By Nick Ziegler (@Ziggy26x)
January 21, 2014
W2W4: Orlando Magic vs Brooklyn Nets
The Brooklyn Nets will be back at home
for the first time in more than a week coming off a great win against
the New York Knicks on Monday afternoon, and will be hosting hosting
the Orlando Magic on Tuesday night.
- 2014
The New Year has been great for the
Brooklyn Nets, as they are one of the hottest teams in basketball in
2014. Their 7-1 record since the calendar changed has them right back
into the Eastern Conference hunt, as they are now just 2.5 games
behind the Toronto Raptors, who happen to be their only loss of the
New Year, which was the second half of a back to back. Tuesday's game
will also be a game on the second half of a back to back, but it is
against a team far worse then the Raptors.
- Staying With What Works
Despite having their best player coming
back from injury in Deron Williams, the Nets and Jason Kidd have
elected to stick with the starting lineup that they have been using
without Williams, and maybe most importantly in this day of age in
basketball, Williams gave his blessing to the reserve role. In that
new role Williams did look pretty good, as he played 27 minutes,
scoring 13 points on four for 10 shooting to go along with three
assists. Williams also had some help, as Andray Blatche coming off
one of his better games of the season in London, brought that play
back to New York. Blatche went for 19 points and 12 rebounds, as he
is on a nice two-game double-double streak now.
- More Joe Domination
The Nets good play seems to be directly
correlated with the vastly improved play of Joe Johnson, who has been
playing much better in 2014, as so far in the month of January he is
averaging 19.8 points per game, which is more than four points more
per game than he averaged in December. In five of the eight games so
far this month, Johnson has scored 20 or more points, and if he can
keep this up the Nets seem like they can hop the Raptors in the
Atlantic Division rather quickly.
- No Letdowns
Tonight has to be looked at a night for
the Nets to trim the Raptors lead to two games tonight, as the
Orlando Magic are one of the worst teams in the NBA with a (11-30)
record heading into Tuesday night. They did win their last game
against the Boston Celtics by two points at home, but before that
lost their previous 10 games. Victor Oladipo is a fun rookie to
watch, who is improving a lot over the year so far, but even with the
second overall pick playing good basketball, this is a Magic team
that is going nowhere this year.
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