NBA

Nets Rewind: Spilled soda aside, Kidd making right moves

Here are my three thoughts on the Nets’ 97-88 victory over the Grizzlies in Memphis Saturday night:

1. It’s been easy to criticize Jason Kidd over the last month – and especially over the last week in the wake of “Cupgate” – but the rookie head coach deserves a lot of credit for how the Nets responded to Friday’s debacle in Houston.

Kidd clearly tried to send a message to his healthy veteran players during the blowout loss by benching Shaun Livingston, Joe Johnson, Paul Pierce and Andray Blatche for the entirety of the second half. While Pierce sat out Saturday’s win with a bruised right hand, the other three players each had key roles in the Nets’ victory.

Johnson and Blatche were dominant, combining to score 47 points, while Livingston came off the bench after being demoted behind Tyshawn Taylor to play 29 steady minutes at the point, picking up four points and four assists, including a crucial one for a Mirza Teletovic 3-pointer in the fourth quarter that helped jumpstart the Nets’ 21-6 run that put the game out of reach.

But Kidd also deserves credit for how the Nets attacked Memphis, particularly down the stretch. You often see teams fail to take advantage of mismatches – teams, for instance, like the Nets, who have struggled all season long to do so. That wasn’t the case late against the Grizzlies, though, as Kidd repeatedly directed the Nets to dump the ball inside to Brook Lopez in the fourth quarter.

Because of the shooters the Nets had on the floor around him, Memphis was unwilling to double, leaving Kosta Koufos to defend Lopez one-on-one. The Nets went to Lopez on several consecutive possessions in the post in the fourth, resulting in four baskets, one trip to the foul line and a pair of open 3-pointers on nice kick-out passes from Lopez. The Nets have failed to close out a lot of games, but they found a formula that could work for them moving forward Saturday night, and their coach deserves credit for that.

2. Kidd also opted to give Mirza Teletovic – who has been playing very well of late – a few minutes at small forward in the second half, and Teletovic came through for him, scoring eight points, including five straight to kick off the 21-6 run after Memphis had cut the lead to 75-74.

That isn’t a strategy that can work against all teams, though, as fans have clamored at times both this season and last, because it’s not fair to Teletovic. Playing him against a team like Memphis at small forward, where Tayshaun Prince and Mike Miller don’t have the off-the-dribble quickness to take advantage of the matchup, is a good opportunity to get him on the floor, especially because he’s going to wind up the odd man out of the four-man rotation of Lopez, Kevin Garnett, Blatche and Mason Plumlee.

It was a smart move by Kidd to put him out there that way against Memphis, though, and it was a good job again by Teletovic of taking advantage of his opportunity.

3. The Nets struck an optimistic tone after Saturday’s win, with which they wrapped up their first month of the season with a dismal 5-12 record.

“What rough month?” Kidd said with a smile and a laugh when asked about it after the game.

But the fact of the matter is, despite their awful play, the Nets do have some reasons to be optimistic. They got Lopez back for the last two games, and he immediately returned to playing at an All-Star-caliber level, and may have Deron Williams – who is set to be re-evaluated on Monday – back soon, as well.

More importantly, they are now going to spend most of the next month at home, with nine of their next 12 games at Barclays Center with the three road trips going to Milwaukee, Detroit and Philadelphia – all very winnable contests.

With other games against Denver, the Knicks, Boston, Philadelphia and Washington at home early this month, the Nets have a chance to turn their season around.

The question now is whether they’ll be able to do so.