Brooklyn Nets Defeat Los Angeles Lakers, Irving Injury Scare Overshadows Victory

In their second outing of the preseason, the Brooklyn Nets had an impressive yet slightly scary 114-111 victory against the Los Angeles Lakers on Thursday in the Mercedes-Benz Arena in Shanghai.

It was impressive because of the 13 players that the Nets played the bench players got significantly more minutes than the starters. Meanwhile, of the 12 players that the Lakers played, the starters played heavier minutes, for a preseason game.

It was scary because just one minute into his first game this season, PG Kyrie Irving aggravated his facial fracture while guarding PG Rajon Rondo, despite wearing his mask. Definitely worrisome for players, coaches and fans who wanted to see masked-Kyrie in action to see how he fits in with the new-look Nets. However, as long as no damage was done, they may just have to wait a bit longer than expected to see him back on the court.

All in all it was a pretty close game. There were 9 ties, 11 lead changes and the biggest lead was the Lakers being up by 7. However, if you look at some of the other numbers, you probably would have the Lakers coming out on top.

The Lakers grabbed more rebounds than the Nets, including their 13 offensive boards to the Nets’ 8. They racked up more assists, steals and blocks and also turned the ball over less than the Nets.

Despite winning these categories, the one thing the Lakers couldn’t do better than Brooklyn was shoot the deep ball. The Nets shot 48% from behind the arc, hitting 20 of their 41 threes, while the Lakers struggled shooting only 39%, hitting 11 of their 28 attempts.

Both squads have a lot of shooters on their roster, and will therefore most likely finish amongst the top teams in this season, even though it was one-sided this go-around.

The most important thing the Nets are going to have to clean up this season is turnovers. Granted, maybe some rust as well as getting acclimated with the new faces on the team was to blame, but 26 in a game is not going to cut it. Last season the Nets finished as the 5 worst team when it came to turnovers, averaging 15.1 a game. Adding defensive anchors like a DeAndre Jordan, a Wilson Chandler and a Kevin Durant (to be) will surely give the Nets more offensive opportunities on the court, so they can’t afford to let it go to waste by turning the ball over.

On a more positive note, going into his fourth year with the Nets, Spencer Dinwiddie shined in this Shanghai game scoring 20 points, dishing out seven assists, grabbing three rebounds and finishing with a +9 efficiency rating. He will likely be a bright spot of this Nets offense in the backcourt with Kyrie, and produce even more in the event that he has to play in place of Kyrie if the NBA champion has to miss any games.

Don’t be surprised if Dinwiddie makes his first All-Star team this year.

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