Here are my three thoughts on the Nets’ 93-81 win over the Pelicans Sunday night:
1. For a veteran team like the Nets, every game like Sunday’s – in which they kept the minutes down for all of their players – is a huge positive.
Other than Joe Johnson, no player is averaging more than 33 minutes a game, and Deron Williams is the only other player over 30. Jason Kidd has been strident about having that kind of minutes distribution since the season began, and part of the reason why the Nets tried to put together a deep roster this offseason.
It’s hard to know at the moment how much this will benefit them later on this season. But if the Nets can get into the playoffs and make some noise, Kidd will earn a lot of credit for doing such a nice job of monitoring minutes during the regular season.
2. Mason Plumlee had another impressive showing – probably his best of the season — and again what stood out was his never-ending insistence on flying to the rim on every possession.
When you have a young big man, a good thing to look for is whether he’s aggressive in attacking the rim. Well, that’s all Plumlee does. Every time he gets the ball, he tries to rip the rim off the backboard, whether there is no one in front of him or there are three guys.
Part of that is because he’s still lacking a jump shot, which will be part of his development. With his impressive athleticism and willingness to attack the basket, that doesn’t matter at the moment.
3. It was striking to see just how differently the Nets played right from the start than they did in Detroit on Friday, when they got their doors blown off almost from the opening tip. Williams admitted to saying on the bench that it was the “reverse” of the way they played against the Pistons.
Maybe it was because of the presence of Kevin Garnett, who provides the emotional heartbeat of the team. Maybe it was because the Nets weren’t playing on the second half of a back-to-back, as Andrei Kirilenko mentioned after the game. But this was the kind of performance the Nets needed against an injury-riddled Pelicans team at home.
Now, with a pair of winnable games against the Bobcats at home and at Chicago on Wednesday and Thursday, the Nets have a chance to move within a game of .500 before the All-Star break.