Brooklyn Nets: Cheating Themselves For A Worthy Cause

From the desk of:  THE HOOPS OF FLATBUSH

Just not on defense ...

FRIDAY FINAL

Nets       112

Lakers   124

Brooklyn Nets: Not necessarily in last place with a 3-6 record because they're rebuilding.  They're propping up the Atlantic Division because their defensive effort is grossly inadequate.

Brook Lopez Notches Double-Double in First Ever Game Against Former Team

C'mon ... who checked to see if they were tuned into the correct channel for Friday night's game?

Be honest.

If you were paying attention with two ears and one eye like I was, the opening tip between Brook Lopez and Timofey Mozgov sounded like an NBA Channel highlight reel from the 2010-2011 season.

Times have certainly changed since then, haven't they?

This wasn't Lopez and the New Jersey Nets crossing the Hudson River seven years ago playing Mozgov and the Knicks at Madison Square Garden.  Even the thought of Lopez and the Nets taking on Timofey Mozgov and D'Angelo Russell in Los Angeles is so last year.

That's because Nets general manager Sean Marks traded Brook Lopez (and Brooklyn's 2017 27th overall pick) this past summer to the Los Angeles Lakers in exchange for the locally familiar Timofey Mozgov and third year guard D'Angelo Russell.

Within seconds after tipping-off his first ever game against the Nets, Brook Lopez, the team's all-time leader in blocked shots, was turning back Caris LeVert on Brooklyn's first field goal attempt of the game.

Just over a minute later, D'Angelo Russell scored Brooklyn's first field goal of the game up and over a yielding Brook Lopez.

So went the opening sequence in what both teams hope over time will become more meaningful confrontations to come.

For now, they each have their respective work cut out for them.

Brook Lopez, the NJ/BK Nets all-time scoring leader with 10,444 points, topped all scorers with 34 points, and grabbed ten rebounds in leading the post-Kobe Bryant Lakers over the Nets by a 124-112 final score Friday night at the Staples Center.  Lopez is also the first Lakers player to drop 30+ points since Kobe Bryant retired.

Despite tying D'Angelo Russell with a game high seven assists, rookie Lonzo Ball continues disappointing from the field, converting on just 3/15 attempts, and 0/3 from three point range.

Making his first NBA start, forward Kyle Kuzma, whom Los Angeles selected with the #1 pick acquired from Brooklyn as part of the Lopez/Russell trade, led all players with 13 boards.  Brandon Ingram made it three Lakers in double-digits with ten boards, as the Lakers easily out-rebounded the Nets by a 57-43 margin.

Rondae Hollis-Jefferson led the Nets with 21 points, playing a team high 37 minutes.  Mozgov, by the way, was 2/4 from the field and converted one free throw in 16 minutes.

Be it Nets fans watching at home, and/or Lakers fans at home and in attendance, all eyes were invariably on guard D'Angelo Russell.  Magic Johnson took some parting shots at the Lakers former #2 overall pick of the 2015 NBA draft.  Although the head Laker in charge extolled Russell's physical talents, Magic said (paraphrasing) he needs a leader and someone who will make Lakers players around him better.

Tough words.

I ponder whether Magic Johnson erred in his assessment of Russell simply by making himself the measure of all Lakers guards.  The great ones tend to do that as executives (eh hem ... Wayne Gretzky; Michael Jordan, etc.).

In any event, good luck ballin' with Lonzo, guys.

I happen to believe Sean Marks engineered a fine trade.

D'Angelo Russell, who turns 22-years old in February, slashed 17 points/seven assists/seven rebounds in 35 minutes.  Perhaps not the greatest revenge game of all-time, but as the hook player in the trade with Los Angeles, I'll gladly take my chances with his potential.

The Nets are presently depleted by injuries.  No denying that.  But they still managed 112 points against the Lakers.  In fact, Friday's game marks the eighth time in nine games to date in which they've topped 100 points.  The only time they failed to do so came on Oct. 27, during a 107-86 loss against the Knicks.  Otherwise, the Brooklyn Nets are presently second in the league in scoring, averaging 114 points per game.

They're also middle of the pack in limiting offensive turnovers, and are twelfth in the league in rebounds per game.

But what good is all that if they're giving up a league leading 119 points and 50 rebounds per game?

What ails this team is seemingly not something necessarily inherent with rebuilding.  In simplest terms, it's poor effort, and damn lack of overall defense.  I'm obviously not breaking new ground here.  It's been discussed, and painfully clear to see.  Coach has previously called his team out on this very issue.

Unfortunately D'Angelo Russell has earned a similar reputation, defensively speaking, and we're beginning to understand why.

Coach Atkinson can drill this team all he wants, but they collectively must want to play defense first.  Effort is the one thing teams can control on a night-in, night-out basis.  So far, other complimentary aspects of the Nets game for the most part have been otherwise present.

In the mean time, the Nets are cheating themselves.  Only this might actually get them somewhere instead of Boston for a change in next year's NBA draft.

Lest we forget, the league office doesn't appreciate when the term tanking is applied to rebuilding organizations.