Here are three thoughts on the Nets’ 96-91 loss to the Hawks in Atlanta on Wednesday night to go down 2-0 in their best-of-7 series:
1. For a team in the Nets’ position – a heavy underdog in a 1-8 first round matchup – to pull off an upset, a couple of things need to happen. Chief among those things is that it is necessary for the lower-seeded team to take advantage of big games from their role players when they come up during a series.
Jarrett Jack has taken a lot of grief this season for his play, and deservedly so, but he was fantastic in this game, finishing with 23 points on 9-for-13 shooting. It was the kind of performance that can swing a game, and it very nearly did.
But that still wasn’t enough for the Nets to come away with a win, and it’s hard to see Jack having another game like that in this series. The Nets have little margin for error to win this series, and not winning Game 2 with Jack playing like that is another example of why they are so up against it as they head back to Brooklyn for Game 3 on Saturday afternoon.
2. Mirza Teletovic didn’t exactly light the world on fire in his 3:50 of game action Wednesday night, missing both shots he took (both fittingly from 3-point range), grabbing a couple of rebounds and committing a turnover on a bad pass to Deron Williams shortly after checking into the game in the first quarter.
But you won’t see any argument in this space that playing Teletovic was the wrong move for Lionel Hollins to make, or that Teletovic shouldn’t see more time in this series as it goes on. The fact is the Nets were not going to win this series with either Earl Clark or Cory Jefferson playing the minutes behind Thaddeus Young. That was simply too big of a dropoff for the Nets to overcome.
Sure, Teletovic is rusty – he hasn’t played in three months. But the Hawks respected Teletovic’s presence on the court, and it won’t be at all surprising if he has a moment that changes one of these next two games in Brooklyn on Saturday or Monday. The chance of that happening is more than worth the risk of trying ease him back into game action.
Regardless of what happens, it was great to see Teletovic make it back to the court after his season was deemed over because of blood clots being found in his lungs back in January, and we’ll see if he can get things going as the series progresses.
3. The Nets came into Game 2 needing to change two things from their loss in Game 1 Sunday: hit more 3-pointers and commit fewer turnovers. But after going 5-for-20 from 3-point range and committing 17 turnovers in Game 1, the Nets went 8-for-26 and committed 16 turnovers in Game 2.
The 3-point shooting, in particular, has become a bellwether for determining whether or not the Nets are going to win a game this season. Including these two losses in the first round, the Nets are now 15-33 this season when they shoot under 35 percent from 3-point range, which is roughly league average.
In games the Nets shoot above 35 percent, however, they are 22-13. Making 3-pointers is even more critical against this Hawks team, given how many they normally make from behind the arc, and through two games the Nets haven’t done it.
The turnovers actually go hand-in-hand with that, as every turnover the Nets commit just allows the Hawks to get out in transition, where they either get easy layups or find Kyle Korver for transition threes that ignite their entire team. If the Nets want to bring this series back to Atlanta, they’ll have to change one or both of these things in either Game 3 or 4.