Game 7 Recap: Nets 102, Celtics 97

Reggie Evans may seem laid-back and calm in this picture, but in the game--especially when rebounding--he's downright terrifying. Also, very good at rebounding.

The Nets don't really like to put teams away, it seems. Yet again, they jumped out to an early double-digit lead and let their opponent right back into the game via some terrible defense, isolated offensive "sets", and a simple lack of hustle. Frankly, they got lucky that the Celtics--especially Jason Terry and Paul Pierce, normally good free throw shooters--couldn't hit a shot from the charity stripe when the game was on the line. Maybe it was the ominous "BROOK-LYN, BROOK-LYN" chant, maybe Avery Johnson's bizarre fouling-while-leading-with-more-than-30-seconds-left strategy, who knows what caused the normally-automatic free throw shooters Paul Pierce and Jason Terry to miss a combined 2-6 from the line in the final quarter. It sure was a weird game, but it was a Nets win, and that's all that matters.

Brooklyn's 5th win of the season started off like many others so far this season. The Nets started off the first quarter hot on offense, spreading the wealth and draining a bunch of shots very quickly. Of course, the defense wasn't very good but the team ended up taking a 5-point lead after the first 12 minutes by a score of 31-26. The second-team picked up where the starters left off and extended the lead to 59-50 by half. Then came the patented letdown that has accompanied basically every Nets double-figure lead this season. Via a combination of horrid Nets shooting, classic Boston passing and court spacing, and improved Celtics rebounding,  Doc Rivers' team stunned the home team in the third quarter and grabbed the lead right back by the end of the period.

Game 7 Preview: Boston Celtics (5-3) at Brooklyn Nets (4-2)

Kevin Garnett is scary both on and off the court.

When: 8:00 pm; Thursday, November 15th, 2012

Where: Barclays Center; Brooklyn, NY

TV: TNT (Marv Albert is doing the play-by-play!)
 
Three-game winning streaks haven't been all that common for the Nets in recent years. Other than one they had from March 28th-31st of last season, the franchise's last streak of that length was all the way back in the 2008-09 campaign, when they finished up their annual West Coast Thanksgiving road trip with three straight victories against the Kings, Jazz, and Suns. Now, the Nets find themselves in that unusual--yet still completely awesome--position of having won their last three games in a row and can extend that streak to four games if they can hold off the Celtics tonight in Brooklyn. Granted, that won't be an easy task as Boston owns the Nets, winning the last three meetings and, going back even further, winning 18 of the last 20 games between these two squads.

Boston is on its own three-game winning streak right now, with wins coming against the Bucks, Bulls, and the Jazz. In the most recent victory, coming last night at home over Utah, the Celtics improved their season record to 5-3 behind a 23-point performance by Paul Pierce, who was helped out with twin 16-point games by reserves Jeff Green and Leandro Barbosa. Both the Nets and Celtics are on top of their games right now, but those hot streaks haven't come without their fair share of consequences. Of course, those consequences are key pieces not being available due to injury.

Preseason Game 4 Recap: Boston Celtics 115. Brooklyn Nets 85

We didn't think they would win every game this season, right? The Nets got their butts handed to them on Thursday night at the Barclays Center by a Celtics team looking for revenge after they lost to the Nets in Boston two days ago. Thankfully I didn't have the chance to watch any of this game, because the box score looked pretty gruesome. At least we have another shot to rid ourselves of this awful effort that beckoned to the Nets' failed history in New Jersey on Friday back at the Barclays against the 76ers. Ugh.

Looking Ahead
The Nets stay at home and play Philadelphia in Brooklyn on Friday night. Let's hopefully get this terrible taste outside of our mouths against another divisional rival.

Preseason Game 4 Preview: Boston Celtics (1-4) at Brooklyn Nets (3-0)

Andray Blatche going up for a lay-up against the Celtics on Tuesday. The summer pick-up has been great for the Nets so far in the preseason coming off the bench, averaging 17 ppg and 7.3 rpg so far in three games.

Update: MarShon Brooks is likely to play tonight to make his preseason debut, according to Tim Bontemps of the New York Post.
  
When: 8:00 pm; Thursday, October 18th, 2012

Where: Barclays Center; Brooklyn, NY

TV: TNT

Radio: None

The Nets, holding an unlikely 3-0 record in the preseason as of right now, look to extend that wonderful mark in the 2nd-game of a home-and-home with the Celtics tonight at the Prudential Barclays Center in Newark Brooklyn. The starters, after a one game respite, will be back in the starting lineup facing off against a Celtics starting-five that is a veteran, but scary, bunch of players. Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett may be 35 and 36 years old respectively, but that isn't even close to meaning that they won't continue to kill the Nets this year and they seemingly do every time these two teams face each other on the court.

Last game, the Nets' back-ups managed to do a pretty decent job of guarding the talented Celtics starters, with the only major exception being Paul Pierce, who scored 29 points on the game with 20 of those coming in the 1st half. The defense did a solid job on Tuesday of getting hands in the face of Boston shooters, much better than they did on Monday against the Wizards. Holding a contending team like the Celtics to under 100 points when none of your five starters enter the game is a very hard thing to do, regardless of whether the game is played in the preseason or in the regular season.

