Caris LeVert leads all scorers with 27 points and scores his first triple-double

Last night, the San Antonio Spurs lost their spurs and therefore, their direction and were never able to steer themselves to be competitive and thus, lost to the Brooklyn Nets 139-120. The Nets’ 139 points were a season-high. With the win, the Brooklyn Nets improved to 28-34 with their wire-to-wire victory, while the Spurs fell to 26-35 on the season.

By The Numbers:

Brooklyn had eight players score in double figures matching a season-high for Nets in double figures and this wasn’t the first time. The most recent was achieved at the Charlotte Hornets on February 22, 2020.

• Field Goals: Nets – 53.1 percent (51-of-96) versus Spurs - 46.7 percent (43-of-92)
• Behind the Arc: Nets 41.7 (15-of-36) versus Spurs 29.4 percent (10-of-34)
• Free Throws: 71 percent (22-of-31) versus 88.9 (24-of-27)

Additionally, the Nets outrebounded the Spurs 52-38 (+14) and edged San Antonio 32-25 (+7) in assists.

The Nets led the Spurs 41-22 at the end of the first quarter

Brooklyn led San Antonio 75-54 at halftime and 75 points marked the most points the Nets have scored in a half in Barclays Center history (since 2012-13).

During the third quarter, the Nets scored 45 points setting a new franchise record for points scored in the third quarter, and 120-95 through three quarters, marking a franchise record through three quarters.

Coach Speak: Brooklyn Nets head coach Kenny Atkinson

How did Coach Kenny Atkinson compare the Brooklyn Nets’ performance last night against the Spurs versus the Grizzlies on Wednesday night?

“Energy was great,” Coach Atkinson said. “Compete level was great. Togetherness was great. You know how it is, there’s no easy games in this league. Especially the Spurs, Pop (Gregg Popovich), all that, so I give real credit to our guys. It was our energy level, our compete level. Obviously, we rebounded better than our last game. Our spirit was better. It was like the opposite of the other night. I wish I could give you an explanation why that happens.”

Brooklyn Nets Scoring Leaders

Caris LeVert, what can you say, he is playing like an NBA all-star! LeVert recorded his first career triple-double against the San Antonio Spurs on Friday night with a game-high 27 points, a season-high 11 rebounds, and a season-high 10 assists in 31 minutes. Joe Harris scored 20 points (9-of-14 FG, 2-of-4 3FG) with four rebounds in 26 minutes against the Spurs; Spencer Dinwiddie added 19 points and nine assists in 26 minutes; Timothé Luwawu-Cabarrot also scored 19 points, his second-most points scored in a game this season, shooting 5-of-7 from the field, 3-of-5 from distance and 6-of-6 from the free-throw line; DeAndre Jordan recorded his 10th double-double off the bench this season with 12 points and 10 rebounds in 23 minutes; Chris Chiozza added 13 points (5-of-9 FG, 3-of-5 3FG) with six rebounds, and three assists in 22 minutes; Taurean Prince posted 13 points and five rebounds off the bench, and; Jarrett Allen chipped in 12 points and eight rebounds.

San Antonio Spurs Scoring Leaders

DeMar DeRozan scored a team-high 24 points, nine assists, and five rebounds in 31 minutes for the San Antonio Spurs; both Trey Lyles and Derrick White each scored 19 points for the Spurs in 23 and 27 minutes respectively; Rudy Gay posted 15 points and six rebounds in 23 minutes, and; Keldon Johnson dropped 13 points and five rebounds.

What happened to San Antonio’s defense?

Coach Speak: Gregg Popovich, Head Coach, San Antonio Spurs

“It was embarrassing defense, soft,” said Gregg Popovich, head coach of the San Antonio Spurs. “I thought the guys we put in in the fourth quarter played with more physicality and more attitude than anybody else did all night long. Brooklyn took their starters out with five minutes to go and we actually outscored them and kept them to 10 or 12 points. Our starting group was really soft defensively. That’s pretty much been tough most of the year. So, if another team starts and helps us by not making shots then the defense doesn’t look as bad. If they’re scoring like the Nets did tonight – then you see the hole we get into and we get into that hole quite often. But I thought those kids in the fourth quarter did a great job of guarding, keeping people in front of them and playing with some physicality.”

