VIDEO – FINAL: #Nets 111 – #Wizards 106 (OT)

The Nets first preseason game is in the books as they defeated the Wizards 111-106 in overtime at the Verizon Center in Washington.

COACH:

Jason Kidd coached his first NBA game and came out with the victory.  If Kidd had any nerves they did not show as he sat and watched his starters, minus Deron Williams, play a limited 12 minutes and look pretty good sharing the ball.

[quote_box]”I think one of the biggest things when I was a player was just accepting the moment and not being nervous,” Kidd said. “Being calm is something I have always taken pride in and hopefully that will translate with my guys and when the moment is there, guys embrace it, accept it and run with it.”[/quote_box]

STARTERS:

Paul Pierce (3 points, 2 rebounds, 3 assists) got in early foul trouble with three fouls in three minutes but it did not matter as he was only scheduled to play 12 minutes.

Joe Johnson did not score and looked like he just wanted to see where he would be getting his shots and played good defense.

Kevin Garnett (4 points, 7 rebounds, 1 assist) was regular season ready as he didn’t stop talking and communicating from the opening tip and it sure seemed to help Brook Lopez (15 points) on defense.

Lopez put on 15 pounds of muscle in the offseason and it showed as he fought with Nene when he was in there.  His shot looked great as he went 6-for-7 from the field and played well with Garnett all night.

Shaun Livingston did a nice job filling in for Williams and ran the offense well enough to get five assists in 18 minutes of play.  The court vision that everyone has talked about with Livingston was quite visible and he should nail down the backup point guard job.

THE BENCH:

The swiss army knife they call Andrei Kirilenko was on full display as he played 23 minutes and did a little bit of everything.   He shot the passing lanes and came up with three steals and made numerous plays for others all night.  Kirilenko finished with 11 points, 5 rebounds, 5 assists and 1 blocked shot to go with his 3 steals.  He will be the X-Factor for Brooklyn this year and he looked ready to roll last night.

The question everyone wants answered is “where will Mirza Teletovic find time in this rotation?”  Teletovic played well last night and scored 15 points (3-7 from deep) in 19 minutes to go with 6 rebounds and a steal.  He had the highlight of the night when he went up for a rebound off a miss and threw down a thunderous tomahawk dunk that got the entire Nets bench into a frenzy.

Andray Blatche played well against his old team once again and ended up with 14 points and 3 rebounds.  There was few times he tried to do too much but it looks like he is going to repeat his great season of last year and that is good news for Nets fans.

The rest of the bench, Alan Anderson (13 points, 3 rebounds), Reggie Evans (3 points, seven rebounds)  and the rookie Mason Plumlee (8 points, 5 rebounds) got good run and seem to be getting acclimated to their roles on this team.  Plumlee had his issues at the free throw line going 4-for-7, which he will have to correct, but it was nice to see the rookie get his feet wet.  Tyshawn Taylor (16 points, 6 assists, 7 turnovers) continued to turn the ball over at an alarming rate but did some good things that can be built on.

NOTES:

Garnett had the entire Nets bench into the game the whole second half and that is something that Nets fans never saw before he arrived. He even gathered the team into his own huddle at one point and barked instructions to them as they came off the floor.  Get used to it because Garnett is intensity personified and it should trickle down to everyone quicker than you think.

At one point after Teletovic hit a 3-pointer D-Will jumped up and did three pushups and it seems that this may occur all year from the bench when “MT3” hits his patented long range bombs.  I thoroughly enjoyed it and hope it sticks.

Blatche was booed every time he touched the ball by the Washington crowd and it did not seem to faze him at all.