March 29, 2024
Gregory Alcala

Gregory Alcala

Gregory Alcala is a reporter for What's The 411Sports, a weekly sports news and commentary television show. He is What's The 411Sports' primary reporter covering the Brooklyn Nets. Greg is very passionate about sports and welcomes the challenge of speaking about a variety of sports including his main interest in professional basketball and baseball. 

Greg gained his initial career experience at St. Francis College, as one of the founding members of the Terriers Sports Network (TSN). He is responsible for shooting live sporting events, reporting news for packages and broadcast production duties. Additionally, Greg maintains his own sports blog entitled, "Sports N' Thoughts," where he develops sports related articles and posts video content for public consumption.

With forced turnovers, bad shooting, and Brook Lopez not a huge factor, the Brooklyn Nets struggled against a young and athletic Orlando Magic

On Star Wars night at the Barclays Center, the force was clearly with the Orlando Magic, opposed to the host, Brooklyn Nets. To demonstrate how badly thing went for the Nets, lets skip to the 4th quarter. Nikola Vucevic, Elfrid Payton and the rest of the Magic’s starters sat comfortably on the sidelines while the second unit finished the game because the damage to the Nets had already been done.

A second half surge revolving around defense, steals, and a consistent offensive effort, enabled the Magic to hand the Nets their second straight loss in a convincing fashion, 105-82 on Monday night.

The Magic improved to (13-11) on the season, while the Nets fell to (7-17), their third loss in the last five games.

Prior to tonight's game, Joe Johnson told What’s The 411Sports that the Nets would have to get off to a good start and keep their turnovers down. During the first half of the game, Johnson’s pregame strategy came into fruition. The Nets battled with Orlando, keeping it close and competitive, down by seven entering halftime up 52-45. In the 3rd, it all fell apart for the Nets.

Their offense struggled to keep up with the young and athletic Magic, and turnovers in addition to bad shooting, prevented the Nets from protecting their home-court. Facing an uphill climb in the fourth down by 14 points, the Nets would miss their first four shots, while the Magic enjoyed a 13-4 run, led by Andrew Nicholson who scored 10 of his 15 total points, in the 4th quarter alone.

The Magic converted eight forced turnovers into eight points while the Nets offense couldn’t find their rhythm. Even though six players scored in double-figures for the Nets, Brook Lopez, the team’s best player, on his star wars bobble-head night, wasn’t much of a factor recording 11 points total for the game.

“I definitely take responsibility for this one,” Lopez said post-game. “I felt I was a complete negative for our team. I kind of let us down, pulled us back. I definitely need to be better and know I can be. I was very frustrating.”

Where Lopez struggled, Vucevic, his counterpart flourished. The former USC Trojan scored his team-high 18 points in 27 min, 12 of which came in the 3rd. All 12 of Vucevic’s points helped extend what was a seven-point Magic lead to a double-digit advantage, setting up the second unit, who served as the clean-up crew in the 4th.

Payton, who also had a fine game-scoring 17 points and five assists-torched the Nets on the perimeter. Tobias Harris added 15 points and nine rebounds and Victor Oladipo punched in 10.

For the Nets, Jarrett Jack led all scorers with 15 points and described the Nets locker-room following the loss as “Disappointed.”

“We just didn’t perform with the necessary effort to be competitive in the game,” Jack said. “You do that, you get these embarrassing types of losses.”

Thaddeus Young, who finished his night with 10 points, also acknowledged the Nets lack of effort.

“They just played harder than us.” Young said following the loss. “They played harder than us, and they got to all the loose balls. They got to everything they wanted to do within their sets and they took away a lot of stuff that we wanted to do and forced us into tough, difficult shots that we didn’t make.”

The Nets, as a team, shot 38 percent from the field validating the Magic commitment to defense, a testament to their head coach, Scott Skiles, who lives and breathes it.

When most of your core players are questioning the effort of the team, that’s a problem, and the Nets owning one of the worst records in the league doesn’t make it any better.

Wednesday night, the Nets will host the (14-9) Miami Heat, who are in a two-way tie for first place in the southeast division.

VIDEO DISCUSSION: New York Jets defeat the New York Giants 28-18; Jets now 2-1

It's only the preseason, but in NEW YORK, this past weekend, football fans had their eyes on the Snoopy Bowl, the annual preseason match-up between the NY Jets and the NY Giants. The Jets won 28-18, which included an Antonio Cromartie pick-six. Ouch! Jets quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick performed very well.

