Sixers 83 – Nets 104

Joe Johnson started for Brooklyn after being a game-time decision. Reggie Evans came out like a man possessed with eight points and eight rebounds in the first six minutes of play. The first 16 points of the game for the Nets came from Brook Lopez and Evans. Jrue Holiday started from deep very early and hit his first three 3-pointers to keep the Sixers in the game. Nets lead 20 -15 midway through quarter one. Lopez looked very strong on the glass with seven rebounds early. MarShon Brooks entered the game for Johnson at the three minute mark due to the fact that P.J. Carlesimo wants to limit Johnson’s minutes until the playoffs. Andray Blatche replaced Lopez with a couple minutes left in the first after Lopez had 15 points and seven rebounds. Nets shot 53 percent for the quarter and led 31-18 after one.

Deron Williams did not score yet and didn’t need to with the way Evans and Lopez were destroying the Sixers. Johnson seemed to get his legs under him a bit more with eight points at half as the Nets broke open the game. Nets are dominating the boards. They’ve got 27 rebounds (13 off 14 def) vs 14 rebounds (5 off 9 def) for Sixers. Evans leads with 10 rebounds. Nets took their biggest lead of the game with a Brooks jumper. Up 15 points, 50-35 with 3:17 left 1st half. After a 14-3 run to close the 1st half, Nets have a 56-38 blowout against Sixers. Evans 14 points and17 rebounds while Lopez with 19 points, seven rebounds, three blocks. D-Will no points.

[blockquote]”You just gotta go out there and do what you need to do to win. It’s all about heart. That’s what it’s all about. It ain’t all about the way you look, how tall you are, how physical you look. Nah. It’s all about the heart. I’d rather play a physical game than a pretty game. The more physical, the better it is. I like contact. I don’t like running from contact, even though right now I have to get my [left shoulder] right so I can absorb more contact.”[/blockquote]

Lopez opened the third with back to back buckets followed by a Williams jumper and a Johnson 3-pointer. The 11-4 run brought the lead to 67-42. Nets came out of halftime dominant with offensive rebounds and great defense. Evans grabbed his 20th rebound of the night with six minutes into the third quarter. Lopez with 25 points and nine rebounds to bring the Nets lead to 71-50. Williams took on more of the scoring load in the quarter and scored 11 points to give the Nets an 85-62

The bench Mob started the fourth with the big lead. Blatche, Kris Humphries, Jerry Stackhouse, Brooks and C.J. Watson held it down for the first part of the quarter. The game was over at this point with Brooklyn leading 94-72. Brooklyn emptied the bench with Kris Joseph, Mirza Teletovic, Tyshawn Taylor to go with Humphries and Brooks to finish the game. This was only the second time the entire season that the starters sat the entire fourth quarter. Great game all around for Brooklyn as they destroyed the Sixers 67-34 on the glass and grabbed 24 offensive rebounds. Nets win in a rout 104-83 and win the season series with the Sixers 3-1.

[blockquote]“I was definitely happy we put this one away early and that our second unit and third unit came in and finished the game,” said Williams, who finished with 11 points and four assists and did not score a point in the first half, “because we can definitely use the rest going into [tonight].”[/blockquote]

LEADERS:

Points – Lopez – 29

Rebounds – Evans – 24

Assists – Williams – 4

STAT OF THE NIGHT: The Nets grabbed an amazing 67 rebounds, 23 offensive, to the Sixers 34 rebounds and the game was won on the boards.

GAMECHANGER: Reggie Evans dominated the game right from the start with nine rebounds in the first and finished the first half strong with 14 points to go with 17 total rebounds. He ended with 17 points and 24 total rebounds in another monster game. He now has nine 20 rebound games this season to lead the NBA.

BOXSCORE REPLAY