Brooklyn Boro

Nets’ progress in year two is undeniable

Brooklyn caps rare successful road trip with 109-104 win over Mavs

November 30, 2017 By John Torenli, Sports Editor Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Year two has been a major success for Nets head coach Kenny Atkinson thus far, despite the Nets being five games under .500 entering Saturday night’s matchup with Atlanta at Barclays Center. AP Photos by Tony Gutierrez
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Having an 8-13 record after 21 games isn’t reason enough to begin prepping parade routes along Atlantic Avenue for an NBA championship celebration.

But it is a clear sign that the Brooklyn Nets are headed in the right direction under the stewardship of second-year head coach Kenny Atkinson and general manager Sean Marks.

Last season, the Nets were stuck on eight wins following their 41st game of the campaign, a 119-109 defeat to Toronto on Jan. 16 at Barclays Center that left them winless since the day after Christmas 2016 and losers of 11 in a row.

Brooklyn would go on to fall to 9-49, dropping another 16 straight games following a win at New Orleans on Jan. 20, before finishing an NBA-worst 20-62.

Predicted to finish in the league’s cellar yet again this year, the Nets have shown great resilience throughout the first quarter of this season despite losing their starting backcourt of Jeremy Lin and D’Angelo Russell due to knee injuries and suffering through a myriad of nagging ailments to the remainder of their roster.

On Wednesday night in Dallas, Brooklyn got a boost from DeMarre Carroll’s return from an upper respiratory infection and continued solid play from point guard Spencer Dinwiddie in a 109-104 victory over the Mavericks in front of a sellout crowd of 19,327 at the American Airlines Center.

With the win, the Nets completed a 2-1 road trip through Memphis, Houston and Dallas, and improved to 4-8 on the road this season after managing just seven victories away from Downtown Brooklyn last year. The Nets didn’t win their fourth road contest last season until March.

With Lin out for the remainder of the season and Russell’s return still up in the air following arthroscopic surgery on his left knee earlier this month, Dinwiddie has become Atkinson’s “quarterback” on the floor while Carroll remains Brooklyn’s most trusted veteran asset.

Dinwiddie finished with 19 points, six assists, three rebounds and only one turnover in 33 rock-solid minutes during Wednesday’s win, marking his eighth straight start at the point.

Carroll, who had missed Monday night’s 117-103 loss in Houston due his illness, scored a game-high 22 points and combined with Trevor Booker to amass 17 of the Nets’ 52 rebounds, including a pair of key put-backs following missed free throws down the stretch.

Dinwiddie, Carroll and Booker helped the Nets find a way to win on a night they didn’t have starters Rondae Hollis-Jefferson (ankle) and high-paid sharp-shooter Allen Crabbe (back).

The trio also went a long way toward securing a rare winning road trip for a team that was expected to be an NBA doormat even before Lin and Russell went down.

“You hate to say there are big games in an NBA season because it’s so long, but we talked about getting two [wins] on this trip,” Atkinson revealed after the Nets fought off the Mavericks in crunch time.

“We knew it was going to be a tough trip. The fact that we got two and had a good fight in Houston, that’s real positive for us going forward.”

Almost everything they achieve on the court, at the practice facility and in the film room has been positive thus far as the Nets continue to get the most out of their limited pool of talent.

Booker scored 16 points, Caris LeVert added 13 off the bench and Joe Harris finished with 11 for Brooklyn, which will enjoy the rare luxury of capturing some momentum on a road trip before hosting Atlanta on Saturday in the opener of a home-and-home series.

But it was Carroll, a player who flourished under Atkinson during the coach’s time as an assistant in Atlanta, that played the biggest role in Wednesday’s win.

“He was the star of the game tonight,” Atkinson gushed after watching his former protégé go 7-for-14 from the floor, including four big 3-pointers, and spearhead Brooklyn to a 14-7 advantage in offensive rebounds.

“I just feel like a lot of guys look up to me and try to see what I’m going to do,” Carroll said.

“So, I just try to come out and do whatever I need to do to help this team win.”

And that has been the attitude around the Nets since Marks assumed GM duties from Billy King, and Atkinson took the helm on the bench before the start of last season.

Whether they make a push for an Eastern Conference playoff spot or not this year, the arrow is clearly pointing up for a Nets team that is once again becoming relevant on the NBA landscape.

“Just playing with focus, playing with a lot of energy,” said Booker, who posted his team-high fourth double-double of the season.

“We knew we had to bring it tonight and that’s exactly what we did. We needed it. To get two on the road is big for us, especially with some of our players down.”

Nothing But Net: Following their upcoming home-and-home with Atlanta, the Nets will embark on their much-anticipated “road” trip to Mexico, where they will play the host team against Oklahoma City on Dec. 7 and Miami on Dec. 9 at the Arena Ciudad de Mexico … Dinwiddie has been more effective at protecting the ball than either Lin or Russell were before they got hurt. Over the last three games, the 24-year-old Los Angeles native, who was basically a space-filler on Brooklyn’s roster at season’s start, has 20 assists and only three turnovers.  

 

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