Netlinked 8/28/12: Former Nets Edition And More

Oh boy do I miss that guy. Remember when we called him Veal Scalapini? No? Ok, maybe that was just my dad and I

Former Net, and current league-wide, fan favorite Brian Scalabrine is close to joining the Chicago Bulls' coaching staff as an assistant. I knew he was a good bench cheerleader but assistant coach? Kinda surprising.

Ex-Net point guard Jacque Vaughn, who played with the Nets from 2004-06, has been hired by the Orlando Magic to succeed Stan Van Gundy as their head coach.

Yet another former Net, forward Eduardo Najera, has officially retired from the NBA to serve as the head coach of the Dallas Mavericks' D-League affiliate, the Texas Legends. He will also hold an ownership stake in the Legends and will serve in some capacity in the Mavs' front office.

Shelden Williams has signed with Elan Chalon, a French team. In 58 games with the Nets last year, the Duke product averaged 4.6 points per game and 6.0 rebounds per game.

More links after the jump:

Game 32 Recap: Nets 97, Bulls 85

Kris Humphries is quickly turning into a dependable and efficient interior scorer for the Nets. When Brook come back, it'll be scary at how much better Hump will play when he isn't the sole focus of the bigs of opponents.

As I type this recap of today's streak-busting game vs the Bulls, I am still in an irrational shock after the events that transpired this past afternoon at the United Center. The Nets, yes the same team that has lost two games to the Pistons and once against the Raptors already this season, snapped their season-high 8-game losing streak by beating the NBA-leading Chicago Bulls by a score of 97-85. This game was decided in the first 5:06 of the 1st quarter as during that time period, New Jersey simply exploded out to a 22-3 (not a typo, the Nets did score 22 out of the game's first 25 points) lead, a lead which they would hold throughout the afternoon until the end of the 4th quarter.

The Nets never trailed in this one, and although it became very antsy at some points, the lead was basically 10 or more points throughout the game. As has been the story in basically every game the Nets have played recently, Deron Williams and Kris Humphries were the main forces offensively for New Jersey. D-Will hit five 3-pointers int he first half en route to a 29-point, 8-assist performance and Hump hit his first five shots from the field, which put him well on his way to a near-career high game with 24 points and 18 boards. Marshon Brooks also seemed to find his shooting stroke at some points and ended up with 19 points on the afternoon.

Enough with the offensive stats, let's take a look at how the Nets were able to keep their big lead as the game progressed one quarter at a time. The normally efficient Bulls were held to 39 percent shooting from the field by a Nets team that seemed determined to play their best defensive game of the season, which they probably did accomplish. Chicago only hit three 3-pointers out of 13 attempted as their long-range shooters were mostly blanketed by New Jersey.

Game 32 Preview: Nets (8-23) at Chicago Bulls (25-7)

If Brook actually does make his return, then the Nets might have a real shot at snapping their long losing streak. If not,  the streak will continue.

Update: As per the Nets' PR Twitter account, Brook will make his season debut tomorrow night at home against Milwaukee and will not play this afternoon. Derrick Rose will also still be out for the Bulls. Not exactly shocking news regarding Rose but it does give the Nets some semblance of a chance at a win. Nah, I'm just kidding, no way in hell we beat the Bulls today.


For once, the Nets might be the team that is actually getting positive news about their injury situation as there is a roughly 50-50 chance that center Brook Lopez, who hasn't played a game this season due to a broken foot suffered in the team's last preseason game, will return for New Jersey as they face the NBA-leading Chicago Bulls in a Saturday afternoon matinee at the United Center. Even though the Bulls are missing their best player, reigning MVP Derrick Rose, they have the overwhelming talent and momentum advantage over the Nets. The Bulls have won two games in a row overall and are looking to sweep the three-game season series between them and the Nets while New Jersey is looking to snap a season-high eight-game losing streak. Even though Brook might make his first appearance of the season later today, the Bulls are still the class of the NBA even without Rose in the line-up. 

Background on Chicago

Thanks to coach Tom Thibodeau, the Bulls have turned themselves into one of the best teams int he NBA, mainly predicated by their defensive prowess which has been instilled by Thibodeau. Without having Derrick Rose for the past four games (three of which were Bulls wins), Chicago has had to win with back-ups like C.J. Watson and John Lucas III playing big minutes in addition to simply being forced to shut down opposing teams on offense. Like the team the Nets most recently lost to. the Indiana Pacers, much of the Bulls' strength have been from the extreme depth that they possess as they have reserves who would be solid NBA starters for other teams that excel on both sides of the ball (Kyle Korver might just be the best pure shooter in the NBA while Omer Asik piles up rebounds with the NBA leaders). Because of this, they are a hard team to game-plan for especially without their star point guard Rose who serves as the offensive focal point for Chicago when he is in the game.

Game 26 Recap: Bulls 108, Nets 87

(Mostly) no Derrick Rose, no problem for the Bulls

Well, this was bad. The Chicago Bulls absolutely demolished the Nets tonight in a 48-minute effort that I don't think I've ever seen before. The Bulls started the game scorching hot and simply couldn't miss in the 1st quarter, building a 35-14 lead after the first 12 minutes of the game. The rest of the game was basically even after the 1st quarter even when Derrick Rose left the game in the 2nd and wouldn't return due to back spasms. Chicago didn't budge an inch without their superstar point guard and continued to trade baskets with the Nets the rest of the way en route to a very easy 21-point victory.

