Glancing at the play-by-play statistics of Wednesday night’s Nets-Warriors game, it would lead one to believe that, with 9:58 remaining in the fourth quarter, Andrei Kirilenko missed a jumper and the Nets wound up corralling the offensive rebound.
But if you watch the play, you would see it far differently, as it perfectly captures the high basketball IQ Kirilenko possesses and demonstrates why he has been such a critical piece for the Nets whenever he has been able to play this season.
After an attempted pass from Paul Pierce to Shaun Livingston was deflected into the air, Kirilenko grabbed it with about three seconds remaining on the shot clock, and tried to put a shot up over Warriors power forward David Lee, who deflected the ball out of Kirilenko’s hands. But, instead of simply watching the ball come back down to the floor — and also allowing the shot clock to expire and cause the ball to go back to Golden State — Kirilenko leapt back up and tipped the ball off the rim, giving the Nets a chance to get it back and eventually leading to a Livingston layup.
“I love playing with him,” Livingston said. “He understands where to be at. … He’s invaluable.
“He has all the intangibles you might say. I thought that deflection was huge, to get us the ball back, just little stuff like that. He brings stuff you really can’t put a value on.”
It might be hard to put a value on it in the boxscore, but it’s undeniable the impact Kirilenko has had on the team’s win-loss column this season. In the eight games Kirilenko has finished for the Nets (he sat out the second half of a loss in Washington on Nov. 8 after his back tightened up), Brooklyn has gone 6-2.
“That’s who he is,” coach Jason Kidd said. “If you look at the team’s he’s played for, he’s always had the impact … his basketball IQ, his motor, he’s continually moving on the offensive and defensive ends, his size.
“So it’s not a surprise. I think we all felt that he was going to bring that to us, and now to see him for his 16 to 18 minutes, it’s definitely helped.”
The Nets have been ravaged by injuries this season, losing Brook Lopez for the season and Deron Williams for at least 15 games with multiple setbacks with his sprained left ankle. But amidst all of the injuries the Nets have suffered, losing Kirilenko for 26 games — including 25 in a row from early November through late December — was as crucial as any of them.
When the Nets landed Kirilenko on a one-year deal for the mini mid-level exception of $3.2 million with a player option for a second year this summer, they were banking on using him as a jack-of-all-trades bench player. His ability to play without the ball offensively and guard nearly every position on the floor defensively would give the Nets flexibility at both ends of the floor, and would allow them to play a lot of different lineups, depending on which opponent they were up against.
“I know what he’s capable of doing,” Joe Johnson said. “[His impact] doesn’t surprise me at all.
“He’s a guy that’s very versatile, and can probably play any position on the court. He has a high IQ defensively and offensively, so he’s a guy we definitely need out there.”
The Nets certainly will be glad to have Kirilenko against the Heat and LeBron James Friday, even if it’s only available for the 16-20 minutes he has been able to play the last few games as he continues to recover from the back spasms that have bothered him since the second week of training camp.
Nevertheless, now that Kirilenko has been pain free and able to play in each of the last five games, the Nets hope he will be able to help slow down James and allow them to improve upon their season-high four-game win streak and climb up the Eastern Conference standings.
“I’ll do my best [to slow James down],” Kirilenko said. “But against those kinds of players it’s a team effort, not a one-man effort.
“We have to be playing the same defense we played [Wednesday] night … not the beginning of the game, but the final three quarters. That’s how we’re supposed to be playing defensively.”