Up Next for the San Antonio Spurs and the Brooklyn Nets

So, what’s next for the San Antonio Spurs?

The Spurs will travel to Cleveland to play the Cleveland Cavaliers on Sunday, March 8, 2020, at 7:30 p.m. ET.

Meanwhile, the Brooklyn Nets will host the Chicago Bulls at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, NY on also Sunday, March 8, 2020, at 3:00 p.m. ET.

TIP-INS:

o Caris LeVert is the 27th player in Brooklyn Nets history to register a triple-double and the third player to do so as a Brooklyn Net, joining Kyrie Irving and D'Angelo Russell. He also registered his fourth-career double-double and his second-career points/rebounds double-double on Friday, March 6, 2020.

Caris LeVert reached the 20-point mark for the 13th time this season on Friday, March 6, 2020, and the ninth time in his last 15 games (since the beginning of February). He totaled 20+ points five times in his first 22 games this season.

Nets hit 19 3-pointers; D’Angelo Russell led all scorers with 27 points and Shabazz Napier gets his first career double-double against the Denver Nuggets

The Denver Nuggets may be No. 2 in the NBA Western Conference, but there is something about the Brooklyn Nets that the Nuggets just can’t shake. The Nets became the second team this season to sweep the Nuggets (2-0), the other being the Milwaukee Bucks. And, because teams only play teams outside their conference twice in a season, there won’t be an opportunity for the Nuggets to even the score, so see you next season.

Perhaps, the Nuggets got too comfortable with their 14-point lead in the first quarter. Or, perhaps it was Nets head coach Kenny Atkinson’s decision to pull starting forward Rodions Kurucs, who wasn’t as productive as he could have been, and slide in DeMarre Carroll in his place, but whatever the reason, in short order the momentum changed. The Nets ended the first quarter down five points, Nuggets 35 – Nets 30. Brooklyn turned up the heat in the second leading by as much as 14 points at 5.6 seconds before ending the half up by 12 with a score of 72-60. The Nets saw more gold in the third quarter ending it up by 21 with a score of 108-87. Now, the Denver Nuggets are No. 2 in the Western Conference for a reason, and in the fourth stanza, the Nuggets dug deep into their inner being and gave the Nets a run for the money. Fortunately for the Nets, the Nuggets couldn’t seal the deal and the Nets won 135-130.

With the win, the Nets improved to 29-27 overall and 17-12 at Barclays Center and besting last season’s win total of 28-54, a huge accomplishment.

“I think it’s a sign of real progress,” Coach Atkinson said about the Nets’ current standing in the NBA. “It’s a sign that we’re a little ahead of schedule – I don’t want to get too excited because I look at the schedule for the rest of the year, but this was one of those games I looked at the schedule and said this is gonna be a tough one to get. But, I’m proud of the guys, proud of the organization. We’ve reached this victory mark this early – it’s a sign of real progress.”

At the end of a game, there are some coaches that take a loss and don’t show their disgust or disappointment in their team’s performance. However, last night, Denver Nuggets head coach Michael Malone gave kudos to the Brooklyn Nets, and overall, he was not happy with his some of his starters.

“The 3-point line was a byproduct of the real difference in the game which was how hard Brooklyn played,” Coach Malone told the media. “I think it’s a shame I have to take five starters out in the third quarter because you’re not playing at the level you’re supposed to play. This is a game of mistakes, you’re going to make mistakes, and you’re going to miss shots. Things are going to happen but when you’re out there and you’re going through the motion, that’s one thing I can’t stand to watch and will not stand to watch. I was really happy and proud of the guys who went into the game in that third quarter. They got us back in the game and gave us a little bit of life. Nineteen threes is an awful number, but alarming for me is back-to-back games when we have guys out there in our starting lineup and not playing as hard as they need to play.”