The Bulls controlled this game in every aspect imaginable from early on as Chicago shot nearly 15 percent better from the field than the Nets did, made six more 3-pointers than the Nets did (and took two less attempts), shot for a higher free-throw percentage than New Jersey, and even took the Nets to town on the fast-break, with 23 points coming on the fast-break as opposed to the Nets' eight. In a way, the demoralizing loss was kind of excusable simply because of how decimated the Nets' line-up was with only nine available players, including Anthony Morrow who has been extremely hot of late. However, the complete lack of effort and awareness most of the Nets showed in this game was inexcusable especially on the defensive end.

Game 26 Preview: Chicago Bulls (20-6) at Nets (8-17)

Shawne Williams is going to need to hit his open looks from 3-point range tonight

The Nets look to snap a 2-game losing streak against the team with the best record in the Eastern Conference, the Chicago Bulls. After recently getting small forward Luol Deng back from injury, Chicago is basically back at full strength unlike the Nets who will only have 9 players available for the game tonight. Anthony Morrow (death in family), Marshon Brooks (toe), Mehmet Okur (back), DeShawn Stevenson (knee), and Brook Lopez (foot) are all out which means that many of the Nets back-ups (like Johan Petro, uh oh) will have to play a lot minutes tonight.
 

Background on Chicago 
The Bulls are the class of the Eastern Conference and the NBA in total as they have all of the major components of a championship-contending team in a star point guard (Rose), knockdown shooters (Korver and Hamilton), post-scorer (Boozer), rebounding and shot-blocking center (Noah), extremely talented glue guy (Luol Deng), and bench players/complementary players who do the rest (Brewer, Asik, Watson). These assets make the Bulls very hard to beat as they can produce points from many different sources instead of just from star point guard Derrick Rose.

Netlinked 1/30/12- Marshon Breaks Toe, Dwight to the Bulls?, S-Jax to Return to New Jersey?

Could Stephen Jackson's possible return to NJ help a trade for Dwight?

This is the first installment of Netlinked, the series of link-dumps involving the Nets and general NBA stuff that I will post from time to time here on Brooklyn Balling.

First off, we have some interesting news from ESPN's Ric Bucher who says that the Nets might have to pull off a trade for the Milwaukee Bucks' Stephen Jackson in order to get Dwight Howard to New Jersey. Jackson played for the Nets in the 2000-01 and averaged 8.2 PPG while playing in 77 games for New Jersey in that season. Since leaving the Nets via free agency in 2001, Jackson has bounced around the NBA with a few teams but hasn't really found a permanent home. Bucher also reported that Howard and Jackson have been talking about possibly teaming up somewhere, including with Deron Williams in New Jersey as a possibility.

Now for some bad news. It appears that Marshon Brooks has broken his toe and that he will be out "indefinitely", according to the official Nets' Twitter account. The toe injury is unrelated to his sore Achilles for which he missed a few games to recover from. The injury could potentially be devastating for the Nets and it brings up the question as to why Avery Johnson rushed him back from free agency to play in the Nets' loss last night against the Raptors.

Game 18 Recap: Bulls 110, Nets 95

Derrick Rose was the real star of tonight's game. Nuccio DiNuzzo/Tribune photo

Lacking effort. Sluggish. Disinterested. Those are three phrases that would accurately summarize tonight's paltry Nets' loss to, in my opinion, the best team in the NBA. It didn't help that Marshon Brooks was surprisingly unable to play after coming down with a sore left achilles as reported by ESPNNewYork's Mike Mazzeo. It also didn't help that the Nets were playing in their 3rd straight game in as many nights. It also didn't help that game-time decisions like Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah were able to play. Nothing really helped the Nets, and well, the Nets didn't help themselves much either.

Frankly, the Nets didn't do much right tonight in any aspect of the game for that matter. The shooting was terribly inconsistent as the Nets had multiple open looks at three-pointers to cut the Bulls' double-digit lead to a manageable margin but missed almost every time (Okur and Morrow were the biggest culprits). The only reason the Nets' FG% was able to be somewhere close to 50% was because of extended garbage time which basically lasted the entire 4th quarter.

Game 18 Preview: Nets (5-12) at Chicago Bulls (15-3)

Jim Urquhart - AP

Tonight at the United Center in Chicago, the New Jersey Nets will end their first back-to-back-to-back of the 2011-12 season by taking on the NBA-leading Chicago Bulls. The Nets are coming off of a 3-game home-stand which included wins against Golden State and Charlotte in addition to a loss to Oklahoma City Thunder. Just to add, the Nets have already won 3 road games this season while they only won 5 on the road last season so I think its fair to say that the Deron Williams trade has significantly improved this team and it might even improve more by the end of the season (Trying to be vague as to not jinx anything, fingers crossed).

Background on Chicago
The Bulls are one of, if not the best, team in the NBA right now and that has been truly exemplified by how they have played their last 4 games, of which included 3 wins and 1 loss. In those 4 games, Chicago hasn't had the services of their best player and the reigning NBA MVP in point guard Derrick Rose, in addition to a bunch of other key injuries they have had to deal with. Joakim Noah, Taj Gibson, John Lucas and Rose have all missed games recently and all of those players, including Luol Deng, are game-time decisions for tonight's game which is beyond wonderful news for the Nets.