Game 24 Recap: Timberwolves 108, Nets 105

Morrow couldn't miss from beyond the arc, too bad he wasted that performance in a loss

Despite a career-high scoring output by Anthony Morrow, the Nets lost a tight game to the Timberwolves last night at the Prudential Center. Coming off an ankle injury that forced him to miss Wednesday's win over the Pistons, Morrow was simply unstoppable against Minnesota as he hit a career-high eight 3-pointers, hit 13-20 shots from the field, and was a perfect 8-8 from the free throw line en route to a 42-point effort, the most for his career. Morrow didn't much help as the rest of the Nets didn't shot well at all from the field; Deron Williams managed 12 points and 14 assists on 5-18 shooting while Kris Humphries scored 16 on 5-14 from the field.

On the other hand, the Timberwolves got scoring from multiple sources as five of their players were in double-figures in the points category, led by Nikola Pekovic's career-high 27 points and 11 rebounds. The still-undermanned Nets had no answer for 6'11" Montenegrin who used his big size to his advantage down in the paint as he made 11 of his 14 field goals. Kevin Love also netted a 20-10 double-double while Spaniard point guard Ricky Rubio notched his own double-double with 10 points and 10 assists while adding six steals.

The Nets showed a lot of fight in this game as they were down by double-digits in both the 1st and 2nd-halves; by 14 in the 2nd-quarter and by 11 in the 3rd-quarter. In both those circumstances, the Nets were able to bounce back and regain the lead by the end of the 1st-half and with 9:36 left in the 4th on a Morrow 3-pointer set-up by an absolutely dirty between-the-legs pass from D-Will. For the rest of the game after the 9:36 mark, the lead changed a few times and the margin stayed at five points or less.

The Nets found themselves down by 3 with 1:23 remaining after a Luke Ridnour 3-pointer when Deron committed one of his six turnovers for the game. After a few Ridnour free throws, Morrow hit his 8th and final 3-pointer on a 4-point play to cut the Minnesota lead to 104-103. Some free throws and shots were exchanged and the Nets were down 108-105 with 10 seconds left when D-Will made his worst play of the game, and posibly of the season, as he got the ball stolen from him while trying to pass to Morrow for the game-tying shot. Ricky Rubio ran the clock out and the Nets had suffered another brutal home loss.

Deron clearly didn't have his shot in this one after being on a crazy hot-streak in the previous few games but he was able to find open teammates and get them the ball. However, his propensity to commit turnovers struck him and the Nets hard as he turned the ball over twice in the final 30 seconds of the game and ruined some opportunities for the Nets to tie the game. The real story of this game was Anthony Morrow and his absurd shooting efficiency. Clearly, his ankle wasn't affecting his play at all because his shot was oozing confidence and it showed on the scoreboard as he was the only player keeping the Nets in the game for much of the night. Nice effort as a team, but more players need to come through if we want to beat the Knicks later tonight at MSG.

Some other observations I had from the game: Morrow continued his crazy rampage of getting fouled while taking, and sometimes making, jumpshots in the game. Including his NBA-leading 3rd 4-point play near the end of the game, Anthony was fouled four times in total while taking a jumpshot which is simply ridiculous for one game. He simply can't go wrong right now and I've never seen this shooting rampage extended over multiple games in my whole life. Get this man to the 3-Point Shooting Competition later this year!...The Nets' perimeter defense was really bad towards the end of the game and the interior defense was terrible throughout. The Wolves hit a few dagger-like threes in the 4th quarter and whenever Nikola Petkovic scores 27 points, then you know that you interior d wasn't that good. He was ctaching passes right at the basket which made him hard to stop. The thing is that those passes should be stopped from ever happening, which is what the Nets didn't do at all...Johan Petro and Sundiata Gaines each played very poorly in their limited playing time which seems to be warranted now. Petro has been awful on defense lately and that continued in this game as he contributed to Pekovic and Love's successes in the paint. Gaines hasn't been to run the offense well when Avery has put him in at the point and I'm predicted a D-League assignment soon as he has played very bad lately and the Nets might as well try-out someone from the Armor to take the place of the veteran Gaines.

Looking Ahead
The Nets cross the Hudson later tonight to take on the reeling Knicks at MSG who are only one game ahead of the Nets in the loss column. The winner of the game is ahead in the standings for the mean time. I know, big stakes right?