Here are my three thoughts on the Nets’ 104-103 loss to the Raptors on Monday night:
1. For those campaigning for Joe Johnson to make the All-Star team after his hot streak earlier this month, his performance over the past three games – a combined 23 points on 6-for-22 shooting, including 3-for-11 from 3-point range – has likely eliminated him from consideration.
If there was an All-Star guard on the floor Monday night, it was Toronto’s Kyle Lowry. He was sensational, finishing with 31 points, five rebounds, seven assists and five steals in helping the Raptors push their lead in the Atlantic to 2.5 games while missing leading scorer DeMar DeRozan.
Lowry had been rumored to be a potential trade target for the Knicks and Nets earlier this season, and showed all of the reasons why he would be attractive to teams with his play Monday night. Also on display – he was involved in several dust-ups on the court, and eventually picked up a technical foul – was his temperament, which has led to him moving from team to team despite being a very talented player.
But Lowry is the main reason Toronto is still winning the division, and how much trouble the Nets have getting to the top of the Atlantic depends on whether or not Raptors general manager Masai Ujiri chooses to move the impending free agent before next month’s trade deadline.
2. The attention, deservedly so, was on Deron Williams throwing away an inbounds pass with 10.9 seconds left in the fourth quarter that led to Patrick Patterson’s game-winning jumper a few seconds left. But regardless of how the final 11 seconds of Monday night’s game played out, the contest exposed a flaw in the small-ball lineup the Nets have used during their January renaissance: their inability to handle athletic big men.
Promising young Raptors big man Jonas Valanciunas tore the Nets apart in the paint, finishing the game with 20 points and 13 rebounds while going 9-for-14 from the field.
Toronto hit Valanciunas with a few lob passes for easy lay-ins and dunks, and whenever Valanciunas got the ball down on the block he had little trouble getting a shot up over Kevin Garnett or Andray Blatche.
While the combination of Garnett and Blatche has been excellent for the Nets during January, it doesn’t provide any kind of threat for the opposing offense at the rim.
3. Wiliams may have committed the game-ending turnover, but there were more encouraging signs from his nine-point, 11-assist performance.
Williams showed an ability to get past his man, attack the paint and get to the rim, which he had struggled to do before undergoing platelet-rich plasma treatment and a round of cortisone shots on both ankles. He only shot 4-for-11 from the field — some of that was good defense at the rim and some was Williams losing the ball a couple times on his way up.
The bigger thing, though, is he’s remaining aggressive and trying to attack. When he’s doing that, he’s a much better player, and the Nets are a much better team.