Game 2 Preview: Minnesota Timberwolves (1-1) at Brooklyn Nets (1-0)

A Band-Aid: A perfect symbol of the 2012-12 Minnesota Timberwolves

UPDATE: Gerald Wallace (ankle) and Josh Childress (ankle) are both out for tonight's game. Keith Bogans will start in place of Wallace.

When: 7:30 pm; Monday, November 5th, 2012

Where: Barclays Center; Brooklyn, NY

TV: YES Network/NBATV

We've already won one game as the Brooklyn Nets, why not go for two? That's the question the Nets will be asking themselves tonight as they take on the injury-plagued Minnesota Timberwolves in the second regular season game ever at the Barclays Center. Both the Nets and the T-Wolves won their season opener's--the Nets' against the Raptors and the T-Wolves' against the Kings--and both will be looking to stay above .500 early on the 2012-13 NBA season.

Another similarity between these two teams is that they played their last game against the Raptors, to varying levels of success. As mentioned above, the Nets defeated Toronto on Saturday night by a score of 107-100, led by Brook Lopez' 27 points and 19 points and nine assists from Deron Williams. 

Minnesota wasn't as lucky. 

At the Air Canada Centre last night, they were handled with relative ease by the hometown Raps by a score of 105-86. As they did against the Nets, Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan led the offensive effort for Toronto, each scoring 22 points on the night. The T-Wolves--led by 17 points from Andrei Kirilenko and 15 points from Nikola Pekovic--just didn't have an answer for the Raptor backcourt, a fact certainly exacerbated by J.J. Barea suffering a mild concussion in the second quarter. Further hurting the already-injured Wolves' backcourt, Barea wouldn't return in the game and his status is questionable for tonight's game.

Gerald Wallace Out for Tonight's Game; Keith Bogans Will Start For Him

According the Nets' PR Department's official Twitter account (@Nets_PR), the ankle injury that Gerald Wallace suffered attempting to block a shot in Saturday's season-opening win over Toronto will cause him to miss tonight's game against the Timberwolves. Keith Bogans will start at the small forward position in Gerald's stead.

Game 1 Recap: Nets 107, Raptors 100

At some points, especially later in the game, the Nets' help defense was phenomenal, like in the picture above. At other points, like in the 1st quarter, that wasn't the case.

One regular season game in Brooklyn, one win. That's the way the Nets, their fans, and coach Avery Johnson like it. In their first-ever regular season game as the Brooklyn Nets, the Nets beat the divisional foe Toronto Raptors in a game that was exciting, entertaining, nerveracking in a Nets fashion, but also downright fun. Sure, it's only the first game of the year against a team that probably won't make the playoffs, but it's still a win. And any win for the Nets of the past few seasons was monumental. Hopefully last night's triumph is a sign of change.

A win didn't look to be in the immediate-future for the Nets after the first quarter of action Saturday night since the Raptors jumped out of the gates fast, and took a 35-27 lead after 12 minutes of play. In those 12 minutes, the worst fears of those surrounding the Nets for this season were realized: the defense was terrible, offense mostly stagnant, and the fast pace of the game' tempo made the team look discombobulated all around. However, a paradigm shift arose after that poor first frame and the Nets appeared to wake up, got some great contributions from their bench players, and snared a 60-52 lead by halftime, after a second quarter in which they outscored Toronto by a score of 33-17.

For the most part, the Nets were in control from the beginning of the third quarter until the game clock buzzed after 48 minutes of play. The game could have been easily put out of reach by Brooklyn in the third period as they climbed to a 73-59 advantage on a Deron Williams three-pointer with 6:56 remaining. A few defensive stops and effective offensive possessions could have tilted the game' balance in only the Nets' favor but no, the Raptors hung around for a little bit longer. Cutting the deficit to six points after the third quarter, Toronto seemed poised to steal a win from the new-look Brooklyn squad and inched within two points of the Nets a few times in the fourth but just couldn't get over the hump to take the lead. A Brook Lopez three-point play with just 59 ticks left sealed the deal beyond any doubt.

Game 1 Preview: Toronto Raptors (0-1) at Brooklyn Nets (0-0)

Finally, the Barclays Center court will see some NBA regular season action tonight

When: 7:30 pm; Saturday, November 3rd, 2012

Where: Barclays Center; Brooklyn, NY

TV: YES Network


Ok folks, it's really here. No, actually. Unless some other event beyond our control strikes the NYC Metro area in the next few hours, there will be basketball played at the Barclays Center--regular season NBA basketball--involving the Brooklyn (!) Nets and the Canadian Prehistoric Creatures Toronto Raptors. As you all must know by now, tonight's game was originally supposed to be the Nets' second game of the 2012-13 NBA season, as their November 1st game in Brooklyn against the Knicks was postponed to November 26th because of Hurricane Sandy.

The Raptors' first game of the season, played on Wednesday against the Pacers, wasn't affected by the storm. Toronto fell 90-88 to Indiana at the Air Canada Centre as Kyle Lowry, picked up by the Raptors from the Houston Rockets via trade over the summer, scored 21 points, grabbed seven boards, dished out eight assists and even nabbed five steals as well in the losing effort. Andrea Bargnani and Jose Calderon added in 16 and 15 points respectively for the Raps on the game.

Anyway, lets go back to the Nets. Tonight's game, albeit against the Raptors instead of the higher-profile Knicks, is much more than a singular game, or a tallymark in either the W or L column. It represents the culmination of years and years of planning by Nets' management to move the embattled franchise from the doldrums of New Jersey to the bright lights of the Big Apple. A win doesn't mean that much, a loss doesn't mean that much. The truth is that for tonight, that youth sports cliche of "All that matters is that you play the game" rings true. The Nets are playing a regular season home game at the Barclays Center and that's all that matters.

Josh Childress Out For Saturday's Opener Against Toronto

The Nets picked up Childress over the summer for the veteran's minimum, on a low-risk, medium-reward kind of signing

On Saturday night, when they open up the Barclays Center against the Raptors, the Nets will be without one of their offseason pickups. Josh Childress is expected to miss the game due to soreness he is experiencing in his sprained left ankle. Childress aggravated the ankle in the the Nets' last preseason game, a loss to the Knicks at Nassau Coliseum on October 24th.

Postponed Nets-Knicks Game Rescheduled for November 26th

The Nets-Knicks game, originally planned to be played yesterday, November 1st, has officially been rescheduled by the NBA to Monday, November 26th at 7:00 pm. The new date for the game means that it will be the second game of a back-to-back, as the Nets play the Portland Trail Blazers on Sunday, the 25th, at the Barclays Center as well.

Tonight's Nets-Knicks Season Opener Postponed

I know this is old news (as of yesterday) but as a Long Islander (an area of New York that was hit very hard by Hurricane Sandy) without power, the postponement of the planned Nets-Knicks regular season opener--official christener of the Barclays Center--is still huge news that deserved to get a post on the blog when I found a short amount of time that I could get internet access.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced yesterday that with all the mass transit disruptions caused by the storm, it would be unwise to play tonight's game as scheduled. Saturday's Nets-Raptors game at the Barclays will instead serve as the first-ever regular season game at the Barclays. Also, the Knicks will kick off their regular season on Friday night at Madison Square Garden against the Heat.