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| Yet again, Humphries stepped up with a big double-double performance for the Nets |
The final score of tonight's Nets win over the Cavs was not at all indicative of how the actual game played. In reality, the Nets' 7th win of the season was a blow-out from the 1st quarter on. As has been the norm in Net wins this season, New Jersey held a 30-20 lead after quarter 1 tonight and they never looked back, keeping around a 10-point lead for most of the game except in the final minutes when Cleveland made a failed comeback attempt.
Similarly to Wednesday's win over the 76ers, Deron Williams led this team to a win tonight with 27 points and 10 assists in addition to 5 three-pointers. Deron is finally playing like the point guard that the Nets so desperately were looking for when they acquired him from the Jazz. Deron's uptick in performance has helped get open looks for other Nets like Anthoyn Morrow and Kris Humphries whose recent bumps in production have coincided with Deron finding his groove. Morrow, on 8-18 shooting, scored 22 points tonight and hit a few clutch shots towards the end of the game to seal the win for the Nets. Hump garnered another double-double on 18 points and 11 rebounds, he really asserted himself in the paint tonight as a force on offense and defense.
This team just looks different right now and the players are just giving off a great, positive, energetic vibe on the court right now which has obviously been brought on by the Nets' recent success. Its a truly wonderful thing to see because Deron finally looks comfortable in a Nets uniform right now which would have been impossible to say last year. Deron's play has really shown his assimilation into this offensive system by forcing the issue on offense and getting easier shots for himself and for his fellow teammates. In his last 4 games, 3 of which were Nets wins, Deron has been shooting around 49 percent from the field. This shows that the Nets definitively have a better chance of winning games when Deron shoots well from the field because when the Nets were mired in their early-season struggles, Deron was either hurt and inactive for the game or he was just incredibly inefficient on offense. That is simply not the case right now.
The Nets finally are coming together as a team which is an incredibly hard task to accomplish considering the rushed state of this condensed season, and also factoring the many transactions the Nets made this offseason right before the actual season started compounded with the multiple injuries the team has suffered like Brook Lopez's foot injury and Marshon Brooks' Achilles soreness, just to name a few. It is clear that Deron is the glue of the team and when he finally found his way on the court, that glue started to harden and now the Nets are coming closer with every win or even good performance. Good times are ahead Nets fans, lets just enjoy the ride.
Some other observations I had from the game: Kyrie Irving is a serious player, as he scored 32 points in 31 minutes as the only consistent scoring option at Cleveland's disposal the entire game. Regarding the Cavs' other recent first-round pick, Tristan Thompson, he seems very raw and didn't impress me at all in the limited minutes he played...Jordan Farmar is exerting himself as the Nets' clear-cut backup point guard behind Deron and is slowly forcing Sundiata Gaines out of the rotation. Farmar had 11 and 7 while Sundiata didn't score and had only 1 assist...Even thought the Nets have been succesful in Marshon's absence, it is clear that he is crucial the team's offense as there were some points in this game that the Nets lacked movement/purpose on offense and ended up taking some bad shots and wasting possessions. That's what Marshon helps with.
Looking Ahead
The Nets look to continue this current 2-game winning streak against the Toronto Raptors in Newark on Sunday.
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