Game 31 Recap: Pacers 93, Nets 88

Danny Granger, who returned from injury tonight, was the spark behind the Pacers' win

The Nets' longest winning streak of the season was extended to eight games tonight at the Arena Formerly Known as Conseco Fieldhouse as the Pacers won 93-88. Much like their game the night before, New Jersey was able to keep the game pretty close throughout and even held an 8-point lead after the 1st quarter. The Nets found themselves with a 1-point lead after the 3rd quarter but in the 4th, Indiana was able to break away from the overmatched New Jersey team with important contributions from back-up point guard and Long Island native A.J. Price and the aforementioned Danny Granger, who showed no ill effects from the injury he returned from in the game as he scored a game-high 32 points.


I can't really fault the Nets' effort in this loss as they faced a Pacer team that matches up extremely well to a height-challenged roster than just doesn't have the healthy bigs right now to defend players like Roy Hibbert and David West. Without Brook Lopez and Mehmet Okur, two 7-foot centers, due to injury, the Nets don't have the size to collect all of the defensive rebounds which the athletic Pacers were able to scoop up and turn into 2nd-chance points. Overall the rebound numbers between the two teams were comparable (39 for NJ, 40 for IND),  but the difference can be found in offensive rebounds, a category in which the Nets were outgained by six. Those additional offensive rebounds helped to account for the six more FG attempts and 10 more FT attempts that Indiana had in the game. 


Not surprisingly, D-Will had another big scoring game with 29 points but just wasn't able to find his teammates open for good shot attempts as the star point guard only had four dimes. Kris Humphries rebounded from a tough game on Wednesday against Memphis with one of his best performances of the season with 24 points and 10 boards. Hump's mid-range shot looked to be spot-on in the game and he also helped his shooting percentage with a few open dunks that Kris created with nifty pump-fakes he put on his defenders in order to get to the hoop. 


Shelden Williams continued his solid play of late with an 8-point, 9-rebound game but was definitely outworked on the glass by the much-taller Roy Hibbert who managed 11 total boards on the game in only 27 minutes of playing time. However, the Nets bench didn't help much in the loss as the reserves only scored 13 points on just 5-for-12 shooting from the field. Anthony Morrow led the bench in scoring but definitely wasn't himself as he only scored 8 points on uncharacteristic 3-for-8 shooting.


Some other observations I had from the game: Where the hell is Mehmet Okur when we need him? The Nets are in desperate need of one of their two 7-foot centers that are injured to return because Kris Humphries and Shelden Williams simply can't rebound that successfully when they are overmatched by taller guys like Hibbert. Hump and She-Will are doing the best job that they physically can right now but that obviously isn't enough to help this team win games...Marshon Brooks scored 14 points in the game but was only 6-for-16 from the field shooting-wise. I truly love Marshon's athletic and shooting ability but some of the shot-selctions he made were simply terrible as were is decisions regarding passing the ball and dribbling. Brooks had four turnovers tonight and continues his recent stretch of some really rookie-like mistakes that cause turnovers. D-Will felt some of those struggles in committing his six turnovers in the game as well...Another poor defensive and shooting effort by DeShawn (0-for-3 in 25 mins), I really Stevenson needs to be benched because he has frankly been awful lately and shows some pretty bad body language on the court as well...Jordan Farmer only played 2 minutes and was shown icing his sore groin on the bench during the game. Clearly Avery rushed him back from his injury but hopefully he can be ready for Saturday's game in Chicago...After a strong game yesterday against Memphis (11 pts, 7 assists), Sundiata Gaines only played for 4 minutes tonight and yet again, I start to question Avery's weird, ever-changing rotation. The Nets' offense was incredibly stagnant at some points of the game and Sundy would have helped. I was also upset at Jordan Williams 7 minutes of play as, like Gaines, he deserved to play more and would have helped out the Nets with interior rebounding and defense. 

Looking Ahead

The Nets head to Chicago to start their second, and final, back-to-back of the season as they take on the probably Derrick Rose-less Bulls. Rose is out with back spasms right now but I don't know his status for Saturday. Nonetheless, I expect a nine-game losing streak when we leave Illinois.