The Brooklyn Nets open the season with a loss against the Indiana Pacers, despite an incredible effort from D’Angelo Russell.
All the hype built up for this year’s Brooklyn Nets has proved legitimate. In a season opener loss to the Indiana Pacers, we saw flashes of some very good basketball.The new starting backcourt, D’Angelo Russell and Jeremy Lin, seem to be working just fine. They recorded 48 points and 9 assists combined, before Lin left with injury in the fourth quarter.
Newcomer Allen Crabbe put on a shooting display, connecting on four of five from beyond the arc.
Veteran Trevor Booker had one of his best games in recent years, posting 20 points and 10 rebounds against the Pacers big men.
Unfortunately, to make the loss even worse, Lin’s right knee injury appears to be fairly serious. Check his reaction after going down hard below:
According to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski, Lin will be evaluated Thursday in New York.
The story behind tonight’s game was the immense lack of effort defensively. Indiana had a 41-point third quarter, and tallied 106 points before the fourth.
That doesn’t happen without some serious defensive negligence.
Aside from that, you can’t say enough about Russell. He posted 30 points and 5 assists, while knocking down four of eight three-pointers.
It was a quiet, yet dominant debut with his new team. With Lin looking at a stretch on the bench, expect nights like these to become a regular thing for Russell.
Tonight’s loss maintains a season opener losing streak that dates back to 2012. Maybe next year fellas.
Brooklyn will host the Orlando Magic in the home opener on Friday. Tip-off is at 7:00 PM EST.