Game 13 Recap: Nets 96, Knicks 88 (OT). The One Where The Crosstown Rivalry Began

Reggie Evans was everywhere, doing everything last night for the Nets.

The last Nets playoff game was a May 18, 2007 loss in the Eastern Conference Semifinals to the Cleveland Cavaliers, a team featuring LeBron James before the whole "Taking my talents to South Beach" thing. However, the game the (Brooklyn) Nets played last night at Barclays Center was probably more intense than that loss to Cleveland and wasn't even an elimination game in the NBA playoffs. It was just the first-ever regular season game between the Brooklyn Nets and New York Knicks, which just happened to be played in Brooklyn. 
 
The game was hotly contested right out the gates at Barclays as expected, as each team started out pretty hot from the field. Defense was mainly nowhere to be found as the home-team Nets managed to eke out a three-point lead after the first frame. Surprisingly, in the second quarter, mainly the Knicks bench-- shorthanded without backup point guard, and former Net, Jason Kidd, due to back spasms--outplayed the normally-reliable Nets reserves, as the Knicks won the quarter and took a lead into half. Contributions were varied, with Melo hitting a few shots, Tyson Chandler and Marcus Camby controlling the paint, and even the ageless Rasheed Wallace draining a deep three-pointer, sending the Knicks supporters at Barclays into a frenzy.

Then came the dreaded third quarter. In the ten games before this past homestand--so the games before this week's wins over the Clippers and Blazers--the Nets were a disgrace in that quarter, blowing games left and right with terrible performances coming out of the halftime intermission. That was not the case last night, even though the quarter didn't get off to the best start for the home team. Melo was unstoppable in the third, hitting jumpers and getting "fouled" when driving to the hoop constantly. Of course, the airquotes are necessary as the Syracuse product got away with more push-offs than I have probably every witnessed in my life. Regardles, Melo was so hot even Gerald Wallace couldn't stop him.

Game 12 Recap: Nets 98, Trail Blazers 85. The One Where Reggie, Brook, and Hump Got All The Rebounds

With every game he plays well in, Joe Johnson is looking more and more like a steal for the Nets

Winning their fifth-straight game at Barclays Center, the Nets rebounded (literally) from a bad first half effort to blow away the undermanned Portland Trail Blazers in the second half. Missing All-Star power forward LaMarcus Aldridge, Portland didn't have a key cog in their lineup, but that didn't stop them from jumping out to a four-point lead at half behind rookies Damian Lillard and Meyers Leonard in addition to J.J. Hickson and Wesley Matthews as well. Luckily for the Nets, those guys cooled down after the intermission and Brooklyn's guys heated up. 

The third quarter woes that plagued the Nets during some of their earlier losses this season have been thankfully absent from the last two games, counting this afternoon's game of course. In the third quarter, D-Will came out with a vengeance, the vengeance that he expresses with intensity during close games in which he feels he has to take over. That's what he did right out of the break, driving at the rim fiercely on the undersized Lillard, first getting an easy layup, missing the next one, and then getting blocked. Maybe he didn't get the results he wanted from those drives, but the tone was set for the Nets, and that led them to even up the score by the end of that quarter just to run away with the game in the fourth.

Game 11 Recap: Nets 86, Clippers 76. The One Where The Third Quarter Wasn't So Bad

Ever since the Nets traded for Joe Johnson over the summer, the shooting guard hasn't played like himself. Tonight, he certainly did.

If the Nets had any bad tastes in their mouths from their losses to the Lakers and the Warriors, then there aren't there anymore, because of how they completely shut down the Clippers in Brooklyn tonight. The Nets improved to 7-4 on the season with a win over one of the better teams in the Western Conference in a fashion that has been uncommon to them this year: They played good defense and were actually not-awful in the third quarter.

Ok, to be clear, the Nets didn't play great defense the whole game, just in the second half. They were down by a score of 47-40 at half and things didn't look too promising. The uber-athletic Clipper frontcourt duo of Blake Griffin and Deandre Jordan dominated the first half, throwing down alley-oop dunks, grabbing offensive boards, and just making the Nets look bad most of the time. Just about the only thing going the Nets' way in the first two quarters of the game was the offensive output they got from Joe Johnson and Brook Lopez. Lopez's offense has been great the whole season but Joe's hasn't, making his early shooting accuracy a pleasant surprise.

Reggie Evans Fined for Flop from Nets-Lakers Game

This is kind of old already (with the ridiculously short news-cycle of the Internet age), but Reggie Evans has made news as the first NBA player to be fined under the league's new flopping policy. The "flop" in question came during the Nets-Lakers game on Tuesday night when Evans embellished a bump he took from Metta World Peace of the Lakers, a play which was called an offensive foul on the Player Formerly Known as Ron Artest. Evans was fined $5,000 dollars for the incident, so I'm sure he's not that discouraged.

Game 9 Recap: Lakers 95, Nets 90. The One Where D'Antoni Made His Debut

It was easy to tell that Deron wanted to win last night's very badly. The Nets probably would have if he could have hit a few more shots.

If a moral victory is actually a legitimate thing, then the Nets probably had one last night against the Los Angeles Lakers. A win in the standings? Something they did not have. However, Brooklyn showed that they could match up with and compete with one of the NBA's premier teams in the Lakers by coming back from an early 10-point deficit right off the bat to take the lead throughout much of the second half, just to slowly lose it late in the fourth quarter.

The Nets certainly looked outmatched in the beginning moments of the game, as they committed four quick turnovers in the first four minutes, pressured by the hounding Los Angeles defense. It was surprising that the Lakers--in the debut of new, solely offensive-minded head coach Mike D'Antoni--played so well on the defensive side of the court early on but the turnovers could also be attributed to a Nets squad that was rushing in their sets, making boneheaded and lazy plays, and simply playing like the New Jersey team, one prone to countless amounts of inept stretches of basketball. After a timeout by Avery Johnson, though, Brooklyn came back with a purpose and rattled off eight points in a row to come within two. The game stayed close throughout the rest of the first until Kobe Bryant hit three jumpers in a row to expand the LA lead to six points.

Then, in the second quarter, the Lakers' main weakness was shown as their bench promptly coughed up their lead and the Nets got hot from the field, scoring 34 points in the period to go up a point at half. As usual, the Nets' "bench mob" or "Brooklyn Zoo" (credit Twitter for both awesome nicknames) picked up the slack, with C.J. Watson hitting a few threes, Andray Blatche hitting a few shots in the lane, and, of course, Reggie Evans rebounding nearly everything in sight. Solid second quarter performances also came from starters Brook Lopez and Deron Williams.

For All Intensive Purposes, Here Are Your New (Leaked) Brooklyn Nets Jerseys

I don't love the new threads, I really would like some gray on both the home and away uni's, but I really shouldn't complain. The black and white look is dominant and kinda intimidating, as if Reggie Evans on the glass wasn't enough.

I know they officially are supposed to be released to the public on September 28th, but this latest leak of the Brooklyn Nets' first jerseys, found by the great guys at NetsDaily, seems to be legit. We obviously won't know for sure if these are the real deal until the 28th, but work on the assumption that they are, considering a bunch of major basketball outlets and Nets sites ran the same leak earlier today. Welcome to your new franchise, Brooklyn Nets fans, these are our jerseys for the future and hopefully they bring us some winning luck. No more red alternates ever again.