Brooklyn Nets Fail to Buck The Trend in Season Opener at Milwaukee

From the desk: THE HOOPS OF FLATBUSH

Look What The Milwaukee Bucks Did to Flatbush, Again!

Going up against Brook Lopez and Giannis Antetokounmpo, I was somewhat surprised to see Nicolas Claxton starting over, say, LaMarcus Aldridge, James Johnson, and/or Paul Millsap.

That's not a criticism of Claxton, who scored twelve points with seven rebounds in 24 minutes.  With so many new faces, this team still is learning how to play alongside one another.  Therefore, Claxton has seniority and lineup experience.  So, I'm not begrudging Coach Nash's decision.

However, the trio of Aldridge, Johnson, and Millsap joined together for a grand total of two points, three assists, and six rebounds, with none on the offensive boards.  Meanwhile, Giannis finished tied with a game-high 32 points and led the floor with 14 rebounds.  Said another way, Antetokounmpo outscored all players mentioned above by five points and outrebounded them by one.

The game result was the Nets getting outrebounded by a factor of ten.  Milwaukee secured 13 offensive rebounds and 54 boards overall.  A microcosm of Brooklyn's interior play was Antetokounmpo pulling down five offensive boards, which matched the entire Nets team.  Otherwise, defensive rebounds were almost equal, but possession was far from that.  Throw in twelve turnovers and Milwaukee attempted 21 more shots than Brooklyn.

Kevin Durant canceled out Giannis with 32 points of his own and eleven defensive rebounds.  James Harden and Kris Middleton cancel each other out with 20 points apiece.  Claxton and Jrue Holiday also canceled each other out.  Patty Mills scored 21 points in 29 minutes, while Pat Connaughton scored 20 points in 30 minutes, both coming off the bench.

Afterwhich, the scales favored the Bucks, who had six players scoring in double-digits while the Nets had four.  Milwaukee got 15 points off the bench from Jordan Nwora, and Grayson Allen added ten.  Joe Harris picked up where he left off with nine points in a team-high 31 minutes (yeah, that's a dig), and Blake Griffin was limited to six points in 23 minutes.

James Harden distributed a game-high eight assists, but the Bucks did a better job overall with 25 team assists versus 19 for the Nets.

But the true listlessness of Brooklyn's season-opening game was punctuated by 13/23 (56.5%) from the free-throw line.  On a side note, Giannis was afforded nine opportunities from the line, but Durant and Harden together were limited to ten.

Tuesday's opener indeed brings interior defense, physicality, and other more outstanding issues into the spotlight, but this was only game one.  Coach Nash still needs time to reestablish a cohesive rotation. 

Thus, all other criticisms are at this moment put on hold.