Preseason Game 5 Preview: Philadelphia 76ers (3-1) at Brooklyn Nets (3-1)

Tornike "Toko" Shengalia didn't score in the Nets' blowout loss to Boston in Brooklyn yesterday, hopefully tonight against Philly he, and the team, fare much better.

When: 7:30 pm; Friday, October 19th, 2012

Where: Barclays Center; Brooklyn, NY

TV: YES Network

Radio: None

The Nets sucked yesterday in their 30-point home loss to the Celtics in a game that reminded of the team's extremely unsuccessful 35-year stint in New Jersey. The game was in Boston control throughout and put a very sour note on the Nets' preseason after a very solid 3-0 start for the team. They look to rebound, both figuratively and literally, tonight at the Barclays Center against the Philadelphia 76ers, the team they beat in their 1st preseason game in Atlantic City, NJ last Saturday.

The 76ers are a little healthier now than they were on Saturday, as we will probably see Jason Richardson and Dorell Wright tonight as that pair didn't play against the Nets in Atlantic City. However, Andrew Bynum is still out with a knee injury for Philly. The Nets are also a bit healthier now as Tyshawn Taylor and MarShon Brooks have made their preseason debuts since the last matchup between these two teams and are certain to get some solid burn tonight.

Netlinked 10/15/12: We Have (Limited) Video of Saturday's First Game in Brooklyn Nets History

From Saturday's game, Brook driving to the hoop, a good sign.

Hey, who said that games needed to be televised to get clear video highlights from them? Because whoever said that, was dead wrong. Thanks to BrooklynFans.com, the first-ever Brooklyn Nets basket--a dunk by Kris Humphries--and other high-points for the Nets from the game on Saturday were caught on video. Sure, it's not nearly the full game, but with the Barclays Center home opener two hours away, I can get as much Nets basketball as I can at this point.

Preseason Game 1 Recap: Brooklyn Nets 108, Philadelphia 76ers 105 (OT)

A rare pic from the completely unbroadcasted game (via NetsDaily.com). Wouldn't you think that a team's 1st game ever would get covered by the TV station they earn a lot of money for (that being the YES Network)?

I'll keep the debut (preseason) game recap of the year short because all my knowledge of tonight's win is derived from ESPN's box score and tweets from writers/bloggers who were at the game. Supposedly, the Nets' starters did extremely well as they outscored the 76ers by a score of 58-37 in the 1st and 3rd quarters combined (those are the quarters in which the starting-five were together on the floor the most). Each of the Nets' starters (other than Kris Humphries for unknown reasons) played at least 26 minutes with every one of those 26-minutes+ players showcasing extremely solid statlines. However, the most important stat of note from the game was Brook Lopez' nine rebounds.

So after most of the starters came out after the 3rd quarter ended, the Nets held a pretty comfortable 79-64 lead. Then, in the 4th quarter, the worst happened. The Nets bench couldn't really score (16 points in the 4th on 6-18 shooting) and didn't play much defense either (gave up 31 points on 9-15 shooting). You do the math, and that leads to a dead-tie after the period, with both the Nets and the 76ers at 95 points apiece. You ask what the worst thing to happen in a preseason game other than an injury is? Overtime.

Well, in the extra five-minute overtime session, the Nets' reserves outscored the Philly reserves 13-10, leading to a final of 108-105, in Brooklyn's favor of course. An Andray Blatche jumper with 27 ticks remaining put the Nets up 106-105, and C.J. Watson finished off the scoring with a few free throws after a missed Nick Young jumper. Young also missed a three-pointer with 2 seconds left to seal the 76ers' fate and to give the Nets the 1st win in Brooklyn Nets' history.

Preseason Game 1 Preview: Brooklyn (!) Nets (0-0) at Philadelphia 76ers (0-0)

It's here, took long enough.

When: 7:00 pm; Saturday, October 13th, 2012

Where: Atlantic City Convention Center; Atlantic City, NJ

TV: None

Radio: None

Folks and fellow Nets fans, it's finally here. Tonight, Saturday the 13th of October in the year 2012, is the official date of the 1st-ever game played by the Brooklyn Nets franchise. No, it isn't being broadcast on TV anywhere. No, it's not being played in Philly, or in Brooklyn for that matter. No, Andrew Bynum, MarShon Brooks, Tyshawn Taylor, and possibly others won't be playing due to injuries. It just is what it is.

