Mikal Bridges and the Brooklyn Nets played host to the visiting Orlando Magic looking to take their regular season record to 6-5. Undermanned once again, the Nets saw the resurgent play of Spencer Dinwiddie complimented by Cameron Johnson who showed off his all around game on both ends of thee floor.
@Brooklyn Nets
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Nice finish!
Coming into their third tournament game and first in Brooklyn, the Nets were looking to continue building momentum especially after learning Ben Simmons would still be out for a while due to a nerve impingement.
Brooklyn got out to a huge lead with Spencer Dinwiddie Mikal Bridges and Cam Johnson all contributing.
But in the second quarter the Magic bounced back to take a lead.
But in that third quarter Cam Johnson exploded and helped Brooklyn come back into the game and finished with a solid 20 points while Bridges had another important 20+ points performance….
Then in the fourth quarter Spencer Dinwiddie who had a masterclass performance made some insane three point shots and kept attacking the rim all night to finish with a solid 29 points 🔥 Spencer really rose to the challenge and found his rhythm and delivered big time tonight….
Overall a solid team win for a tough gritty Brooklyn squad building their identity and now onto the next game. Let's go 😎….
Nic Claxton getting into foul trouble was very unnecessary and tough to start the game.
But Dayron Sharpe who's finally starting to find some consistency had another amazing performance and had a solid 10 rebounds and 11 points 🔥….
But Claxton really closed out the fourth strong and bounced back even with the foul trouble….
Overall without Simmons Claxton and Dayron are going to have continue eating up rebounds and impacting the game offensively as well….
Cam Johnson though had his best game since he's come back and that third quarter burst was amazing to see Johnson knocking down these point buckets, getting defensive steals and taking it to the rim 🔥🔥🔥…
Johnson is so important to this team on both sides of the floor….
Mikal Bridges had another solid scoring game with 21 points and keeps putting in that work…
Overall a good night for the Twins…
Dennis Smith Jr may not be everyone's favorite player and missed some buckets tonight he kept playing and whether it was causing a defensive turnover, throwing some important assist lobs to Nic Claxton or making an important bucket to close the third quarter Dennis has been contributing for this team…
Especially without Ben Simmons for an unspecified period of time Dennis has a similar defensive skillset and has become a backup playmaker of sorts as well….
Why on earth are nets fans so desperate to trade nic claxton? If you want to make a trade trade one of the twins. They're both 27/28 ish. Trade them for a young up and coming player. Claxton is needed to anchor this defense
What a pleasant surprise I received when these Nets beat the #2 defense in the League. Playing his natural PG position, Dinwiddie leads this scrappy squad to an exciting win. Hopefully, Ben Simmons and Cam Thomas will get healthy soon because Jacque Vaughn will have more to figure out going forward in order to propel us into the Playoffs
The foundation is the most important part of the Nets retool/rebuild. So far, so good.My compliments to Jacque Vaughn and his staff. He put the old band back together (Dinwiddie, Bridges, Claxton, DFS, Johnson) again and they responded admirably Spencer Dinwiddie had his best game of the season and we're just at the beginning. I don't think this will be his last one. He has a big voice on the floor and in the locker room. I've always felt he's the true leader of this team and anyone else is just a pretender..
It was good to see the Nets bounce back after the last 2 games. They moved the ball well and made shots. Great to see. Spencer had a real good game and the twins were better.
Simmons having back issues again….not good. I ain’t no doctor and know not of what I speak but I am having trouble seeing him playing in a meaningful way going forward. I hope I’m wrong for his sake and for the teams sake, but for me, I’m not going to give him playing and contributing much thought until it happens.
Btw for the nets fans saying we can’t trade bridges. The Halliburton sabonis trade is a perfect example of why you should take a swing. Bridges is on a super cheap contract can be a good number 2 or a much needed vet presence on a young team trying to make a playoff push. The pelicans, OKC, etc teams with tons of young players and assets we can target a young guy to pair with cam Thomas and the continue to get younger
I feel like cam Johnson had a good game but take this game with a grain of salt. Its Orlando, he's a solid role player but he like Bridges cant create for themselves. Bridges is a bit better but still ball handling and passing is an issue
I think dinwiddie just needs to be a score on this team and facilitate only when Ben and Junior is not on the floor That's just my hot take for now
DIN!!! of course I’m gonna wave the pom-poms from my boy Din. I’m not sure if there is a coincidence between Ben Simmons now being out for a considerable amount of time potentially, and now Din being able to be back into the primary point guard role.
The truth is that I’m more concerned about how long cam Thomas will be out than how long Ben Simmons will be out because this team can play well without Ben Simmons, and knows how to play without Ben Simmons. And the truth is that the team has been overall better in units that Ben Simmons is not on the floor. Let’s remember Dinwiddie led the league in assists last year after the trade deadline so he has the ability to get his teammates good looks very similar to Ben Simmons with a big positive of being offensive threat that Ben Simmons is not. With the return of Claxton in the bigger role of Sharpe are you really missing the rebounding that Ben Simmons provides in that category either? The one area that is a plus when you have a Ben Simmons is the transition scoring because he can grab and go off the backboard but I think if you really needed that in spurts, you could probably get that from Watford.
So I can’t wait till Thomas gets back and if everyone else can stay healthy, I’m not that concerned about how long Ben Simmons is out because to be honest, I never expected him to stay healthy for the entire season anyway. The only thing that annoys me about it is just when the nets were increasing his value on the trade market he now has another back problem so you’re pretty much back to square one with that with him being an untradable asset.
Meanwhile Royce O Neale had another solid game and knocked down some important three point buckets and played some important defense.
Whether it's making a defensive play or scoring an important bucket Royce has been so consistent and clutch and has brought so much to the team….
🩶🤍🖤 Great pod guys🫡👏🏽
Great win by the Brooklyn Nets last night! Spencer Dinwiddie's performance clarified that continuity with last season's starting five should have been maintained. The early-season interruption disrupted everyone's rhythm. Let's put an end to the nonsense about trading Claxton. When fully healthy, I genuinely believe we'll boast the best bench in the NBA. Go Nets!
Props to Doug for his honesty and acknowledging that as fans, "we are ALL guilty of this sometimes, anchoring onto something that may no longer be true about a guy." This is a common behavior among all fans. The Brooklyn Nets are filled with such examples on both sides of the spectrum, whether you're supporting or opposing a player. Fans tend to elevate or denigrate a player to align with their narratives. Well done Doug.
Bridges & royce gotta work on their defense. Every play its one or the other fault on defense
We gotta admit we look better & normal without ben Simmons