Brooklyn Nets Blog – Page 131 – NBA Blog

Nov 10: Heat 99, Nets 94

The AP reports: Dwyane Wade scored 19 of his 33 points in the fourth quarter, 14 of those in the final 4 1/2 minutes, and the Heat rallied to beat the New Jersey Nets 99-94 on Monday night to stay perfect at home this season. He entered the game 0-for-9 from 3-point range this season, but connected on four against the Nets, including three from beyond the arc during the frantic comeback… Michael Beasley scored 29 points and Daequan Cook added 15 for the Heat, who scored 26 points off turnovers and went 25-for-26 from the foul line—including a game-sealing 6-for-6 effort by Chris Quinn in the final 12.9 seconds… Yi Jianlian made a career-best five 3-pointers and finished with 24 points and 10 rebounds for the Nets, who got 22 points from Vince Carter… Former Heat guard Keyon Dooling scored 18 points for New Jersey, which also got 12 from Jarvis Hayes and 11 from Bobby Simmons.

InsideHoops.com Notes: Brook Lopez played just 14 minutes for the Nets and did little. Mario Chalmers, who starts at point guard for the Heat, had just 2 assists. Shawn Marion, Marcus Banks and Mark Blount didn’t play.

Nov 8: Pacers 98, Nets 80

The AP reports: Danny Granger scored 23 points to lead the Indiana Pacers to a 98-80 victory over the New Jersey Nets on Saturday night… Indiana guard T.J. Ford nearly had a triple-double, but settled for 13 points, nine rebounds and eight assists. Troy Murphy had 17 points and 10 rebounds, and Jeff Foster added 12 points and 13 rebounds for the Pacers.

InsideHoops.com Notes: Devin Harris didn’t play for the Nets. Starting in his place at point guard was Keyon Dooling, who shot 7-of-11 for 17 points and 4 assists. Vince Carter shot 11-of-22 for 31 points. But the Nets frontcourt was awful: Yi Jianlian shot 1-of-10 for 2 points and 11 rebounds. Bobby Simmons tossed up bricks for 6 points and little else. And Josh Boone had 4 points with 7 rebounds. The Pacers dominated the glass and had 23 assists while the Nets had just 10. Mike Dunleavy still hasn’t played yet this season for the Pacers.

Nov 7: Nets 103, Pistons 96

The AP reports: Allen Iverson’s first game with Detroit turned into the best night of Devin Harris’ career. Harris scored a career-high 38 points Friday night, outplaying Iverson in the second half and leading the New Jersey Nets to a 103-96 victory over the Pistons… Vince Carter and Josh Boone each scored 18 for New Jersey, which got its first home win after two losses. Boone also pulled down 14 rebounds. Iverson had 24 points and six assists after finally getting to suit up… Richard Hamilton scored 22 points, while Tayshaun Prince added 19 points and 11 rebounds.

Pregame from first Iverson Pistons game

Raw and unedited notes from New Jersey where the Nets are hosting the Detroit Pistons. It’s the first game for Allen Iverson since being traded to Detroit from the Denver Nuggets.

The Pistons pregame locker room scene was the usual for Detroit: loose and loudly filled with rap music (old Redman songs) and random entertaining remarks from Rasheed Wallace.

I asked Sheed, who was playing the music from a speaker-connected ipod, if he was playing Redman, who is from Jersey, because they were here, or if it was just a coincidence. It was the latter, Sheed informed me.

Iverson, in the corner, had about 17 reporters circling nearby. ‘Go ask him a question’ yelled Rasheed at us after we stood waiting in silence for a long time. ‘They know no questions before the game’ said Iverson. (Note: those two quotes are paraphrases.)

It is now tipoff. Iverson got a great cheer from Nets fans when introduced.

Talk to you after the game.

–Jeff

Kenyon Martin foundation forms

NBA Star Kenyon Martin announced today the establishment of The Kenyon Martin Foundation at The Giving Back Fund.

The Foundation will focus on providing life-changing opportunities to underserved youth throughout the country, with an emphasis on assisting families without father figures in Denver, Dallas, and Cincinnati.

Martin has a long history of distinguished charitable involvement. He has served as an honorary Ambassador for the March of Dimes’ Colorado Chapter and is currently a Board Member of the American Institute for Stuttering. He has also lent his support to the numerous charitable endeavors of his teammates and other notable figures both here and abroad.

