By Sam Rubenstein
Alright, I hope this works. It could be a huge trainwreck. I am at the Nets-Bobcats game. I have wireless internet. I’ll try to update this at the end of every quarter. This will have as little editing as possible. I’ll go back and clean it up later.
Pregame highlight: Mikki Moore told me he was running late cause his car broke down in the parking lot. It’s a ’65 Impala. He changed the alternator himself this afternoon.
tipoff: Vince and Brevin Knight playful shoving match. Vince gives hard look. Brevin still alive
Nets move ball around, ends up with deep Collins jumper. Good with Okafor closing
Cats feed Okafor. Pass back to KNight stiooen leads to fast break, Kidd ot RJ for miss and follow
Okafor explosive move swatted by Nenad
Morrison fouls RJ on ft line jumper. Makes complain face. walks away to other end of the court.
Gerald Wallace gets into paint, nice feed to Okafor for slam, threading needle. Vince comes down draws foul on Okafor with nice yell. Vince initiating contact against the best shotblocker in league right now? THis is a big game for jersey.
Morrison is gaurdinfg RJ. Why is RJ not getting ball?
Wallace with back to back 20 footers.
Nets swing ball around perim- -Jason to Nenad for deep open J. Ball movement crisp
And then RJ has Adam on him makes some fakes. Hits J. Adam comes back with 3 and smile
And RJ gets ball back with Adam on him. Easy J
Kidd finds nenad under basket lazer pass. He’s ready to take it up. Okafor swats it out.
Vince blows by Gerald Wallace, draws the foul. Going to the basket.
Bickerstaff sdjusts. Knight on RJ? It works somehow. Brexec hits deep J. Brezec vs Nenad
Jefferson has Adam on him again guns away bad shot and miss
Brevin Knigth looks like PUsha T. Adam drives hard to middle, finds him. His game is FRANTIC.
Wallace picks off pass goes coast to coast dunk
Knight finds Adam alone for 3. Brick. Nenad comes back with mishandle on Kidd pass for dunk.
5:11 left in first 17-17. RJ has 10.
Oh baby the Nets play Pantera’s MOUTH FOR WAR out of timeout. Save your mouth for the WAR! REEEE-VEEEENNNNGGGEEEEE!!!!
Adam with a floater, Cats first sub was Fleton for Brezec. Okafor picks up cheap #2 foul. Brezec comes back. MArcus Williams in for Nenad, and Snackbar in for kidd. Other way on those subs. Sean May and Wallace out, alright I lost track.
MOrrison sets up Knight for 20 footer.
Jason Collins complains after geting pinned down by May and Brezec. No call.
RJ still gunning with Adam on him. They switch to Brezec. Clank
Cats get mugged down low. Sean May winds up with ball draws foul on Collins and finishes.
Marcus Williams dribbles for 18 seconds, has pass batted into front row.
RJ gets ball of inbounds blows by Adam for baseline up and under.
RJ is ROASTING Adam
Felton gets into the action with a wide open J. The Cats are always wide open it seems. THis goes against much of what I saw on the Nest chalkboard before the game.
Sean May put back after osme good D. Nets hold, Narcus Williams, slashes thourhg, kciks to Snackbar, bad look at 3 from Antoine Wright. Banks it in.
End of first quarter. 31-26 Cats.
———
And onto the second quarter
I missed the first two minutes making sure the first quarter post went in. I knew this was a bad idea. Not a car crash, but not good.
Felton hits a three falling out of ounds.
Marcus Williams dribbles alot with Fleton on him. Shoots brick
May finds Okafor insde with nice pass.
VINCE drawing fouls with contact. Talking trash to May at free throw line. Carolina kids.
Marcus Williams and Antoine Wright driobble around alot. Williams throws in traffic oop to Vince. It’s swatted away by 8 hands. I am not trying to hate on Marcus Williams here. He’s good, but not playing that way right now. And remember how the Nets got little help from their bench last year? It’s happening again.
Just was handed first quarter stats. RJ with 12 points. Morrison 4 assists. The Cats shot 58%.
I can just look them up live though. That guy that just handed me a sheet of paper is unfortunately going to be out of a job someday. Computers. Skynet. Judgment Day.
Felton hits a three with nobody near him. Morrison hits a deep 2. Nenad gets the ball inside and draws the foul on Okafor. #3 wiht 6:50 left in the half. Could be big. Cats leading 46-34.
Gerald Wallace attacks rim, no resistance, easy points. Vince attacks Brezec and draws two free throws.
Morrison has RJ on him, makes a few awkward dribbles. Misses pull up three.
Vince gets Td up after jawing to the ref for not giving him call. The 60% capacity crowd is getting slightly restless.
ALright, this game is a lot of fouling and free throws now. RJ ion a fast break gets fouled by Knight.
Adam Morrison looks like an Adam Sandler character. I don’t know which one. He’s so rigid the way he moves. It makes me nervous.
Finally. Collins throws an nice lob to RJ under the basket. Cats respond by having Morrison take a three with RJ all over him. It doesn’t go in.
Mikki Moore is in the game. DO you realize this man’s car broke down a few hours ago?!? If that was me I’d be freaking out. He’s playing an NBA game and looks cool.
By the way Cliff Robinson just had surgery today and he’ll be out for a while. I saw Kerry Kittles walking around before the game. Could he borrow Cliff’s #30 for a few months?
Cats feed it to Brezec inside. No resistance. Easy layup. I saw a stat before the game that the Nets have 45 blocked shots this year. Okafor has 44.
Adam gets in the lane, finds May for the dunk. The Nets are SOFT IN THE MIDDLE.
The Nets dancers have changed into shiny gold tight shorts. Yup, they’re playing sexyback. This is more of a strip club than most strip clubs.
Sean May faces up on Nenad. Hits open 18 footer. Is it me or am I mentioning Sean May alot. I forgot he was still on the team when I saw him in warmups.
Morrison throws really aggressive over the head two handed passes. And he just fouled Kristic under the basket. I don’t know why Adam was there. Kidd found Nenad with a beautiful bounce pass. It doesn’t seem like Jason’s doing much though. I bet he has like 8 rebounds and I didn’t notice.
And on cue Jason drives to the basket and draws the foul on May. Have I mentioned the constant free throw shooting?
RJ makes an incredible hustle play outrunning Felton to the ball on a break, goes up for layup looks away and finds Mikki trailing. But he’s late to the ball and it flies out to nobody. It was also a bad pass. The crowd starts booing.
Mikki smacks the ball of Sean May. Hustle points. Some guy sitting behind me yells out for Mikki on every possession. It’s getting annoying.
Sean May overpowers the Nets interior D of Vince and Nenad.
Kidd finds Mikki cutton got the basket for the dunk. The half ends with the Bobcats leading 59-49.
Sean May leads Charlotte with 14 points. Morrison has 9 with 5 assists.Okafor was limited by foul trouble to 11 minutes. His line is 4 points, 2 boards, a steal and a block. That will improve. Charlotte shot 52% for the half.
RJ leads the Nets with 16. Vince with 11, though he had to get 7 of those from the line. Kidd has 2 points, 4 assists, and only 3 boards so I was wrong about being wrong.
39 free throw attempts between the two teams. Is that alot? I think it is.
I think I’m going to halt this little experiment. I’ll have a full report on the game tomorrow. What happened in the second half? Ooooooh… it’s a mystery. Sean May is tearing the Nets inside up like he’s back in the NCAA tourney. And the Nets are not running like Illinois.
THis would be a very bad loss for the New Jersey Nets. Very bad.
