point line. this was one of my biggest frustrations last year. we simply give up way to many wide open 3 point shots. the percentages werent great for the wiz at 5-21, but still way too many open looks for my liking. Need to clean up the boards... the wiz with 13 offensive rebounds.
a bit ridiculous on the miami playoff prediction part... but cook did look pretty good vs the knicks last nite.
