Nets – Blazers: Bubble Bonanza

What a fantastic game last night. The Blazers, looking to guarantee themselves a spot in the play in games, fought like Hell. And the Nets, although they already locked in the 7th seed in the East, made the Blazers earn that victory. Interim head coach Jacque Vaughn played his starters a ton of minutes. He certainly did not roll over. The Nets’ Caris LeVert made even more splashes for himself, scoring 37 points. He made sure the Blazers and Suns focus very intently on that last shot. Had it gone in and the Nets won, the Suns would be in the play in game.

LeVert had been slicing through the Blazers’ defense the whole game with plenty of shots below the foul line. But why did he resort to a 20 foot contested jumper at the end of the game?

The Nets managed to get the ball back down 1 with about 19 seconds left. Instead of attacking the rim like he had all night, the Nets and LeVert slowly walked the ball up the court and didn’t get into their offense until about 7 seconds were left on the clock.

WHY???

You’re losing! Hero ball is not the solution. Attack the rim right away! You need to get the lead! Had the game been tied, you can hold the ball for the last shot. But you’re down 134-133! At least go into your offense a little sooner and give your team a chance to grab the offensive rebound. Instead, that turned out to be the final score.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Credit for the featured image goes to:

Creator: Ashley Landis | Credit: AP
Copyright: Copyright 2020 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Information extracted from IPTC Photo Metadata. Thursday, Aug. 13, 2020 in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis, Pool)