Nets Overcome Missteps To Prevail Over Wiz In OT
Magic Johnson lent his voice to his animated character in a 1991 episode of “The Simpsons”. In his scene, Johnson wins the game for the Lakers when, after slipping on a wet spot on the court, he lost the ball only for it to hit the ref in the back of the head and carom up and into the basket. Johnson slid into the corner and shrugged. “Looks like I pulled a Homer,” he said, which was defined as “succeeding despite idiocy.”
The Nets pulled a Homer on the road in Washington on Wednesday night.
In a game neither club seemed to want or deserve, the Nets eked out a 122-119 victory in overtime to—I don’t know—provide valuable data points to Brooklyn management for offseason evaluations. The Nets (28-45) are still 5.5 games behind the Hawks for the 10th and final Eastern Conference play-in seed with nine games to go. My nightmare that they will fail to reach 30 wins looks less likely. Meanwhile, the Wizards remained two games off the Pistons’ pace for the NBA’s worst record.
Ordinarily I wouldn’t recap such a meaningless affair, but this game contained so many head-smacking moments that I felt a need to provide a sequel to an earlier post on the Nets low Basketball IQ (Nets Low Basketball IQ On Full Display In Another Bad Loss (substack.com)). Though you couldn’t tell if you were forced into watching this dreck, only the Wizards entered the contest with a reason to tank, since Brooklyn owes its 2024 first-round Draft pick to Houston. Nevertheless, the Nets gave Washington a run for their money when it came to finding ways to blow the game.
Fortunately, Dorian Finney-Smith poked the ball away from Wizards forward Deni Avdija before he could get off a potentially game-tying heave at the overtime buzzer, giving the Nets their first two-game winning streak on the road since early November.
Of course, Finney-Smith could have more easily salted the game away by knocking down just one of his two free throws with 4.3 seconds remaining. And those misses came just nine seconds after Washington’s Corey Kispert choked on his second shot from the line that could have tied things up. He had been fouled when Nets guard Cam Thomas took a wild shot in the paint and fell down, with his leg clipping Kispert.
Unintentional as Thomas’ action may have been, fouling in the backcourt when you’re up two wasn’t ideal. Then again, the video of how the Nets managed the six-point lead they built over the first three minutes of the extra session won’t be part of interim Head Coach Kevin Ollie’s presentations to prospective employers this offseason.
Washington happens to be coached by a former Nets assistant, Brian Keefe, in an interim role. He at least understood that Thomas, who was locked in to the tune of 38 points, required extra attention, something Ollie was late to the party with when dealing with Wizards guard Jordan Poole, who matched Thomas’ point total.
Whereas Keefe sent extra defenders at Thomas, daring others to beat him, the Nets accommodated Washington in its halfcourt offense by graciously allowing Thomas, their weakest defender, to switch onto Poole whenever he desired. When the Nets did double Poole in the latter stages of overtime, it was delayed enough to allow him to find easy outlets. It’s like the Nets have never been taught how to blitz screens.
Though Poole put up 12 points in the last six minutes to help the Wizards tie the score at 112-112, the Nets had the final shot in regulation thanks to a tremendous Nic Claxton block of Avdija with 11 seconds remaining.
A pet peeve of mine is when players take unnecessary 3s in the final seconds of a tie game. Any points will do, so get the closest uncontested shot you can. Nets point guard Dennis Schroder, an 11-year veteran, had other ideas. He dribbled into a step-back 3.
My reaction after that brick was a common refrain from the evening: D’oh!