And what might that be? Oh, that's Nets basketball. Sure, we won't have highlights or any clue on how hard Gerald "Crash" Wallace played defense or how well Deron Williams shot the ball outside of the the box score. That's certainly a let-down but honestly, this preseason game being played in a place known more for gambling and crime (i.e: Boardwalk Empire on HBO starring Brooklyn native Steve Buscemi) than basketball is more of a symbolic entity than a game to make conclusions from.

It symbolizes the end of the offseason and the return to legitimate, inter-team games and most importantly, a birth. Not a physical birth, but an emotional birth, especially for those of us die-hard Nets fans who dealt with the low points in New Jersey and are finally going to get the chance to experience some damn high points for once in Brooklyn. Nearly everything is new with this team: the jerseys, most of the players, the arena, the name, the identity, etc. But one thing hasn't changed and that is, of course, the deep attachment we feel to our Nets, which makes us a fan.

Netlinked 10/8/12: Preseason Begins (For Other NBA Teams), Nets Have 1st Barclays Practice, Gerald Wallace Afraid of NYC

A-V-E-R-Y coaching up his new team at the new digs

It's official, the NBA preseason for the 2012-13 season has officially started. Well, to be fair, it started on Friday night when the Celtics lost to Fenerbahce, a Turkish team that has two players which the Nets hold the draft rights to. Those guys are Ilkan Karaman and Bojan Bogdanovic, who combined to score 15 points in their team's stunning upset of Boston.

There were also a bunch of games on Saturday and Sunday including Nets South (the Atlanta Hawks) beating the Heat and LeBron (no Wade due to injury) and the Nuggets beating the LA Clippers in Las Vegas on a buzzer-beating layup by Ty Lawson. However, unfortunately, the Nets don't open up their preseason circuit until this upcoming Saturday, October 13th, in Atlantic City, NJ against the 76ers.

Nets' Preseason Schedule Announced, 1st Game at Barclays is October 15th

This will be the place to be on October 15th, the first time the Brooklyn Nets will play a game there. I'll be in attendance, will you?

In a press release from yesterday, the Nets, among with all other NBA teams, announced their 2012 preseason schedule. This preseason, the Nets have six games, three of which are at the Barclays Center (10/15, 10/18, 10/19) and the rest are either on the road or at neutral sites (10/13, 10/16, 10/24). The first official game for the Brooklyn Nets franchise will be October 13th against the Philadelphia 76ers at a yet-to-be-determined site. The first official home game for the Nets at the Barclays Center will be October 15th against the lowly Washington Wizards.

Of special note, the Nets' 4th and last home preseason game will not be played at the Barclays Center but instead at the Nassau Coliseum on Long Island where the New York Islanders play their home games during the NHL season. A possible attempt to spread the Nets' fanbase onto Long Island? If so, I love the idea. As a Long Island resident, I can first-hand tell that most Long Island basketball fans support the Knicks, but if the Knicks have another disappointing season, that barometer could easily shift in favor of the Nets. The more fans, the merrier.

Full preseason schedule for the Nets after the jump, courtesy of BrooklynNets.com:

Game 65 Recap: 76ers 105, Nets 87

Goodbye Prudential Center and as Chris Christie said, good riddance.

Well, that was a fitting end to the Nets' extremely unsuccessful New Jersey existence. An extremely undermanned Nets squad stayed close throughout with the playoff-bound 76ers but just faded away late. The final score was an aberration for how this game played out much of the night in the last time the New Jersey Nets, or any other team for that matter, played a game in the state of New Jersey itself. It was a very emotional night at the Prudential Center as the team honored a bunch of former Nets at the half-time, some of which have passed on, have fallen on hard times, or are even in playoff situations with other teams.

Back to the game. Just needed a win or Milwaukee loss to clinch the 8th-seed in the East (they got both by the way), Philly raced out of the gates to a big 25-11 lead in the 1st quarter looking like a team that didn't want to just back into the playoffs. However, the Nets didn't want to roll over in their last home game in New Jersey and fought themselves back into the game in the 3rd quarter, cutting the 76er lead to one at the 3:44 mark of the period on a Gerald Wallace jumper.

