After beating the Nuggets on Friday and with Steph Curry and Draymond Green both out for Saturday’s meeting with the Warriors, it looked like the Nets had a shot at moving to 6-5 on Saturday night.
Not so fast.
Playing on the second night of a back-to-back against a team that features Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson is a nearly impossible task and with Quinn Cook hitting all the shots for the Warriors as well, it became a monumental task for the Nets. They kept it close for a while in the first half, but by the time the half rolled around, it was a 12 point deficit. It only got worse from there. The Warriors eventually prevailed 116-100.
Joe Harris was the star of the night for Brooklyn, scoring 24 points, but almost all of his best moments came in the first half of the game. Same for D’Angelo Russell, who caught fire in the first quarter and then seemed to vanish from there.
Jarrett Allen? Good rebounding early on, but another guy who vanished. And let’s not talk about Caris LeVert, who had his worst game of the season. Four points, two rebounds, no assists. While the Nets managed to get some good opportunities early on, LeVert never got anything going.
So, that’s the basic overview of the game. If you want some thoughts on how it all developed, here are my quarter-by-quarter notes. You’ll notice they get much shorter as the game went on.
1ST QUARTER
- Great start for D’Angelo Russell.
- Warriors definitely opening this up with a “Durant and Klay are our entire offense” kind of thing.
- Jared Dudley passed up a layup for a turnover, which does not seem like a great recipe for winning basketball.
- Russell did a great job scoring after Jonas Jerebko was switched onto him. This is a game tonight where you need to keep searching out those switches.
- It’s 20-17 halfway through this quarter. OFFENSE Y’ALL.
- This sounds weird, but you have to figure out how to stop Quinn Cook tonight.
- Jarrett Allen is doing a good job on the offensive glass so far.
- Looney blocking RHJ is not great. Need him to take advantage inside.
- It’s wild that the Nets are able to put in a lineup with zero starters & be like yeah, it’s all cool. Lots of depth on this team. Haven’t even seen Napier once.
- Ugh, I don’t want to see RHJ shoot threes.
- Really liked the last Nets play. Some good movement from the offense helps get the big switched onto Dinwiddie, who takes advantage & scores.
2ND QUARTER
- If Warriors get the “Klay popping off the screen” thing going…uh oh.
- Joe Harris hot to start this quarter, hitting a pair of threes.
- Liking DeMarre Carroll in this quarter. Really active.
- Fouling Klay a lot is one way to slow him down?
- Joe Harris has 17 points already.
- Meanwhile, Quinn Cook is heating up. Makes a big shot on one possession, throw the alley-oop on the next one. Who would have thought he’d be a key to keeping the Warriors in this one? (Oh, yeah…everyone who watched him fill in for Steph last year.)
- LeVert is back in & doing things. It feels like he was on the bench for a while, right?
- I’m learning plays here. Nets running a lot of rub five, according to the Warriors announcers, getting bigs switched out onto the perimeter. It’s been effective, especially with the Warriors not having Draymond tonight.
- Kevin Durant is so good. Forgot how to dribble and still ended up making a shot on the possession.
- I think more Jordan Bell in the second half could be a key to keeping the Nets from getting back into this. Hopefully, they don’t play more Jordan Bell.
- Yeah, Jordan Bell is making this tough.
- Quinn Cook is not the defensive sieve I expected. Oops.
- Down 12 at the half. Not over, but Warriors seemed to figure out what the Nets were trying offensively by the end there.
3RD QUARTER
- Pretty slow start to the quarter here.
- 24-second violation by the Nets and it wasn’t even close — Dudley didn’t look like he knew the clock was winding down.
- I know we’re about to have a Warriors third quarter. The Nets are fun and much better than people give them credit for, but back-to-back against the Nuggets and Warriors is a tough situation. Feels like Warriors are going to hit the gas pedal and take advantage of that.
- Ugh, Klay coming around a screen.
- This third quarter is not going well. Dinwiddie being aggressive is the only real saving grace.
- Shabazz Napier is playing here in the third.
- Warriors with a pretty big lineup here. Iggy as ball-handler. Two traditional bigs. Durant and Klay.
- The Nets are down 20. It feels like both more and less than that simultaneously.
4TH QUARTER
- oh wow more Klay Thompson
- I’m just here to see who Brooklyn plays later in the quarter.
- Joe Harris scores for the first time in the half. Great job by the Warriors to get him out of this game.
- Klay Thompson scored his 22nd point and I could swear he had 40.
- Kenneth Faried with a good alley-oop. Wish he could do more of this team than garbage minute rebounds and dunks.
- Kurucs is in. I don’t know. Warriors games have a way of making you lose focus by the end.
- Someone on the Warriors scored his first NBA points. Good for him!
- The Warriors announcers are extremely high on Kenneth Faried and will not stop talking about him.
So, that was the game. Tough road loss, but even a short-handed Warriors team is still a Warriors team.