Here are three thoughts on the Nets’ 108-100 overtime loss to the Suns Friday night:
1. When a coach finds a lineup that gives him a spark, he often sticks with it for as long as possible. So, in a vacuum, I didn’t have an issue with the fact Nets coach Lionel Hollins went with Cory Jefferson over either Thaddeus Young and Joe Johnson for much of the second half Friday night.
Jefferson, after all, had 12 points and 13 rebounds in an 11-minute stretch in the second half bridging the third and fourth quarters, and helped the Nets surge into a 15-point lead with 5:45 remaining.
But even after the Suns managed to storm back against the Nets over the final few minutes of the fourth quarter – just the latest time the Nets have collapsed in a game’s final minutes this season – Hollins still had the chance to win the game on the final possession.
That’s why it was hard to understand why Hollins chose to leave his two best offensive players, Johnson and Brook Lopez, on the bench after calling timeout with 13.9 seconds remaining, putting the ball in the hands of Jarrett Jack instead.
“I could have done that,” Hollins said when asked about leaving Johnson and Lopez on the bench. “I can get second-guessed on [not playing them]. I just went the way I went.”
He will get second-guessed on it, even though Jack actually got a better shot Friday than the one he hit Monday to beat Golden State, coming off a Thaddeus Young screen and getting freed up for a wide-open 22-footer that rimmed out, and the Nets went on to lose in overtime. It was a strange decision at the time, and it remains one.
2. Every coach has a blind spot, and it appears the Deron Williams-Jarrett Jack pairing, in particular, is the one that ails Lionel Hollins. The Nets simply have not been good all season whenever Williams and Jack have spent time on the court together, getting outscored by over 11 points per 100 possessions, according to NBA.com’s stats tool.
It was the same thing with the pairing of Mason Plumlee and Brook Lopez, who struggled to play together, and Hollins did the smart thing by going away from that lineup almost exclusively, to the point where he plays the two of them for 48 minutes at center and virtually never plays them together anymore.
It’s hard to see how the Nets wouldn’t be better doing the same thing with their two point guards, given how the numbers have born themselves out so far this season, but at every opportunity to do so Hollins has backed the pairing, saying that he thinks it is a successful one.
3. It wound up not mattering at all in the end, but wanted to spend a few words crediting Jefferson for the way he played against the Suns.
For a second straight game, the Nets had been lifeless throughout the first half and into the third quarter, only this time their opponent didn’t shoot the lights out early like the Hornets did Wednesday, allowing the Nets to stick around.
But things changed when Jefferson, the 60th pick in the draft, checked into the game. All of a sudden, he was getting his hands on virtually every possible rebound at both ends of the floor, converting and-ones, slamming home tip-dunks … in short, he turned into a one-man wrecking crew.
It was the kind of performance that should’ve lifted the Nets to a hugely important win. Instead, it only served to make the eventual loss even more painful for them.