The list of teams exploded by the Brooklyn nets this season is not one that will jump off the page. Entries such as Utah Jazz Or Wizards of Washington This seemed like a no-brainer at the start of the year given their rebuilding efforts, but the Memphis Grizzlies are something of a wild card among this rather exclusive fraternity.
Granted, these Grizzly bears are not what we are used to seeing. With injuries returning during the second, third and fourth in Memphis this year, this is a shell of the hustle-busting, fast-paced, defensive-minded Western Conference threat we know from years past.
That’s what made tonight Brooklyn’s worst loss of the season, as they fell to those Grizzlies by a final score of 106-12.
After sniffing some Play-In hope after back-to-back wins against the Atlanta Falcons, it’s the kind of defeat that makes you feel nauseous at the mere mention of an extra game added to the season for this team. Here is the full autopsy.
Rebounds or efficiency… you can’t lose both
Slowly but surely, the Brooklyn Nets have shaped and sculpted their defense into one of the best products in the league tonight. They have ranked in the top 10 for fewest opponent points per game in their last ten competitions, having twice held their opponents to double digits.
Brooklyn deciding to lean on its versatile roster by reimplementing the change has largely contributed to this defensive renaissance. But even though Memphis is one of two teams that the Nets have recently prevented from breaking a hundred, Brooklyn never had control over them tonight.
In the first half, the Grizzlies posted splits of .500/.421, achieving true night-and-day momentum compared to the last time they faced each other. While Memphis undoubtedly made some lucky shots, Brooklyn helped too much at times, particularly around the arc, giving too much respect to a team with the second-worst 3-point percentage in the league.
Rather than living with a semi-contested shot, Brooklyn often closed out hard, allowing Memphis to rotate the ball to find better looks — ones that even a team shooting less than 35 percent from deep can bury.
Memphis deserved credit for making all the right drives, passes and cuts tonight to prepare for high-quality shots, but the Nets still queued them up for those opportunities by being overzealous.
When a bad team gets open and makes a few shots, you naturally start to close out with more and more aggression. But too much assist leads to easy shots on kicks. Additional competitions may also result in fouls. The Nets were guilty of both missteps tonight as Memphis continued to find ways to respond.
However, even as Memphis’ percentages cooled in the second half, Brooklyn losing to Memphis on the glass by a difference of -18 nailed their coffin. When switching, bounce is often something you have to sacrifice given the way screens move bigs for the board.
But when you do that and always allowing opponents to shoot at a high percentage is a recipe for disaster. In this sense, you don’t even get what you pay for. For anyone wondering how you lose at home to an undermanned team that you dismantled like a LEGO set exactly a week ago, here’s your answer.
Physicality remains an issue
Heading into the NBA lottery like a heat-seeking missile, the Grizzlies played like a team with nothing to lose. They drove to the basket, stood up to defend shots and got physical in the gap without hesitation. Even while using a full-court press at times, they put relentless pressure on Brooklyn.
However, the aforementioned issues in the rebounding department are where Brooklyn has been bullied the most. They lost on the glass by a 55-31 effort, if you can even call it that. Sometimes Memphis simply outplayed or outshot his way to the boards, on other occasions Brooklyn simply never stepped up to the rock with urgency and paid the price.
“We were fighting and we didn’t keep swinging, and when you don’t keep swinging, you’re out, and they outed us,” Kevin Ollie said after the game. “Starting with me, the technical staff, the players, we stopped swinging. We can’t do that. We’re not talented enough to do that. We must be disjointed. We have to get every rebound. We must strike.
Brooklyn also showed a lack of physicality while fighting on multi-screen sets tonight. Luke Kennard was a benefactor all night, finishing with a season-high 25 points while shooting 8-11 from the field and 6-of-9 from deep.
But on the other end, Brooklyn’s inability to finish around the rim also made them look just as small. They only finished with 40 points in the paint tonight after grabbing 54 last time out against Memphis. Anything that would be considered a “tough bucket” on the floor tonight belonged to the visitors.
While this team’s lack of an enforcer on the block is well documented, they could have made up for it with a little hustle and good boxing tonight, but the Nets were about as strong as a paper towel wet in the paint on both sides of the balloon.
This is especially concerning once you remember that Memphis played with just nine players tonight, all of whom must have been tired. They wanted a win and fought their way to one while the Nets laid down on their stomachs in front of their home crowd.
About free throw shooting…
As banal a topic as it is, I would be remiss if I didn’t talk about Brooklyn’s abominable free throw shooting tonight. In a game they lost by four points, they left 13 points on the line. You do the math.
Unfortunately, it was a team effort from Brooklyn to ruin their chances of winning at the Stripe. Dennis Schröder went 1 for 3, splitting a pair that, had he sunk both, would have put Brooklyn down just two points with 20 seconds remaining, setting them up for better chances in foul play. Cam Johnson missed one as well while usual culprits Day’Ron Sharpe and Nic Claxton combined to go 7-of-12.
Mikal Bridges, a career 84.9 percent shooter, also shot just 4 of 9 tonight. He hit a deep triple with his first shot of the game, although the game quickly went downhill from there.
“We need to step up and make our free throws,” Ollie agreed after the game. “It stops the momentum, it puts you back in the game. We have to go back to the drawing board.”
“It’s tough, I mean, I was out for 39 minutes,” Bridges added. “It’s just a bad moment for me and I take a lot of responsibility for tonight. It sucks but you need to prepare for tomorrow.
Indeed, as Brian Fleurantin noted in today’s game preview, the Nets are only 27th in free throw percentage at 75.4%. This is inexcusable.
Giving away free points is a pretty easy way to lose games, so there’s no detailed breakdown here. Brooklyn just needs to do a better job minding its own business. Their next opponent, Philadelphia 76ers, give up the fourth most opponent free throws per game. At the very least, it offers them a solid opportunity to get back on track.