Nets point guard D’Angelo Russell explained how the Nets were able to take advantage of the Nuggets.

“I think it’s just us figuring out how to win,” Russell said. “Last year we were in this position a lot of the times and it came down to that – figuring out how to win situation. I think we were really putting our foot on that.”

And, on how good it felt as a group for the Nets to get their offensive groove going after Monday night’s shellacking by the Milwaukee Bucks, Russell said: “It’s special. To be honest, we got our guys coming back. We’ve been doing this without our guys so just to get our guys back in one at a time and keep that groove going, I think it’s really special.”

D’Angelo Russell was one of seven Nets players scoring in double-digits against the Denver Nuggets. Russell led the Nets with 27 points (6-of-9 3FG), six rebounds and 11 assists in 35 minutes and registered his single-season career-high sixth double-double in the process. And, he will now play in the NBA All-Star game replacing the Indiana Pacers guard Victor Oladipo who is out with an injury. DeMarre Carroll, posting his third double-double of the season, recorded 18 points, 10 rebounds, a career-high-tying six assists and a season-high four steals (matching the most steals recorded in a game by any Net this season) in 28 minutes off the bench. Joe Harris scored 17 points (7-of-13 FG, 3-of-6 3FG) with five rebounds, two assists and a steal in 32 minutes. Treveon Graham tallied 16 points (6-of-9 FG, 4-of-6 3FG) – marking his second-most points scored in a game in his career – with three rebounds, two steals and, an assist in 23 minutes. Both Jarrett Allen and Rondae Hollis-Jefferson logged 15 points and Allen added five rebounds to his total. Shabazz Napier, part of the Nets second unit last night, posted his first-career double-double with 10 points and a career-high 11 assists in 27 minutes.

For the Denver Nuggets, Nikola Jokic registered 25 points, 14 rebounds, and 10 assists; former Nets player, Mason Plumlee, posted 24 points, six rebounds, and three blocked shots; Jamal Murray accumulated 19 points, 11 assists, and three rebounds; Monte Harris, came off the bench and scored 18 points, five rebounds, and five assists; Malik Beasley, a starting guard, tallied 17 points, and; Trey Lyles, a member of Denver’s second unit chipped in 15 points and five rebounds.

With Plumlee being a former Nets player, of course, someone had to ask Coach Malone about Plumlee’s performance last night.

“He was everywhere,” Malone responded. “The guy was blocking shots on defense, running the floor and finishing around the basket. He was screening, rolling. What didn’t Mason Plumlee do to start that game? Literally, Mason was everywhere. Mason played hard. Mason cared. Mason left everything he had on the floor until he fouled out. You have to give a guy who plays that hard respect.”

Yes, you should.

So, what’s Denver’s next move?

The Denver Nuggets will be in Philadelphia tomorrow, Friday, January 8, 2019, to play the Philadelphia 76ers.

Meanwhile, the Nets will still be at home and will host the Chicago Bulls, also tomorrow, Friday, January 8, 2019, at 7:30 p.m. at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

Brooklyn Nets stayed competitive up to close of 2nd Quarter; Utah’s 37-point third quarter doomed Nets recovery

Different opponent. Same result. Same old Brooklyn Nets.

It doesn’t matter who lines up as the next challenger, the Nets just can’t catch a break. Tonight the same old tune repeated itself, this time, featuring the Utah Jazz. With Derrick Favors, Dante Exum, and Alec Burks all out of the rotation due to injuries, Gordon Hayward, one of the league's most underrated players, scored a team-high 21 points with nine assists, leading the Jazz to a commanding 108-86 win over the Nets. The Nets fell to 11-33 on the season, their fifth straight loss while the Jazz improved to 19-24, a half-game out of the 8th spot in the west.

