3 takeaways from the Brooklyn Nets’ loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers

The NBA’s most unlikely kryptonite for top-tier basketball teams is beginning to splinter and splinter.

After a crushing 135-119 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies, the current runner-up in the mighty Western Conference, the Brooklyn Nets hosted the club’s winningest team – the Cleveland Cavaliers – on Monday. Like the Grizz, the Cavs weren’t intimidated by the Nets or their seven wins against teams with a winning percentage over .500.

In his first return to Barclays Center as an opposing head coach, Kenny Atkinson throttled his former employers, with Cleveland defeating the Nets 130-101. The contest ended long before the scoreboard said it would, the Cavs made a big impact early and never looked back. Here’s what we learned.

No, Dennis is influencing the team exactly as we expected

The Nets seemed eager to trade Dennis Schröder, but not for the same reasons they traded away their other lead guards in previous years. Instead of causing headaches on or off the field, Dennis threatened Brooklyn’s long-term plans and provided offense to a team that is putting its long-term future above winning this season Away too much functionality.

In short, he was damn good. That’s why when the trade window opened over the weekend, it took Brooklyn just a few hours to put him on a one-way plane to Golden State. Opposite coasts, opposite realities. (Good thing he only rented in Red Hook!)

So what would the Nets offense look like without the central pillar that has sustained them all season? In short, messy and I’m nice. Brooklyn gave up the rock 20 times tonight, which is the most in a game this year. At halftime they had had as many turnovers as field goals, 13.

It wasn’t just the handling of the ball that Brooklyn missed without Schröder, but also his ability to create. The halfcourt where we’ve watched Schröder fire up his guys for 20 games this year left a lot to be desired tonight, as many of Brooklyn’s possessions ended with a contested shot just before the shot clock buzzer sounded. Luckily a few went in, but almost none were a look you knew the Nets wanted to take…

The pick-and-roll disappeared, the paint contact decreased and the threes felt more like prayers than strung-out shots against a stretched defense. Cam Johnson, Brooklyn’s top deadeye, agreed.

“It’s a little different,” he said of the offense after the game. “We just have to figure it out and somehow recreate what works and gives us results.”

Sure, that’s what the Nets decided to do when they traded Dennis, the Menace, and ultimately realigned their picks over the summer. It shouldn’t be this ugly every night, but it probably won’t be this pretty in the future either.

Running is easier said than done

Ben Simmons is one of the fastest point guards in the league in terms of speed, while Dennis Schröder is one of the slowest. Jordi Fernández knew this and even quoted it before the game when explaining how the team could change if the latter stays and the former is absent.

“Dennis was the 10th slowest point guard in the NBA,” Fernández said. “Speed ​​doesn’t mean you get better or worse, and Ben is the 18th fastest. Right here is the answer. We’ll try to play faster. The ball will fly. He will push. He’ll throw forward and you’ll have more opportunities to get those shots early in the clock, the quality shots.”

The Nets may have tried – but they didn’t do it often tonight. They scored just 16 points in transition, a few ticks below their season average of 19.4 points per game, even though Simmons now had both hands on the wheel.

Now, Cleveland certainly hit some speed bumps ahead of Brooklyn, shooting 53.1% from the field and 40.4% from deep. It’s difficult to finish on the ground and in front of your opponents when you have to get the ball in at your own end first.

But that’s what this is about. Just like last season, the Nets can’t rely solely on the break to generate offense, as that won’t always be an option for one reason or another. Tonight it was because they were playing against the best shooting team in the league.

The ball pressure remains first class

Jordi Fernández has expressed his team’s desire to get in the opponent’s corner all year round. Almost a third of the way through the season, they’re still just as happy with it as they were on day one.

No one will want to talk about the turnovers Brooklyn forced tonight when their own ball protection was as weak as a wet paper towel. But regardless, the Cavs are only giving up 13.1 times per game this season. That’s good for fourth-fewest in the league, and the Nets exceeded it, pushing them to 17 giveaways.

It’s not easy to find a bright spot in a bleak December game in which the good guys were swept off their own turf. It will be difficult for the Nets to continue to hurt teams like they did earlier in the season now without Schröder, especially on offense. But the ball pressure, if anything, seems to be holding up.

And oh yeah, Schroder won’t be the last veteran to leave.