3 takeaways from the Brooklyn Nets wipeout vs. Cleveland Cavaliers

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

Fresh off a stifling 135-119 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies, the current two-seed in the mighty Western Conference, the Brooklyn Nets hosted the league’s winningest team on Monday – Cleveland Cavaliers. Like the Grizz, the Cavs weren’t going to let the Nets, or their seven wins vs. teams with a winning percentage above .500, scare them.

In his first return to Barclays Center as opposing manager, Kenny Atkinson coached his former employers as Cleveland beat the Nets 130-101. The contest ended long before the scoreboard showed, with the Cavs getting up early and never looking back. Here’s what we learned.

No Dennis is impacting the team exactly as we expected

The Nets appeared to be scrambling to trade away Dennis Schröder, but not for the same reasons they’ve dealt their other lead guards in recent years. Instead of causing headaches on or off the court, Dennis threatened Brooklyn’s long-term plans, giving a team that has prioritized its long-term future over winning this season an offense with way too much functionality.

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

So what did the Nets offense look like without the central pillar that has held it up all season? In short, messy and I’m friendly. Brooklyn gave up the rock 20 times tonight, the most in one game this year. At halftime, they had as many turnovers as made field goals with 13.

It was not only the handling of the ball that Brooklyn missed sans Schröder, but also his ability to create. The half court, where we saw Schröder fry guys in 20 games this year, left a lot to be desired tonight as many of Brooklyn’s possessions ended in a contested shot just before the shot clock buzzer. A few luckily went in, but almost none were looks you knew the Nets would take…

The pick-and-roll disappeared, paint touches dropped, and threes felt more like prayers instead of shots in line against a stretched defense. Cam Johnson, Brooklyn’s best dead eye, agreed.

“It’s a little different,” he said of the offense after the game. “We just have to figure it out and kind of re-establish what it is that works and gives us results.”

Sure, that’s what the Nets signed up for when they traded Dennis, the Menace and ultimately when they traded their picks back over the summer. It shouldn’t be this ugly every night, but it probably won’t be too pretty going forward either.

Running is easier said than done

Ben Simmons is among the league’s fastest point guards in terms of pace, while Dennis Schröder is among the slowest. Jordi Fernández knew it and even quoted it before the game when he explained how the team could change, with the latter holding firm and the former absent.

“Dennis was a bottom 10 or 10th slowest point guard in the NBA,” Fernández said. “The pace doesn’t mean you get better or worse and Ben is 18th fastest. So right there is the answer. We will try to play faster. The ball is going to fly. He’s going to push. He’s going to throw himself in front and you have more opportunities to get those shots early on the clock, quality shots.”

The Nets may have tried – but they didn’t succeed often tonight. They generated just 16 points in transition, a few ticks below their season average of 19.4 points per possession. fight, even with Simmons now having both hands on the wheel.

Now, Cleveland, shooting 53.1% from the field and 40.4% from deep, undoubtedly dropped some speed bumps ahead of Brooklyn. It’s hard to get down the floor and in front of your opponents once you have to get onto the ball in your own end.

But that is also the point here. Just like last season, the Nets can’t just rely on the break to generate offense because for one reason or another, that won’t always be an option. Tonight it was because they were playing the best shooting team in the league.

Ball pressure remains top notch

Jordi Fernández has reiterated a desire for his side to get in the grill of their opponents all year. Almost a third of the way through the season, it still resonates with them as strongly as it did on day one.

Nobody wants 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 it away 13.1 times per game. match this season. That’s good for fourth-fewest in the league, and the Nets beat it, pushing them to 17 giveaways.

It’s not easy to find silver linings in a dark December game where the good guys got blown off their own floor. It will be difficult for the Nets to continue to hurt teams like they did earlier in the season now minus Schröder as well, especially on the offensive end. But the ball pressure seems to be here to stay.

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