Wait, you didn't think that the Nets would be able to sustain that intensity for the rest of the game right? Well, if you thought that then you would be wrong. By the end of the 3rd, Philly had built a 76-68 cushion and held onto that lead for the last 12 minutes of the game until blowing it completely open in the waning minutes of the Nets' New Jersey experience. Truthfully, what more could you expect from a team missing so many key players due to injury.

As always with this team, there was a lot negative to last night's game but there was a silver lining as well. First off, I think we've found our replacement for the extremely unreliable Sundiata Gaines and his name is Armon Johnson. The Nets' recent call-up from the D-League scored 10 points in 23 of play off the bench last night but his best contributions couldn't be quantified in the box score. He played great defense on Lou Williams and Jrue Holiday (combined for 9-24 shooting), ran the offensive sets well without mistakes (just one turnover), and even picked up the intensity and effort of his fellow teammates.

Game 65 Preview: Philadelphia 76ers (33-30) at Nets (22-42)

This guy (Kenny Anderson) will be at the ceremony while Jason Kidd will make an appearance via video. We really could have drafted Dikembe Mutombo instead of Anderson but of course the Nets drafted the guy with the shorter and much less effective career. Good riddance New Jersey!

Well, here it is. Tonight will be the last NBA game in New Jersey for the soon-to-be Brooklyn Nets and probably the last one in the state for a long, long time, if not forever. I will be at the game and am less excited about the actual game (Philly has something to play for while the Nets haven't for a few weeks) than I am about the half-time ceremony honoring the many characters/basketball players and personnel that played a big part of the team's crazy 35-year tenure in the Garden State.

After tonight, the next Nets home game will be in Brooklyn at the Barclays Center, hopefully with Deron Williams (and maybe Ersan Ilyasova or Ryan Anderson? Eh, maybe not, I might be getting my hopes up.) Whoops, back to the actual game. D-Will and Shelden Williams probably won't be able to go while Gerald Wallace looks to be good to go. The 76ers don't have any major injuries.

Background on Philadelphia

The Nets beat the 76ers in Philadelphia just 10 days ago so not much has changed with this team since them. They are still oddly centered around the bench players to a certain extent with key contributors in Lou Williams, Thaddeus Young, and Spencer Hawes all out of the starting line-up. The way to beat Philly is to contain the bench because when the bench is limited, the starting line-up becomes less effective and voila, the 76ers become beatable.

Game 60 Recap: Nets 95, 76ers 89

Hey, looks like someone broke through their proverbial "rookie wall"

Well then, looks like this Nets team embraced the spoiler role more than I gave them credit for. Tonight at a half-empty Wells Fargo Arena, our Nets shocked the (probably) playoff-bound 76ers with a tough, gritty win, capped off by a 32-point 4th quarter. The difference in this game was pretty easy to determine: 3-point shooting. Both the Nets and 76ers shot exactly the same from the field (34-81, 42 percent) but New Jersey made 38 percent (6-16) of their 3-pointers while Philly only hit 10 percent of shots behind the arc.

In surprising fashion, the Nets actually got out to a great start in this game by leading by six after 12 minutes of play. Then came the patented let-down quarter in which defense was optional and hard-to-come-by and the offense was even worse. However, the poor 2nd quarter effort was salvaged by a quick 5-point spurt (two D-Will free throws and a Gerald Green three) in the last 32 seconds of the half which cut down Philly's lead from a game-high eight points down to three.

The 2nd half proved to be much better for the Nets. The defense improved, the offense became more efficient, and the 76ers seemed to lose the killer instinct that most teams in the heat of a playoff race have. The Nets kept inching away towards the end of the 4th and finally put the game away with a Marshon Brooks 3-pointer with 43 seconds remaining. Marshon had his best game in recent memory with 22 points on 9-15 shooting to go along with six rebounds and four assists.

Game 60 Preview: Nets (21-38) at Philadelphia 76ers (31-27)

Deja vu. These two teams faced each other on Tuesday as the 76ers won going away in a big blow-out win. Philly has something to play for while the Nets are just counting down the days until they move to Brooklyn. Other than acting as the spoiler to the 76ers' solid playoff chances, there just isn't much motivation for the Nets anymore. 