“I was given an opportunity to earn a wonderful living doing what I love, playing basketball,” Martin observed “I hope to give other children opportunities to do what they love as well. My goal is to do what I can to help them realize their dreams and let them know that no matter where you come from you can always succeed.”

“I applaud Kenyon’s sense of responsibility and obligation to others, in using the hard-earned lessons he learned during his own difficult childhood to help a new generation of kids,” commented Marc Pollick, President of The Giving Back Fund. “He exemplifies the maxim ‘to whom much is given, much is expected…’“

The Denver Nuggets’ power forward Kenyon Martin was raised in Oak Cliff, Texas, attended college in Cincinnati, and currently resides in Dallas during the off-season.

Nets need defense

The young Nets have some growing pains, especially on the defensive side of the floor. The Newark Star-Ledger reports: If you ask Lawrence Frank where his team is going wrong, he’ll pull out a list. The majority of the Nets’ problems pertain to their youth — lacking an understanding of positioning and tendencies, leading to game plan mistakes and bad technique and despair — and he is convinced they’ll solve them in time. But aggressiveness is also an issue. Fact: In their first three games, Nets defenders have drawn a total of five charging fouls, even though they’ve had roughly 40 chances to draw one.

Nov 4: Suns 114, Nets 86

The AP reports: Raja Bell hit all six of his 3-pointers and scored 22 points, and the Phoenix Suns shot 63 percent from the field in beating the 114-86 on Tuesday night… Nash added 12 points and 11 assists, O’Neal had 18 points and six rebounds, and Stoudemire added 14 points as the Suns won for the third time in four games… Vince Carter had 19 points and Yi Jianlian added 15 and eight rebounds for the Nets, who lost their second straight game… For the game, the Suns were 43-of-68 from the field, and 12-of-18 from 3-point range. The Nets shot 34 percent, hitting 28 of 83 shots.

Nov 1: Warriors 105, Nets 97

The Warriors had three players score 20 or more points and got to the free throw line 52 times in beating the Nets. For Golden State, Stephen Jackson had 23 points, 5 rebounds and 8 assists. Andris Biedrins (8-of-11) had 23 points, 11 rebounds, 2 steals and 2 blocks. Corey Maggette (just 3-of-13) had 20 points, 10 rebounds and 2 steals. The Warriors hit just 34 of their 52 free throws. The Nets went 21-of-28 from the line. For New Jersey, Vince Carter had 20 points, 3 rebounds and 4 assists. Starting center Josh Boone had 17 points, 14 rebounds and 3 blocks. Devin Harris (just 3-of-12) had 13 points, 4 rebounds and 5 assists. Ryan Anderson scored 12 off the bench. Brook Lopez had 10 points, 8 rebounds, 2 steals and 2 blocks off the bench.

Sean Williams asked Nets to skip option

The New York Post (Fred Kerber) reports: The Nets’ Sean Williams admitted yesterday he asked team president Rod Thorn not to pick up his option, which would have helped him get a new contract quicker and become a free agent. But he insisted he still wants to be a Net. “I told Rod I didn’t want him to pick up my option,” said Williams, whose third year – 2009-2010 at $1.629 million – was picked up on Thursday. “It had nothing to do with me not wanting to be here as part of this team because I love this team. “It’s part of the business. I want to get to my second deal as fast as possible.”

InsideHoops.com editor (Jeff) says: Williams is super-athletic and can apply it in ways that can help a team, but for the next few seasons will have to keep refining his game. Right now he’s more of a good 8th-10th man who can show flashes of being a good 6th man.

Marcus Williams reflects on Nets

Marcus Williams was a backup point guard on the Nets and didn’t play tons of minutes because extremely good players were always ahead of him. Now he’s barely playing for the Warriors and the point guards ahead of him are lucky to even be in the league. Here’s the New York Daily News (Julian Garcia):

As for what went wrong in Jersey, Williams said playing behind a legend after being drafted in the first round of the ‘06 draft made it tough for him to get anything going personally. “I played behind Jason,” Williams said. “Obviously that prevented me from playing as much as I wanted to. And then they brought in Devin, and Devin was having a career year. You can’t really stop a guy from playing who’s having a career year. So I think situations and opportunities weren’t here.” Williams had a reputation for being out of shape while with the Nets, and not necessarily working hard enough to get into shape. He also suffered several injuries along the way that prevented him from earning steady playing time.

I don’t see Williams falling out of the league anytime soon. He’ll have a few more seasons to prove himself worthy of a job before that would happen.