Washington Elevates Kirk Cousins To Starting Quarterback

An independent neurologist benched Washington quarterback Robert Griffin III, and then the other shoe dropped, Washington announced that Kirk Cousins will be the starting quarterback leaving RG3 out in the cold and unsettled.

VIDEO DISCUSSION: Sam Ukwuachu is in the DogHouse and Steve Sarkisian and Cris Carter are on the Bench

In The DogHouse: Sam Ukwuaachu

Sam Ukwuachu, a former freshman All-American at Boise State University before transferring to play football at Baylor University is off the bench and in the dog house. Ukwuachu was convicted of sexually assaulting a former Baylor soccer player in 2013. He will spend 180 days in jail and receive probation.

On The Bench: Steve Sarkisian and Cris Carter

USC coach Steve Sarkisian for his reported drunken behavior at a booster meeting. Sarkisian released the following apology:

"I sincerely apologize to my players and staff and to our fans for my behavior and my inappropriate language at our kickoff event Saturday night. I have a responsibility to all of them and I let them down. Pat Haden talked to me after the event about my actions and I assured him this will not happen again."

Also, on the bench is NFL Hall of Famer Cris Carter. At a 2014 NFL Rookie Symposium, Carter told players in the NFC session to have a "fall guy in your crew" in case a player got in trouble.

 

 

Brooklyn Nets will open 2015-16 NBA regular season at home at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on October 28, 2015

The Brooklyn Nets will open its 2015-16 season at the Barclays Center on Wednesday, October 28, when they entertain the Chicago Bulls, with tip-off at 7:30 p.m. The home opener will be the Bulls' lone appearance in Brooklyn this season.

The Nets will welcome the defending NBA champion Golden State Warriors to Brooklyn on Sunday, December 6 at 6:00 p.m., which will tip off a six-game homestand, the longest of the campaign. The home stand also includes an afternoon contest on Saturday, December 12 versus the Los Angeles Clippers at 5:00 p.m.

In addition to the game against the Clippers, the Nets will host four other afternoon contests over the course of the upcoming season. The Nets will entertain the Minnesota Timberwolves on Sunday, December 20 at 1:00 p.m., the Washington Wizards on Saturday, December 26 at 4:00 p.m., the Oklahoma City Thunder on Sunday, January 24 at 3:30 p.m. and the New Orleans Pelicans on Sunday, April 3 at 1:00 p.m.

Brooklyn will host the Eastern Conference champion Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday, January 20 and Thursday, March 24, while the San Antonio Spurs visit the borough on Monday, January 11, with all three contests starting at 7:30 p.m.

VIDEO DISCUSSION: Will LeBron James play less minutes in the 2015-16 NBA Season?

The Cleveland Cavaliers want to cut Kyrie Irving and Lebron James’s minutes next season.

Signing Mo Williams and Richard Jefferson is a move that could help the Cavs do just that.

Is this a smart move and will the Cavs gain an advantage when other teams follow suit?

VIDEO DISCUSSION: Is it too far-fetched to think that Timberwolves shooting guard Andrew Wiggins could be an NBA MVP?

According to rapppler.com, Minnesota Timberwolves point guard, Ricky Rubio believes that Andrew Wiggins, the team's shooting guard, will win an NBA MVP Award someday.

Is the Jets win over the Falcons a cause for celebration or cautious optimism?

Behind the strength of Leonard Williams and Ryan Fitzpatrick, the New York Jets won their first preseason game, 30-22 over the Atlanta Falcons. 

Is this a cause for celebration or cautious optimism?

VIDEO DISCUSSION: Should New York Mets fans be worried now that Lucas Duda will be on the DL?

 

In the midst of a pennant race, New York Mets first basemen, Lucas Duda was placed on the 15-day DL after being taken out of the 7th inning due to a locked back. Will this hurt their pennant chase?

Are your worried about the bullpen or hitting, or both?

VIDEO DISCUSSION: Did the Cleveland Browns do the right thing by giving Manziel a second chance?

Cleveland Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel got a touchdown in the Cleveland's first preseason game against Washington. Manziel did his job and didn’t flash the money sign.

Could this be a new beginning for Johnny Manziel?

Do you agree with What's The 411Sports host Glenn Gilliam that New York Jets quarterback Geno Smith would not have been able to get away the Manziel's antics?

Is there is a double standard in the NFL?

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