Here are my three thoughts on the Nets’ 82-80 win over the Celtics in Brooklyn Tuesday night:
1. It may only have been a preseason game, but it’s worth noting Nets coach Jason Kidd opted to put Andray Blatche into the starting lineup alongside Brook Lopez with Kevin Garnett sitting out the game as a scheduled rest day.
For much of last season, people both inside and out of the organization wondered why the Nets didn’t have Blatche and Lopez on the floor more together. It was a combination that showed promise at various points, especially in the team’s playoff series against the Bulls. Against any team with legitimate size at both frontcourt spots, having the ability to put two players with the offensive skill levels of Blatche and Lopez on the floor together gives opposing defenses plenty to think about.
That Kidd chose to give Blatche a shot next to Lopez in the starting lineup wasn’t lost on Blatche, either, who re-signed with the Nets last summer for one year at $1.375 million with a player option for a second season.
“That’s something that we talked about last year a lot, and to actually have a coach that believes in that and wants to try it out, it was good,” Blatche said. “I thought it worked out good. I thought it worked out for the team. We met our defensive goals, and we also gave them problems on offense.”
Lopez, who finished with 20 points, four rebounds, two steals and three blocks, and Blatche, who had 14 points, six rebounds, three steals and a block, were the only Nets who finished Tuesday night’s game in double figures, as the team looked sluggish going through its first back-to-back of the preseason. But the tandem of Lopez and Blatche did show its potential, and it’s one that Nets fans should expect to see throughout the season, especially when Garnett is given nights off.
2. The Nets have said both before and after each of their four preseason games that they want to try and cut down on their turnovers. It’s something Kidd, in particular, has stressed, which comes as no surprise given his background as a Hall of Fame point guard.
But, once again, the Nets were terrible in that department Tuesday night, committing more than 20 turnovers for the fourth straight game. On the whiteboard in the team’s locker room before the game, the coaches had written 13 turnovers was the goal, but the Nets have far exceeded that each time out.
Part of that can be attributed to the team’s lack of point-guard depth behind starter Deron Williams, who has been out since the start of camp because of a sprained right ankle, and backup Shaun Livingston. The Nets lost third-string point Tyshawn Taylor and fourth-stringer Jorge Gutierrez to sprained ankles over the past week, leaving them down to Marko Jaric – who was waived after not playing in Tuesday’s game – and Alan Anderson, a wing player being forced to masquerade as a point guard, as their primary ball-handlers.
Because the Nets are a bigger, older and slower team than most, they’re going to have to limit their turnovers to shut down opposing team’s transition games.
3. It’s hard to say if the Nets defense has definitively improved over the past two games, or if they simply have been facing dreadful competition.
Kidd said after Monday’s blowout win in Philadelphia he has a number in mind for the Nets opponents: 42 percent shooting from the field. The Nets held Philadelphia to 39 percent and Boston to 35.6 percent on Monday and Tuesday night, respectively, but I’m not sure I’ve seen two worse offensive teams. It’s hard to imagine how either team is going to be better than 25th in the league in offense — and that includes when Rajon Rondo returns to the lineup for the Celtics after he fully recovers from a torn ACL.
The Nets will get a much better test of their defensive mettle on Thursday night in Brooklyn when the defending champion Heat come to town.