clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Magic spoil Coach Kidd's debut, Nets fall in Orlando, 107-86

By Tom Lorenzo
Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

It's not often a regular season game in early November brings much hype and anticipation, but with Jason Kidd making his official coaching debut for the Brooklyn Nets, this game carried much more weight than normal. Unfortunately, a little too much heavy lifting for the Nets, who played a sloppy, sloppy game.

Coach Kidd's regular season debut was spoiled by some uninspired play, as the Nets fall to 1-2 after losing to the Magic, 107-86.

The Nets, coming off a highly emotional one-point victory over the defending champs, the Miami Heat, started off slow, missing their first four shots before Paul Pierce started to take off. Such is a general theme we'll likely see this season, with the Nets so deep and talented offensively, they can actually lean a different player -- a hot hand -- from one night to the next.

Brooklyn once again showed off their depth, and did so early. Ten guys played in the first quarter, with eight playing at least three minutes -- 11 seeing first-half minutes.

Three-point shooting and overall field goal efficiency was an issue for the Nets in the first half, as they went 1-of-8 from downtown and shot 36.4 percent from the floor over the first 24 minutes. They just couldn't get anything to fall, but luckily, Orlando wasn't much better, as the Nets only trailed by a score of 41-38 at halftime.

The second half wasn't any prettier, as the Nets seemed to have lost all rhythm and any sense of urgency while the Magic pulled ahead by 14 points midway through the third quarter. A young-man's dunk by Paul Pierce really started to set things off for the Nets, who finally, seemingly, decided to show up.

Unfortunately, so too did Victor Oladipo who just took the game over after the Nets went on a 8-1 run. He responded with eight points of his own in the third quarter, and the Magic took a 74-59 lead into the 4th. .

From here, the Magic continued to out-hustle and out-rebound the Nets, as they ran away with this one, winning 107-86. The Magic finished plus-13 in rebounds and held the Nets to 37-percent shooting from the floor. This was no championship-contending performance

Victor Oladipo was fantastic, finishing with 19 points, six rebounds and four assists in 21 minutes (also, seven turnovers). Nikola Vucevic was dominant as well, cleaning the glass and providing the inside look on the offensive side of the ball, posting 19 points and 12 rebounds.

Brook Lopez led the Nets in scoring with 21 points, adding five blocks and six rebounds, while Pierce added 16 points. Other than that, no other Net posted double-digit scoring totals.

It's early, the Nets didn't look crisp, they didn't have a sense of urgency, etc. The Nets do need to continue to get more familiar with each other on both ends of the floor, even Joe Prunty said as much as we were all celebrating their performance.

The loss left two veterans frustrated.

"[If] we want to be one of the best teams in this league, the best team in this league when it's all said and done, we've got to perform better in these situations," said Deron Williams

And it had Kevin Garnett already questioning his role, considering he has yet to crack double-digits scoring. "I've got to get better with what I'm doing, making my minutes more productive," Garnett said. "I'm just being a little more passive, trying to be the glue, if you will. I need to be a little more aggressive at times."

Here's my "relevant" tweet of the night:

Of course, if you had the Nets going 81-1 this season, you probably shouldn't be making predictions.

Note: Kevin Garnett passed Wilt Chamberlain for 5th all-time in NBA minutes played (47,859); Mason Plumlee scored his first NBA bucket in the final minutes of the fourth quarter.

For more on the Magic, see: Orlando Pinstriped Post

In This Stream

Game 3 - Brooklyn Nets vs. Orlando Magic, 6:00PM

View all 5 stories

More From NetsDaily