Brooklyn's short comings from last season are the same on Opening Night

 Exactly three months have passed from the Milwaukee Bucks eliminating the Brooklyn Nets on the Nets home floor in an overtime thriller that saw two of the greatest performances from two of the game’s brightest stars. Three months later, the only things that have changed are the location and the margin of victory.

Opening night means nothing in the grand scheme of things, unless you’re raising a banner. An opening night loss doesn’t mean your season is in trouble. What is troubling for the Brooklyn Nets is that the Bucks looked better than them again last night. The same short comings from last season were apparent last night in Milwaukee. The defense is still lacking when the offense needs a stop, turnovers are still ending runs that can be game changing, and the Nets are still searching for a rim protector that can slow down dominate post players while also grabbing rebounds. The Nets shot better from three (53.1% to 37.8%) than Milwaukee, and you’re not going to shoot better than that most nights, and Brooklyn still lost by 23. The Nets turned over the ball 17 times and the Bucks had 19 more shots because of those turnovers.

The way to beat the Nets is to out physical them. Steve Nash put it postgame “the one thing that frustrated me more than anything is [loose balls] the hustle plays, they seemed to win them all.”  If you out hustle and muscle this team, if you can do that, more often than not, you’re going to beat them.

Even when Kevin Durant has a 30-point double double. Even when James Harden has a 20-point mere triple double. Even when Patty Mills has a game as Stan Van Gundy put it “he’s playing like he’s playing in the Olympics.” The Nets still lost.

The trio of big men that Sean Marks brought in to be the rim protectors, LaMarcus Aldridge, Paul Millsap, and James Johnson did not play well collectively. Brooklyn will need all three of them throughout this season, and when they don’t play well, they will lose games they shouldn’t. This team will need the rest of the roster to play well, that’s how you win a title, that will make their championship aspirations. James Harden said postgame that if the Nets want to be the last team standing this year “we have to work towards the right direction and build to be that team for this upcoming season.”

Brooklyn will not become a championship team overnight, but they will meet this Bucks team again, and they will have to figure out how to beat them if they want to get there. Kevin Durant spoke after the game about being behind “they took 19 more shots than us, so we was climbing up hill all game.” The Nets have been climbing up that hill since June and still haven’t reached the peak. This season ahead, hopefully come June, they will.

  

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