Here are three thoughts on the Nets’ 97-87 loss to the Trail Blazers in Portland Saturday night:
1. Portland has had one of the NBA’s weakest and most maligned benches since last season, with most of their success coming from their terrific starting lineup of Damian Lillard, Wesley Matthews, Nicolas Batum, LaMarcus Aldridge and Robin Lopez.
But the Nets looked like the team with the subpar supporting cast Saturday night, getting basically no production from outside their core of Deron Williams, Joe Johnson, Kevin Garnett and Brook Lopez.
The numbers the other eight guys put up were comical: a combined 5-for-31 shooting for 15 points. When you take away Jarrett Jack’s mediocre line of 4-for-12 shooting for 11 points – with all four field goals coming in the fourth quarter – the numbers become even more abysmal: a combined 1-for-19 and just four points.
One of the Nets’ perceived strengths is their depth off the bench, with players such as Jack, Mirza Teletovic, Mason Plumlee and Alan Anderson expected to be able to provide quality production. And while some of those guys – Teletovic in particular – have played well this season, the main reason the Nets lost this winnable game (Batum and Aldridge were out) was getting nothing from the supporting cast while Portland got strong contributions from up and down its top-heavy roster.
2. With Williams in foul trouble in the first quarter Saturday night, Nets coach Lionel Hollins gave Jorge Gutierrez meaningful rotation minutes for the first time this season.
The results weren’t pretty.
In three minutes, Gutierrez had two ugly misses, committed a turnover, picked up a foul and was a minus-9 as the Nets saw the game slip away from them late in the quarter. They never got back into it.
Gutierrez proved last season under Jason Kidd he was capable of giving the Nets some solid minutes, but he failed to do the same in his first chance for Hollins. If something were to happen to Williams or Jack, you’d have to wonder how much faith Hollins would have in Gutierrez to play regular rotation minutes.
3. The Nets haven’t been able to throw the ball in the ocean from behind the 3-point arc in the last two games.
After their 1-for-19 effort against the Trail Blazers – with the lone make coming by Williams with less than 20 seconds left in the fourth – the Nets are 4-for-35 from 3-point range over their last two games. Factor in a dreadful second half in Phoenix Wednesday and that number gets even uglier: 8-for-47.
The Nets got plenty of open looks Saturday night, but simply couldn’t get any of them to fall. If the Nets want to snap out of their malaise this week, that will need to change.