Essentials
- Teams: Brooklyn Nets (0-1) at Detroit Pistons (0-2)
- Date: November 1
- Time: 7:30 p.m.
- Television: FS Detroit
Get in the Game
After dropping back-to-back road games, the Detroit Pistons are finally back in friendlier confines and will play their home opener tonight against the Brooklyn Nets.
The Nets were a playoff team last year, but it would appear as though they will have a lot of work to do this season in order to reproduce that feat, which is surprising given the coaching acumen.
After Jason Kidd’s departure, Brooklyn signed Lionnel Hollins in the offseason. Hollins previously coached the Memphis Grizzlies and turned them into perhaps the nastiest team in the league.
Under Hollins, Memphis was extremely physical and aggressive on defense. The squad jumped passing lanes, clogged the paint and challenged every opposing player’s toughness. Games against the Grizzlies were huge dogfights.
That’s what made Brooklyn’s season opener against the Boston Celtics so puzzling. The Nets surrendered 121 points on 55.7 percent shooting. Indeed, Boston registered a staggering 62 points in the paint.
One shouldn’t sound any alarms after one game, but the Pistons were probably surprised and perhaps even happy with what they saw on film as it pertains to the Nets.
Hollins’ crew was abysmal defensively against the Celtics. The Nets struggled with basic side pick-and-rolls, cross screens, curl screens, post-ups and simply picking up open players. It was a shockingly awful defensive performance, especially when accounting for the opponent.
The Celtics do not possess a gravitational offensive player, which makes Brooklyn’s defensive no show quite puzzling. It would be one thing if the Nets went all out to stop a great scorer and got burned by giving him too much attention, but that wasn’t the case at all.
Boston got whatever it wanted without much resistance, especially in the basket area. Nets starting center Mason Plumlee appeared to be disgusted with the output.
“Not only (is it a) point of pride, if we have any expectation of winning, we can’t give up — I think it was over 60 points in the paint,” Plumlee said, per The Brooklyn Game’s Devin Kharpertian. “Can’t happen.”
Hollins, for his part, was harsher on his team’s performance. “It was like open gate, and all the sheep got out of the gate,” Hollins said, according to Mike Mazzeo of ESPNNY. “It was layup after layup. They had 62 points in the paint, and most of them were non-contested.”
Brooklyn suffered through bouts of miscommunication and lazy effort against Boston. Does that mean this is a sign of things to come against the Pistons?
That’s tough to tell. On one hand, Brooklyn has to play with a greater sense of urgency and toughness, which is what Hollins teams have been known for. On the flipside, the absence of those traits in the first game of the year is rather puzzling.
Ultimately, the Nets should play better tonight, but I’m not convinced we’ll be looking at the second coming of the intimidating Grizzlies defense Hollins presided over.
Expect Detroit to collect its first victory of this young campaign.
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