Hayward scored 10 of his 21 in the 1st quarter alone, hitting four of his first five shots which included two threes. Despite Haywards hot-start, the Nets, surprisingly enough got off to a good start. They held a narrow one-point lead over the Jazz going into the second quarter, but like most of the Nets losses this year, the 2nd half continues to be a problem and on Friday night that fact was validated once again.

The Nets gave up a whopping 37 points to their 17 in the third quarter. After ending the 2nd quarter on a run, the Jazz‘s offensive success carried over to the beginning of the third where they would enjoy a 13-4 run in the first five minutes of the quarter. Rudy Gobert, who provided highlights all night on both ends, along with Rodney Hood, Raul Neto and Trey Lyles are all responsible for increasing what was a reasonable eight-point lead to a 17-point advantage with a little over seven minutes left in the third.

Moments later, the Nets would call a 20-second timeout to regroup, with under five minutes to go, while hopefully disrupting the Jazz’s momentum but it didn’t matter. Seconds later, Hayward would evade Thaddeus Young, using a nifty crossover dribble between his legs, drive baseline, and convert a beautiful reverse layup, putting the Jazz up by 20, 71-51 with 4:23 left in the third.

“He’s scoring the ball and drawing a lot of attention now and the guy is stepping up and knocking down shots when they come to him,” said Hood reflecting on Hayward’s big night. “He’s just being aggressive, being who he is, being who he’s been all season really.”

It signaled one of the highlights of the game. It signaled what was going right for Hayward and the Jazz who clearly did not want to leave NY 0-2 after losing to the New York Knicks in OT on Wednesday night. It signaled another Nets loss. The Jazz would continue to pile on the points in the third entering the fourth with a 28-point lead, 85-57. Hood finished with 16 points, and Gobert, Neto and Lyles all chipped in 10 points each.

When the final buzzer sounded, the crowd treated the Nets like a Knicks loss during the Isiah Thomas era. The boos rained down on the home team and it felt like some of the darkest days the Knicks had to endure during that era.

It was too bad because the Brooklyn Nets had an encouraging first quarter. Every Nets starter scored, except Donald Sloan who recorded four assists. After that, the offense fell apart.

“I thought we had a good rhythm to start the game, and after the first quarter, we kind of lost it,” Brooklyn Nets head coach Tony Brown said post-game.

Brown continued to say that after giving up 37 points in the third quarter, the game was over which compelled him to give some minutes to other guys like Sergey Karasev and in the process, ending Brook Lopez’s night. The team’s best player scored eight points in just 19 minutes of play which could be one of his worst outings of the year. Bojan Bogdanovic led the Nets with 14 points coming off of the bench which is a major problem.

Joe Johnson wasn’t much of a factor scoring only eight points and Sloan ended his night with just two points. Offensively, the Nets are definitely challenged but it doesn’t help that the team is struggling to take care of the orange as well. The Nets only committed 11 turnovers on Friday night but it’s the timing of the turnovers that are hurting the Nets the most.

“The same song and story as it’s been the last couple of games,” a dejected Young said in the locker-room. “We get off to good starts, we have good first halves then in the second half we’ll have two or three crucial turnovers that kind of turns the momentum of the game and it just slips away from us.”

As bad as this year has gone for the Nets with no letup in sight as they host the Oklahoma City Thunder and Miami Heat in their next two games before they head westward, Brown is not giving up on his squad.

Brown wants to continue encouraging the guys to do things the right way.

“I am not going to change my approach,” Brown said. “I am going to keep coaching, but you know, there is some soul-searching to be done. I am going to keep fighting, I just hope they do.”

Don’t, we all.

After losing to Wisconsin in the final four, Kentucky players, Devin Booker, Karl Towns, Trey Lyles, Dakari Johnson, Willie Cauley Stein and The Harrison Twins all announced that they will go pro.

Do you think this is a good idea for these players to leave school early? Greg Alcala is surprised that they are leaving Kentucky so early.

Check out the video about the Kentucky Wildcats 7 Going Pro