Finally. After a long summer of waiting, Brooklyn Nets basketball is finally upon us; the season opener is here. The Nets face off against their division rivals in the Boston Celtics tonight at 7:30 p.m.
Brooklyn Nets vs. Boston Celtics 10-26-16
Time: Wednesday October 26 2016, 7:30 PM ET
Venue: TD Garden, Boston, MA
TV: YES Network, CSN New England
Projected Starters:
Brooklyn: Jeremy Lin, Bojan Bogdanovic, Rondae Hollis-Jefferson, Trevor Booker, Brook Lopez
Boston: Isaiah Thomas, Avery Bradley, Jae Crowder, Al Horford, Amir Johnson
Absences:
Brooklyn: Randy Foye, Caris LeVert
Boston: Kelly Olynyk, Marcus Smart
Brooklyn finished with a 21-61 record last season while the Celtics finished 48-34 and had the number five seed in the playoffs. The Celtics, though, lost to the Atlanta Hawks in six games in the first round.
The rivalry took another step when the Celtics took the Nets’ lottery pick, which turned out to be a number three overall pick. With that pick, the Celtics took Jaylen Brown out of California University.
Fortunately for Brooklyn, this is a whole new season. Everyone has the same record and everyone has the same chances to make the playoff push en route for a championship trophy.
The Nets, though, are predicted by many to be one of the worst, if not the worst, team in the NBA. Some, myself included, are more optimistic than the others. Boston, meanwhile, has predictions to make the playoffs and even win the Atlantic Division.
The Nets will have a tough test to start off the new season as Boston has a lot of weapons that can and will give Brooklyn a lot of hardship. Isaiah Thomas, Avery Bradley, and Al Horford are just an excerpt of the players that can produce and will produce.
Thomas averaged 22.2 points 6.2 assists, and 1.1 steals a game. He will get, take, and make shots and move the ball around to get his team mates involved. Avery Bradley and youngsters Marcus Smart and Jaylen Brown look to benefit the most from Thomas’ ball movement with Kelly Olynyk and Al Horford getting all of the rebounds to kick-start the offense.
Fortunately for Brooklyn, both Olynyk and Smart will be out for the season opener due to injury.
The Nets have weapons of their own. Jeremy Lin is most certainly no sleeper. He is a leader and a scorer and will produce big numbers this season. Add Lin in to his counterpart in Brook Lopez, and you have a big/little combination that will give the entire league nightmares.
Brook-Lin is a combination that will thrive this year from lack of external scoring and high minutes. These two will be on the floor a lot this year and these two will attempt and make a lot of shots, resulting in a lot of points scored.
The Nets also have Rondae Hollis-Jefferson and Bojan Bogdanovic and Sean Kilpatrick that will produce and score buckets. Luis Scola and Greivis Vasquez along with Trevor Booker look to be integral veteran additions for this team as well.
Tonight will come down to who was more prepared to play. The Celtics, on paper, are by far the better team than the Nets. The Nets, though, have players that have shown they can play at a high level in this league. If the Celtics are looking further into their schedule and do not make much of the Nets, the Celtics will lose.
Look for this game to be highly competitive and high scoring. The Nets showed they have a good offense by averaging 101 points per game this preseason.
Tune in at 7:30 to show Jeremy Lin and your Nets you are with them and will support them. Cheer on your team; there is always have a chance.
It is a new season, new hopes, new team, same goals.
Brooklyn Nets vs. Boston Celtics Season Opener Recap
Brooklyn Nets vs. Boston Celtics 10-26-16 ScoreThe Brooklyn Nets lost to division rival Boston Celtics to start off their 2016-17 campaign.
So. This was an interesting game. So much stress there at the end.
Brooklyn played competitive the entire first half, but then things fell apart in the second half. The legendary third quarter woes struck the Nets yet again as Boston outscored them by ten points, 23-33. That gave Boston a 16 point lead going into the final frame.
Brooklyn got themselves in a hole as deep as 23 points, but found a way to keep grinding and fighting and producing, resulting in a massive run. The run started off at 11-0 in favor of Brooklyn, but then, next thing you know, the Nets are within three points with under 24 seconds to play.
Chris McCullough rebounded a failed three and it looked as if he may have gotten fouled by Isaiah Thomas, but instead the referees said the ball simply went out of bounds off of Boston. Justin Hamilton got the ball off of the inbound and missed the potential game-tying three-pointer.
Brooklyn sent Boston to the free-throw line where they hit a pair. Joe Harris then took a few shots from three to end the game, none of which fell through for him.
Bojan Bogdanovic led the Nets in scoring with 21 points, followed by Justin Hamilton at 19, and, yours truly, Jeremy Lin at 18 points. Brook Lopez, the alleged star, scored a pitiful 7 points on 1/7 shooting.
The offense is there as seen by the 117 points scored, but the defense is what prevented us from winning this game. Allowing 54% shooting and 122 points in a game will give you the loss just about every time. The Nets were lucky to have been as close as they were as late in the game as they were.
This was a roller-coaster first game. If this season is as up-and-down as this game was, Nets fans will have gray hairs before the All-Star break. Fans should be proud of of their team’s performance tonight as they fought tooth and nail to climb back from a deep hole.
Jeremy Lin played well, not as well as he could and should. Brook Lopez was nearly non-existent and a non-factor. If these two, Brook-Lin, can play to their highest level, we will beat the good teams in Boston and Toronto and even teams outside of our division.
This is a solid team and they showed it tonight. Nets fans should be proud.
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