Brooklyn Nets: The Coach of Flatbush Loses His Cool

From the desk of:  THE HOOPS OF FLATBUSH

No Blood - No Foul..!

Brooklyn Nets: Congratulations, Kenny Atkinson, on your first NBA ejection.

No blood - no foul.  That's how the refs saw it.

The guys in the stripes allowed the Nets and Timberwolves to play a somewhat physical game Saturday night at the Target Center.  Both head coaches naturally hounded the refs all night, directing most of their vitriol at referee Tony Brothers.  As one coach growled at him from the camera's left, the other barked from the camera's right.

Pretty typical stuff ...

This went on for roughly 42-minutes, right up until an outraged Coach Atkinson got ejected with 5:55 remaining in the fourth quarter.

Granted, Thibodeau was just being Thibodeau.  But in the first quarter, the refs seemed to be whistling his favorite tune.  And so Coach Atkinson's initial fury over his team being in foul trouble less than four minutes into the game may have been justified.  With 8:39 still showing on the clock, Minnesota went on to score nine points from the charity line en route to a 30-11 first quarter lead, from which the Nets would not recover.

The Nets were shorthanded to begin with, playing minus the services of D'Angelo Russell, Caris LeVert, and Rondae Hollis-Jefferson.  Yet, Flatbush outscored (first place) Minnesota 86-81 over the remaining three quarters of the game.

So, yeah, that's very frustrating.

But with under six minutes left in the game, Atkinson finally blew his top.  Believing Joe Harris deserved better after what he perceived was a hard foul committed in the offensive paint, Atkinson let referee Tony Brothers have it.  When the Coach of Flatbush got tee'd up, he exploded with rage.  Good thing Spencer Dinwiddie was nearby to intercept his coach, otherwise Atkinson could have landed himself in even deeper trouble.

As it stands, I'm sure the players would love to pay off whatever fine the league office levies against their guy.  Coaches can be overbearing at times (or all the time).  But Atkinson has established a culture of development here.  And episodes such as this reveal the coaches who are willing to battle right alongside their players from the some of the more emotionally divested, overly critical chess masters of the NBA.  The more players trust and respect their coach, the more agreeable, attentive, and teachable they become.  That's what the Nets have going.

On that note, congratulations, Kenny Atkinson, on your first NBA ejection.

It was a good one.

Well done.

While D'Angelo Russell was observing a scheduled day off, Jahlil Okafor was banging bodies with Minnesota's Carl Anthony Towns.  He led the Nets with 21-points, and secured six rebounds in 24-minutes off the bench.  Towns scored 16-points in 34-minutes, but dominated the boards with a game-high 19 rebounds.

Spencer Dinwiddie distributed a game-high ten assists.

Next stop: Tuesday at Madison Square Garden.