Brooklyn Nets Face Big Test Against League's Stingiest Defense

From the desk of: THE HOOPS OF FLATBUSH

Just Not Hard Enough ...

SUNDAY

Nets    112

Suns   138

FINAL

Entering game ten of this still young season, we may now speak in trends.  Look no further than Brooklyn's defensive effort or lack thereof for the Nets 4-5 record and eighth place conference standing.  They rank third in the NBA with 119.8 points per game, but allow 121.7 points per game which ranks second to last.  While some of the names have changed, none of this is new.

There's plenty of fodder from Sunday's 26-point loss at Phoenix to feed off.  Like the Suns game opening 10-1 run; Jarrett Allen's early foul trouble; having no answer for Devin Booker; Ricky Rubio's double-double and a game high 12 assists; allowing Phoenix 19/42 (45%) from beyond the arc; or even Coach Atkinson's inclination to walk the near length of the floor in order to berate an official.

I will just say Sunday's game marks the Nets second double-digit loss, and their worst defeat to date.  In either instance, the Nets failed to score their season average against a defensively viable opponent.  Of Brooklyn's first nine opponents Phoenix and Indianapolis play the best defense.  The Pacers, presently ranked eighth in the NBA in points against, defeated the Nets by ten points in game four at Barclays.  Then Sunday happened.  The Suns, 13th in the NBA in points allowed, deny Brooklyn a 20-point scorer.  Kyrie Irving is Brooklyn's lone starter in double-digits with 15 points on 7/16 from the field.  Otherwise Spencer Dinwiddie leads the Nets with 18 points off the bench.  DeAndre Jordan and Dzanan Musa score in double-digits, also off the bench.

Defensively speaking, Brooklyn's four victories have come against the 15th ranked Knicks; 26th ranked Rockets; 30th ranked Pelicans; and the 23rd ranked Trailblazers.

Otherwise they've sustained one point losses against the 20th ranked Mavericks, and 27th ranked Grizzlies; a four point loss against the 17th ranked Pistons; and the aforementioned double-digit losses against the Pacers and Suns.

Brooklyn next faces the Utah Jazz whom sport the NBA's stingiest defense.  The Jazz are undefeated at home and have allowed just 97.0 points per game.  While the Nets should rightfully be credited with defeating the Houston Rockets, it is the Jazz whom to date represent their toughest match.  If you wanna know how potent the Nets offense really is, let us wait and see how well they click against Utah ... or not.