Preseason Game 3 Recap: Brooklyn Nets 97, Boston Celtics 96

The Nets certainly couldn't stop Paul Pierce tonight, but that didn't stop them a great win, one that improves their undefeated record so far in the preseason.

Halfway through the Nets' preseason slate, and they still haven't lost a game yet. That undefeated record was continued tonight in Boston as the Nets' back-ups and reserves, essentially,  beat the Celtics' starters. Since Avery Johnson wanted to give all five of the starters from Monday's win a day off for rest and recovery, five second-line players started for the Nets on Tuesday and did extremely win. Even though Paul Pierce managed to score 29 points for the game, and 20 in the 1st half alone, the Nets played good enough defense to keep them in the game and to even garner a lead late in the 4th quarter.

A few Nets made team debuts tonight and helped in the winning effort. Tyshawn Taylor, whom the Nets traded for on Draft Day this past June, returned from a quad injury to score 6 points and dole out 5 assists in 17 minutes of play. Also, veteran Jerry Stackhouse and Georgian (the country) import Tornike (Toko) Shengalia, who scored 4 and 11 points respectively.

In addition to those making their Nets debuts on guaranteed contracts, some of the team's non-guaranteed training camp invites made their team debuts (not including summer league) as well. James Mays and Stephen Dennis each played their first games with the Nets with Mays being the more productive of the two. The third of the Nets trio of non-roster training camp invitees that have never played in the NBA, Carleton Scott from Notre Dame, got a few minutes in the Nets' game in Atlantic City and collected 7 rebounds tonight, to go along with 5 points.

Preseason Game 3 Preview: Brooklyn Nets (2-0) at Boston Celtics (1-3)

Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce may be the resident future Hall-of-Famers on the Celtics roster, but Rajon Rondo has arguably become their most important player.

When: 7:30 pm; Tuesday, October 16th, 2012

Where: TD Garden; Boston, MA

TV: NBA TV

The Nets head to Boston to take on the Celtics tonight at the TD Garden, looking to start off the preseason with a 3-0 record. Tonight's inter-division matchup won't nearly have the intensity of yesterday's Barclays Center debut as Avery Johnson announced earlier that none of the team's starters will play at all, with Coach Johnson wanting to let them rest and recover from the team's first-ever home game in Brooklyn.

That means the Nets will boast a starting lineup of C.J. Watson, Keith Bogans, Josh Childress, Reggis Evans, and Andray Blatche for the evening. Interestingly enough, four of those five weren't with the team last year, showing how much the bench has been turned over from the 2011-12 campaign. Another thing of note is that Nets' Georgian power forward, Tornike Shengalia, is likely to make his team debut in Boston, and will probably play around 20 minutes.

As you all probably know, the Nets won last night against the Wizards in the first NBA game ever played at the team's new home in the Barclays Center. However, the Celtics weren't as fortunate. They got absolutely gob-smacked by the 76ers in Philly on Monday night, losing by 32 in a poor all-around effort that Doc Rivers, coach of the Celtics, had to be extremely disappointed with. Boston committed 20 turnovers, shot a dreadful 61% from the free throw line, and allowed nearly 50% shooting by the opposing 76ers squad.

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.

Netlinked 9/21/12: Former Net and NBPA Vice President Keyon Dooling Retires

Ladies and gentlemen, I believe that is indeed a Jarvis Hayes sighting. Oh boy was that Nets team filled with veteran back-ups as starters.

A sad day in the NBA yesterday as veteran point guard and former Net Keyon Dooling retired from the league at the age of 32. Dooling, who was most recently with the Celtics, played 12 seasons in the league with six different teams after being drafted 10th overall in the 2010 NBA Draft by the Magic. Also, Dooling served as the secondhand man to NBA Players' Association President up until his retirement and the NBPA will certainly be scrambling to find a quick replacement that was as good a Vice President as Keyon was.

He only spent two years with the Nets, but in those two years, I grew fond of Dooling as a player and as the solid veteran presence he was on a team that wasn't too good at the time. I wish him well with his post-NBA life and hope he is as successful as his long career was.

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 61 Preview: Boston Celtics (34-25) at Nets (22-38)

Bill Simmons (in number 7 of his article) says that the Nets could have traded for this guy instead of Gerald "Crash" Wallace, I'm not convinced.

Coming off their second road win over the Philadelphia 76ers in as many games, the Nets look to knock off another Atlantic Division foe in the 1st-place Boston Celtics. Unlike the Nets, the Celtics are right in the middle of the Eastern Conference playoff race and currently hold the 4th-seed. This game, as is every game for the rest of the season,  is extremely crucial for Boston because they are tied with the 6th-seeded Orlando Magic and are only three games ahead of the 7th- and 8th-seeded Knicks and 76ers.

Background on Boston

As we Nets fans know very well, the Celtics are an older team but have some of the best veterans that the NBA can offer. With the core of Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce, Ray Allen, and the younger Rajon Rondo, Boston boasts the ability to score in multiple ways in addition to playing some of the defense in the league. I know, not a great matchup for the Nets but at least Ray Allen is a gametime decision with a sore ankle. Optimism!