Brooklyn Nets vs. Golden State Warriors 12-22-16
Time: Thursday December 22, 2016, 7:30 PM ET
Venue: Barclay’s Center | Brooklyn, NY
TV: YES Network
Projected Starters:
Brooklyn: Jeremy Lin, Sean Kilpatrick, Bojan Bogdanovic, Trevor Booker, Brook Lopez
Golden State: Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Kevin Durant, Kevon Looney, Zaza Pachulia
Absences:
Brooklyn: Isaiah Whitehead
Golden State: Draymond Green
After a blowout loss to division rival Toronto Raptors on Tuesday night 116-104 the Brooklyn Nets hit the hardest part of their Christmas week. Tonight, they get the Warriors. Tomorrow is the champion Cavaliers. Let us start with tonight.
The Warriors are an extremely good basketball team with a starting five that is arguably the best in the NBA. They score the most points in the NBA and they rank top three in three’s made a game. They also have two of the top six three point scorers in the league in Steph Curry (2) and Klay Thompson (T-6).
The Nets shoot just as many three’s, about, as the Warriors do but do not make anywhere near the amount that they do. Golden State makes 38.1% of their three-pointers while Brooklyn makes 32.9% of theirs. That will be a key to the game; which team can shoot the long ball at a higher percentage.
There is not much to say about this game. The NBA really gave the Nets a tough Christmas week with the Raptors in Toronto and then a back-to-back with the Warriors and the Cavaliers. After each team faces Brooklyn, they will face-off in a Finals rematch on Christmas day. Brooklyn is just the warm-up game for that game.
Since this is a warm-up game to a revenge match for the Warriors, maybe Brooklyn can sneak one past the NBA Finals favorite Warriors. Remember that Brooklyn nearly beat last year’s record-breaking team in Brooklyn in December. They ended up losing in overtime, but not many teams got that close last season.
One last tid-bit, Brooklyn has had great success against the Western Conference this season. Out of their seven wins, five of them have been against a Western Conference opponent. Wait, one more. This is the first time Brook-Lin will be in full-force in a long time. Both Lin and Lopez are expected to start.