3 Takeaways after Brooklyn Nets draw a blank vs Indiana Pacers

An A for effort, but a L in the standings

The Brooklyn Nets have played the same charade in several of their past 10-to-12 games. Riddled with injuries, but also with a coach hellbent on competing, the few players available showed what a clear buy-in looks like. They put up a good fight early, only for fatigue and a plain old talent disparity to inevitably run them down.

It’s the stuff war movies are made of. You know, the kind where the ornery yet lovable group of soldiers hold off an entire enemy army despite their limited ammo before ultimately meeting their demise. Lots of tears.

In the end, though, it was just another dreary loss for the home team.

The Nets dropped their seventh of their last nine games tonight by a 113-99 final score. Brooklyn led with about two minutes to go in the first, but Indiana Pacers, as advertised by their name, left them in the dust soon after. Let’s get into it.

Traditional Point Guards Are Important

Position-less basketball is one of the many new era elements of the game growing with popularity among general managers as they build out their teams. After tonight, the Brooklyn Nets might feel inclined to play devil’s advocate in the court of opinion.

For the sixth straight quarter tonight, Brooklyn ran their offense without a true point guard as D’Angelo Russell and Ben Simmons stayed in street clothes due to their shin and calf injuries. Without additional scorers Cam Thomas and Cam Johnson, it went just about how you’d expect.

Brooklyn’s inability get the offense humming and set up good looks for everyone made their offense tonight look like a Bizarro version of the super Schröder-led attack we saw earlier this season. Rather than a pick-and-roll now orchestrated by Russell or fast break sequences ignited by Simmons, the Nets endured Ziaire Williams step-back threes and Day’Ron Sharpe back-to-the-basket plays straight out of the 2000s.

As a result, Brooklyn shot just 41.8% for the game, clocking in as their ninth lowest field goal percentage in a contest all year. Their 39 points at halftime also was their lowest scoring first half all season.

The case against the Nets winning too many games has some merit by now — and it’s only growing with every Cooper Flagg dunk and Dylan Harper triple. But I think even the most decorated tank commanders would agree, there’s ways for the Nets to accomplish that without subjecting us to such a basketball eye sore. We likely won’t get that, however, until Russell or Simmons heal up.

Yes, Noah Clowney Can Do More Than Shoot

Standing at 6’10” and with 58.5% of his shots of a 3-point nature, Noah Clowney is undoubtedly a product of this new, five-out NBA, which fosters big guys who only shoot threes. Tonight, however, the Alabama product argued “only” needs an asterisk above it in that sentence.

While Clowney still got his threes up this evening, shooting 3-of-10 from deep, he also displayed his ability to put the ball on the deck and create either for himself or others. It’s something we’ve seen him do at the G-League level before, as illustrated in this clip from The Backcourt.

Clowney gave us not one or two, but several flashes of that tonight, of course at the NBA level this time.

Nic Claxton was a lazy, but fair pro comp for Clowney as a draft prospect. He looked every bit the part during this transition take in the third, where he snuck up the court to beat a defense that likely expected him to dump it off to a guard following his rebound.

He fed Claxton as well a few sequences later, this time beating Myles Turner with his thin frame while going baseline.

The still 20-year-old Clowney flexing his versatility wasn’t enough to thaw Brooklyn’s frigid offense, but it gave us something to marvel at from a development standpoint. That’s not too shabby once you remind yourself that’s what this season is all about anyway.

Nets Making Progress on the Glass

All year, rebounding has not been a Nets positive. Coming into tonight, Brooklyn ranked second to last in rebound percentage as well as total boards for the year. This evening though, I’ll give them that nod.

Unable to generate high-percentage looks for most of the night, the Nets mining for extra shots looked like their only chance to make things work in this one. Shovel in hand and hard hats on, they went to work, winning on the glass by a 51-35 margin.

Tonight though, despite them ranking bottom-10 in offensive bounding percentage, they dominated that front, pulling down 20 offensive boards — their most in a game all year. That led to 33 second chance points — a third of their offense for the night.

As might be expected, Day’Ron Sharpe led the way in this effort, pulling down 13 boards, nine of which were offensive. Jalen Wilson also snatched four boards, all on the offensive end. Nic Claxton had seven with two at the offensive end. Even guards Tyrese Martin and Keon Johnson combined for nine rebounds with five coming on offense.

To be fair, the Pacers aren’t the hungriest glass-eaters out there either. They came into tonight ranking behind the Nets, yet still seventh worst in rebounding percentage.

But as I mentioned, Brooklyn did the bulk of their work on the boards at the offensive end. With Indiana ranking in the top half of the league in defensive rebounding percentage, it ultimately stamps this win on the glass as valid.

Better luck next time.