Game 8 Recap: Nets 99, Kings 90. The One Where Blatche Went Off

22 points, 11-12 shooting, 20 minutes. Yep, this Andray Blatche. Yep, the guy who was amnestied this summer. Yep, the guy who was sent home by the Wizards last year because of his lack of conditioning.

Another weird, sloppy, and competitive game, another win for the Nets. Brooklyn extended its season-long winning streak to five games by taking care of the hapless Sacramento Kings at the terribly-named Sleep Train Arena (which I thinking should just be called The Sleep Train, in the vein of The Soul Train). It certainly wasn't pretty--we seem to be saying that about a lot of the Nets victories this season--but it goes on the left side of the W-L column which is all that mattered.

The Nets went to the paint for scoring throughout much of the first half, feeding Brook Lopez the ball a bunch early on, and he went to town against DeMarcus Cousins and Jason Thompson. Brook faded away after the first 12 minutes of play and only ended up with 13 and a measly five rebounds on 5-14 shooting. Fellow starting big man, power forward Kris Humphries, was an afterthought on offense, taking just six shots and scoring six points. The real story of tonight's win was a backup forward who possibly had the game of his career.

Andray Blatche was simply unconscious from late in the first quarter to late in the third. Blatche, who I mentioned as a player to watch in my preview, couldn't miss anything. He hit his first nine shots--a miss of crafty layups, drives, and some admittedly low-percentage jumpers too--and scored 18 points by halftime, basically leading the Nets to a 33-22 second quarter by himself, hitting all six field goals he attempted in the quarter. The Nets constantly went to him to build up the lead they would nurse throughout the second half and he responded to the extra burden, attacking the rim with no mercy for anyone in his way. In one word, Blatche was unstoppable, and that's no exaggeration

Game 8 Preview: Brooklyn Nets (5-2) at Sacramento Kings (2-7)

We know his name is Tyreke Evans. The only thing we don't know is what position he is.

Update: According to the Nets' beat writers on Twitter, Gerald Wallace is playing tonight. We love you Keith Bogans, but go back to the bench where you belong!

When: 6:00 pm; Sunday, November 18th, 2012

Where: Sleep Train Arena (really?); Sacramento, CA

TV: YES Network
 
Tonight we have a matchup between teams that are at completely different ends of the NBA spectrum right now--and different coasts of the US. The Nets, coming off of a nationally-televised win on Thursday night over the Boston Celtics, have won four games in a row and will probably be getting starting small forward Gerald Wallace back from injury. The Kings, on the other hand, have lost their last four games, most recently falling to the Atlanta Hawks in Sacramento at the absurdly-named Sleep Train Arena. The last loss led veteran players Chuck Hayes and Francisco Garcia to call a players-only meeting to hash out the team's struggles. Closed-door meetings nine games into the season is never a good time. 

Sacramento isn't a very good team, but they probably aren't as bad as their early-season record indicates. They have a bunch of really good pieces, like position-unknown Tyreke Evans, forward-center DeMarcus Cousins, and forward Thomas Robinson (5th overall pick out of Kansas in June's draft). However, a lot of their talented players have some glaring problem or disadvantage that limits their success. For Cousins, it's his notoriously bad temper, which led to a one-game suspension a few days ago for confronting Spurs' broadcaster Sean Elliot after a game. And for Tyreke Evans, it's that he has no true position. He's too big to play the point and too small for power forward while not being just quite right for shooting guard or small forward. To say he's an enigma as a basketball player would be an understatement.

Game 54 Recap: Nets 111, Kings 99

The streak shall live! After yet another poor first quarter which left the Nets down by nine points at the 3:50 mark, they played incredibly inspiring ball the rest of the way and basically blew out the Kings, who did put up a fight late in the fourth quarter. The Nets started tonight's game with the exact same lack-of-effort and intensity as they did against Golden State but like Friday's game, they pushed through those doldrums and ended up with a very convincing win.

In very non-Nets fashion, the kick-starter for their rally which culminated in the win was actually defense. Sacramento scored a ton of points, 35, in the first quarter but were held to nearly that amount, 41, over the next two quarters. The Nets turned up the defensive pressure on the Kings and that ended up shooting New Jersey onto an offensive explosion that turned this game from a close barn-burner into a 19-point blow-out.

Tonight, the main offensive cog for the Nets was Anthony Morrow who definitively broke out of his recent slump with a 24-point game on the power of six 3-pointers. Gerald Wallace continued to live up to his nickname of "Crash" by flying around the court, hitting jump-shots, making contested lay-ups, grabbing rebounds over Kings players, making key steals, and even the occasional block. If it wasn't clear before, Wallace is a serious player and is a lot more underrated that I thought he was.

Game 54 Preview: Nets (18-35) at Sacramento Kings (18-33)

The Nets amnestied Outlaw after he played one season of the much ballyhooed 5-yr, $35 million contract that he signed with the team. He hasn't been much better with the Kings than during his disastrous stint in New Jersey but I guess we will see for sure tonight.

Looking for their first 3-game winning streak of this shortened season, the Nets will try to build of the momentum from their last two wonderful triumphs--wins against the Pacers and Warriors--to take down the young Sacramento Kings. The Kings have tons of talent and are really young but just haven't been able to put all it together so far and that can be blamed on something as simple as immaturity. Immaturity, especially from sophomore power forward DeMarcus Cousins, is what got previous coach Paul Westphal fired and the promotion of assistant Keith Smart to the interim helm of the team. Sure, the Kings' record is pretty bad but that doesn't they aren't a good team; they just don't have the experience to be a successful team right now.

Background on Sacramento

Sacramento actually is a good match-up for this injury-depleted Nets squad because of how undersized the Kings line-up is projected to be tonight, especially in the backcourt. Natural point guard Tyreke Evans is probably going to suit up at small forward opposing Gerald Wallace which leaves the 5-9 Isiah Thomas on 6-3 Deron Williams in a battle between point guards. This match-up could be heavenly for D-Will as having a 6-inch height advantage over your opponent in the NBA means a lot of space on jump-shots and easier post-up situations. Wonderfully, those two aspects of the game are D-Will's strongest. On the other hand, the Nets have a smaller match-up issue at power forward as the Kings trot out massive 6-11, 270-pound college-star Cousins whereas the Nets have smaller, but equally tenacious, Kris Humphries who happens to be two inches and 35 pounds less than the Kentucky grad.