Here are my three thoughts on the Nets’ 99-94 loss to the Lakers in Brooklyn Wednesday night:
1. “Cupgate” is a fun little story that shows Jason Kidd hasn’t lost the kind of savvy he had as a player in terms of doing whatever it takes to find an edge in a game. But it also masked the fact that the Nets once again lost a game at home they simply couldn’t afford to lose.
If the Nets want to climb out of the hole they have dug for themselves, they can’t lose at Barclays Center to teams like the Lakers and the Pistons, as they did on Sunday. When you’re five or more games under .500, you have to start picking up every toss-up game or game against a team you should beat that you can, and that goes double for such games at home.
Mike D’Antoni – who has never gotten the credit he deserves as a coach – should be commended for the kind of production he’s gotten from a limited Lakers roster, especially one lacking Steve Nash and Kobe Bryant at the moment. But there is no way the Nets should have found themselves in a 27-point first-half deficit to this team. That’s especially true when you consider how the Lakers managed to build that lead – by firing off one open 3-pointer after another. The Nets were playing a D’Antoni team: what else could they expect?
2. It’s pretty remarkable to think two of the biggest contributors to the Nets were Mason Plumlee and Mirza Teletovic – both of whom weren’t expected to be part of the rotation.
It seemed when the season started that, if the Nets were healthy, that Brook Lopez, Kevin Garnett, Reggie Evans and Andray Blatche were going to be the four big men playing for the Nets, with Teletovic there as injury insurance and when Garnett needs a night off, and Plumlee expected to get a lot of time in Springfield to develop and potentially be a contributor down the road.
But Plumlee got a chance against the Jazz on Nov. 5 and has basically been in the rotation ever since, and Teletovic has played well when given the opportunity in each of the past four games and seems to have carved himself a spot in the rotation, as well.
It will be interesting to see how Kidd handles things when Brook Lopez returns to the lineup. Evans has already been relegated to being a benchwarmer, but it’s very difficult to play five big guys, if not impossible. Who will sit? It will be interesting to see how it plays out.
3. While Kevin Garnett’s struggles have been much more publicly discussed, Paul Pierce has been equally bad so far.
After a hot start for Pierce, when he hit 50 percent of his shots or better in each of his first four games, going 20-for-36 (55.5 percent) from the field and hitting 35.7 percent of his 3-pointers, he’s fallen off dramatically over his last 10 games.
During that stretch, Pierce has only hit more than half his shots once, and is 36-for-113 (31.9 percent) over that stretch, including going just 10-for-39 (25.6 percent) from 3-point range.
Some of that might be attributed to Pierce trying to do more than he was originally expected to because of the absences of Deron Williams and Brook Lopez, and some of it may be that Pierce is playing through some kind of injury (he did sit out against the Clippers on Nov. 16 with a sore left groin). But if the Nets want to get things turned around, they desperately need to get Pierce going.