The Brooklyn Nets certainly looked like a team that hadn’t played in more than four months.
In their first comeback game, the New Orleans Pelicans destroyed them, 99-68, on Wednesday night at Walt Disney World Resort (officially) in Lake Buena Vista, Florida. Playing a 40-minute scrimmage, the Nets had nine active players with Jamal Crawford, Joe Harris, Tyler Johnson, Justin Anderson sitting and Donta Hall still in quarantine.
Jacque Vaughn said there was nothing wrong with Harris. I was just resting. Vaughn added that he expects him to do the same with other players during the next two practice games, both 48-minute games.
“We will continue to strategically earn minutes for the guys in the future,” Vaughn said. “I think [there is] general enthusiasm for playing the game of basketball competitively again. “
It’s safe to say that this will be a work in progress for the Nets, no matter how exhausted the list is Wednesday night. There is no point in overreacting to scrimmage, but it was still an ugly basketball game.
The Nets lost control of this game from the beginning. It was the last 5:50 of the first quarter without scoring a single point, leaving the quarter having missed 14 of his first 19 shots. The Pelicans had a 7-0 run and moved into the second quarter where the Nets were on the wrong side of a 29-11 run, dropping by as much as 20.
The Pelicans outscored the Nets 33-21 in the second quarter, putting them 21 points in half, 32 percent from the field with 11 turnovers. They ended the game shooting 35 percent from the field, 25 percent from three with 21 turnovers. New Orleans beat the Nets in virtually every possible statistical category.
So nothing really changed in the second half. The Nets were unable to shoot and were unable to defend the painting due to its lack of size. Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot started at 4 and picked up three fouls in the first seven minutes of the game.
Others were forced to step up, but it never happened. They went down 25 with five minutes remaining in the fourth and head coach Jacque Vaughn emptied the bench, of course one with just four players.
This is how the boys turned out:
Dzanan Musa: 11 points on 2 of 4 shots, 7 of 7 from the line
Caris LeVert: 10 points on 5 of 18 shots, 0 of 6 of three
Jarrett Allen: 10 points and 10 rebounds in 4 of 5 shots
Garrett Temple: 8 points on 3 of 7 shots
Chris Chiozza: 6 points on 2 of 9 shots
Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot: 7 points on 3 of 10 shots
Rodions Kurucs: 10 points and five rebounds on 4 of 8 shots
Lance Thomas: 3 points on 1 of 5 shots
Jeremiah Martin: 3 points on 1 of 3 shots
Kurucs probably showed the most rotation players. Vaughn said the Nets wanted to watch Rodions Kurucs in the middle tonight. Right now, the Nets have three players 6’9 “or more: Allen, Kurucs, and Hall.
At one point in the third quarter, Kurucs hit five consecutive points with a steal mate and a three from the top of the key. He also successfully fed Allen with a neat pocket pass in the paint.
“Rodi looked really good to us. It will be good for us, ”Temple said. “I really like the way Rodi played tonight and the way he has played in practice.”
Vaughn also spoke positively about Allen and suggested that he would benefit from a comprehensive list.
“We’re actually talking about trying to reward JA (Jarrett Allen) because we’re going to ask him to do a lot in terms of detection, the game, the game, defending the edge for us.” That first half, we got a good look and a lot of that was because of him, ”said Vaughn.
“His ability to press the edge allowed a few jump passes, a few shake passes to open up the boys. The game will produce more opportunities for Jarrett as he becomes more comfortable and other guys who didn’t play tonight help him get baskets. “
Across the ledger, LeVert seemed the most rusty, shooting 5 out of 18, including 0 out of 6 from deep inside. Still, LeVert was happy to be on the court.
“It felt good. It felt good, man. It’s the first time since March with us going up and down. We’ve gone up and down a little bit in practice, but you know, nothing is like a game. It was good to get out.”
Temple could have better described the atmosphere of the game.
“It felt like a 2K video game … it was very different. I’m glad we have three games to get used to, “said the Nets veteran.
The pelicans were led by E’Twuan Moore and Nickel Alexander-Walker, who contributed 14 points each. Brandon Ingram, Jahlil Okafor and Jrue Holiday ended in double figures.
Take it with a grain of salt. The next game will be played against the San Antonio Spurs on Saturday.
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