NBA Power Rankings: Reaction To Brooklyn Nets Week 15 ESPN Ranking
NBA Power Rankings: The Brooklyn Nets wen 1-3 in their games from February 1st-6th; did that change their standing in ESPN’s Power Rankings?
Each week over at ESPN, they release their NBA Power Rankings that are written by Marc Stein. Here at Empire Writes Back, we will have our weekly reaction to where the Brooklyn Nets are ranked by Stein and a little feedback on the rankings as a whole.
It was a weird week for the Nets from February 1st-6th. It started about the same as anyone would have expected, as they lost to the Detroit Pistons despite playing them tough throughout the evening, and a rough first half did them in against the Indiana Pacers.
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But, then the Nets ran into a team in arguably more turmoil than themselves in the Sacramento Kings and dropped a cool 128 points on them to pick up a victory. There was no momentum built, as they fell crashing back to earth extremely quick, losing to the Philadelphia 76ers the next night on the second game of their back-to-back set.
That resulted in a wacky 1-3 week for the Nets, but did not change their standing in the ESPN NBA Power Rankings, as they stayed in the 28th spot ahead of only the Los Angeles Lakers and Phoenix Suns. Had they not lost the 76ers on Saturday, there is a good chance that the Nets would have moved up in the rankings as the 76ers are the team right ahead of them, and the Minnesota Timberwolves also had a tough week.
Alas, they lost and stay at the 28th spot. The game against the Kings was something anyone that is a fan of offense would like to go back and watch, as six Nets and five Kings were in double-figures and five players scored over 20 points; each team had one player go over 20 off the bench, as Darren Collison did it for the Kings and Bojan Bogdanovic did it for the Nets.
Joe Johnson paced the Nets that night, putting on a vitange performance with 27 points, 11 assists, six rebounds two steals and one block as he put on a clinic against the Kings. Not to be outdone, DeMarcus Cousins put together his first triple-double of the season, as he put up 24, 10 and 10 on Brook Lopez. Thankfully for the Nets, Cousins was in a giving mood not only offensively, but defensively as well. Lopez had a monster game of his own, scoring 26 points with 12 rebounds.
It was a nice win for the Nets, but the loss to the 76ers is also tough to stomach. While the season has been a tough one to endure for the Nets, there looks to be better days on the horizon. Their search for a new general manager to replace Billy King is officially underway, as they hope to have a GM in place prior to the NBA Trade Deadline.
On the court, they also got to see 2015 first round pick Chris McCullough in action for the first time, as he made his much anticipated NBA debut against the Denver Nuggets Monday night. He picked a great time to return, as the Nets picked up a victory in his debut on the back of Johnson’s heroics.
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It was a good start to the homestand for the Nets, as they will continue it against the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday night, which is their last game before the All-Star break.