Background on Philadelphia

Similarly to what I said for last game's preview, the way to stop Philly is to contain their key bench players, specifically leading scorer Lou Williams, Thaddeus Young, and Net-killer Spencer Hawes. Definitely an easier job said than done for a defensively-challenged Nets team that is near the bottom of the NBA in defensive rating and might be without Gerald Wallace again with his hamstring injury. Oh yeah, and the 76ers also have Andre Iguodala, Jrue Holiday, and Elton Brand for the Nets rag-tag crew to try and defend. Good luck with that.

Game 59 Recap: 76ers 107, Nets 88

20 points, 8 rebounds, and 5 assists. Just a normal game for Lou Williams against the Nets coming off the bench.

Gonna be a short recap tonight as I wasn't able to watch the game, but I guess I didn't miss much. The Nets' season-high home winning streak of three games was snapped short brutally in a blow-out loss to the desperate 76ers that are fighting hard for one of the final playoff spots in the East. Stat of the night: Philly had 53 rebounds while the Nets had 36. Yep, I guess you could say that we missed Gerald Wallace tonight.

Game 59 Preview: Philadelphia 76ers (29-27) at Nets (21-37)

Lou Williams always seems to kill the Nets when these two teams play. Wait, who doesn't?

UPDATE: Gerald Wallace is out tonight with his left hamstring strain. Gerald Green is also a game-time decision with ora surgery, according to Nets beat reporters.


The Nets look to spoil the playoff run of the Philadelphia 76ers as they try to win their fourth straight game at the Prudential Center in Newark. These teams play three times total in the next two weeks, games that are crucial for the 76ers who are tied with the Knicks for 7th in the East and are only one and a half games up on the 8th-place Milwaukee Bucks. The Nets are playing well of late and the 76ers not so much, so this game could be interesting. Don't just count the Nets out because of their record; they have been playing great basketball of late and would like nothing more than to ruin a divisional rival's chances of making the playoffs.

Background on Philadelphia

Without a main star player to focus on, the 76ers can be considered a scoring-by-committee team that doesn't live or die with the efforts of one player but instead with the efforts of the team collectively. They also have a good bench, highlighted by their leading scorer, Louis Williams, and third-leading scorer, Thaddeus Young. Since the Nets are defensively-challenged, they could run into trouble in having to defend the roughly 10 76ers players who consistently score and get significant playing time for Philly.

Game 19 Recap: Nets 97, 76ers 90 (OT)

Deron went nuts after his game-winning three, deservedly so

No Brook, no Marshon; no problem. The Nets played their best basketball of this young season en route to an enormous overtime over the divisional rival Philadelphia 76ers. The win was the Nets first against a team above .500 and they certainly earned it. The Sixers, a really good home team, entered the game 8-1 in games played in the Wells Fargo Center showing that they only loss at home to teams that outright perform better than they do. And oh boy did the Nets do that.

Deron Williams had possibly his best performance as a Net putting up 34 points and 11 assists and exhibited why the Nets gave up so much to acquire him from the Jazz last February. Deron put on some ridiculous moves in this game including the game-winning three in overtime in which Deron did a crazy step-back, juke sort-of-thing to free himself for the game-winning jumper which he canned. Furthermore, the Nets would have never made the overtime if Deron didn't make a clutch driving lay-up to knot up the game qt 82-82 with barely more than a second left in the 4th quarter.

Game 19 Preview: Nets (5-13) at Philadelphia 76ers (12-5)

Deron needs to be on his best game tonight

The Nets will try to break a 9-game losing streak to the Atlantic Division-leading Philadephia 76ers in Philly later tonight. The Nets will try to bounce back from one of their worst performances of the season against the Bulls in a blow-out loss on Monday.


Background on Philadelphia
The 76ers have been one of the NBA's biggest surprises this season as they have played amazing team basketball so far this season to propel to the best record so far in the Atlantic Divison. Their solid 12-5 record puts them ahead of teams like the Celtics and Knicks who were predicted to be better than these 76ers at the beginning of the year. One of the main reasons that Philly has been so good this year is because of their dominance at home as they have one of the best home records in the NBA this season with 8 wins and only 1 loss. They hope to continue their home success against the Nets tonight, a team they have beaten 9 straight times.