Playing the New York Knicks again on Sunday after a heartbreaking loss at MSG on Friday night to a Jalen Brunson game winner, there was some optimism that the Nets would be able to bounce back and possibly get a win against the cross town rival. Before the game, it was announced that Trendon Watford would be available and making his season debut, giving the Nets another big body to accommodate for the loss of both Nic Claxton and DayRon Sharpe, both of whom are out due to injuries, leaving the Nets with Ben Simmons as the starting 5. Unfortunately, it was also announced that All-Star Center Karl-Anthony Towns would be available, meaning the Nets would have no interior presence to guard the Big Purr.
In the 1st half, the Nets kept it competitive, being down 60-57, doing an excellent job of containing Jalen Brunson, holding him to 3 points on 0-5 FG. However, while the defense was focused on guarding Brunson, both KAT and OG dominated the paint, combining for 30 points on 12-20 FG in the half. The Knicks had a similar game plan. After Thomas scored 43 points against them on Friday, they decided to blitz Thomas for the majority of the game, challenging anyone else to beat them. While both Cam Johnson and Jalen Wilson combined for 26 points on 8-12 FG, eventually, the Knicks would run away with this one. In the 2nd half, the Nets just could not generate offense due to the Knicks blitzing Thomas. The Knicks completely dominated, scoring 50 points in the paint compared to the Nets' 24 points. The Nets lost this game 114-104, with 4 different Knicks scoring 20+ points.
The Nets were clear underdogs in this fight. However, there was one glaring issue on the court that can’t be ignored: Ben Simmons. There is no debate that his passing vision is still elite, arguably the best pure passer in the NBA. His lack of explosiveness and desire to head to the rim completely nullifies his God-given passing abilities. This was made apparent by the first play of the game for the Nets. After a missed basket, Ben Simmons pushed the pace in transition, getting halfway into the paint. Instead of going up for a possible layup, he stopped, turned away from the rim, and passed it out to DFS, who turned it over, resulting in a fastbreak layup for former Net Mikal Bridges. In the next 4 minutes, Simmons went 0-3 FG, blowing 3 layup attempts. For the remaining 18 minutes Simmons played, he did not attempt a single field goal, finishing with 0 points.
Due to Simmons’ lack of scoring, he made it all too easy for Cam Thomas to get double-teamed by the Knicks' defense, knowing they would not be punished by playing off Ben Simmons. While I would argue that Simmons is unplayable due to his inability to score, with all the bigs currently injured, it is difficult to fully blame coach Jordi Fernandez for playing Simmons. However, once Nic Claxton or DayRon Sharpe is healthy, it is unjustifiable to play Simmons in the rotation if he continues to score in the single digits.
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