New Jersey Nets halt their dry road run with a 101-94 win over the Grizzlies
The New Jersey Nets are on a high. After winning as many games this past week as they won in the previous four weeks combined, the Nets on Tuesday night added another feather to their cap as they snapped a 10-game road losing streak with a 101-94 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies.
Brook Lopez posted a game high 26 points and Sasha Vujacic, New Jersey’s new recruit, provided the spark the Nets have been missing all season as the Nets made short work of the cold shooting Grizzlies.
The Grizzlies offense never came to terms with well-knitted defence of the Nets with Kris Humphries being the key cog. He grabbed 15 of the total 49 boards as the Nets reduced the Grizzlies to a 34 percent shooting from the field in the first half.
The Memphis shooting improved slightly in the second half but the Grizzlies ended up below their season average in field goal percentage (39.8), free throw percentage (30.8) and 3-point field goal percentage (69.0).
The match generally hung in balance for most of the first quarter as both the teams clawed back at each other. It was in the tenth minute of play that Lopez and Vujacic sparked a 15-1 spurt spanning the first and the second quarter as the Nets pulled away with a 32-19 advantage.
The Grizzlies showed some zip though as they rallied back to slash the Nets’ advantage to two points going into the halftime.
Despite a poor conversion rate, the only thing that kept the Grizzlies going in the first half was their offensive rebounding, with Zach Randolph leading the way, grabbing 5 out of the total nine.
All this changed in the second half as the Nets coped up their weakness in style and mustered up a resolute post defence to keep the Grizzlies at bay. Consequently, the Grizzlies could only manage three offensive rebounds in the second half, among which Randolph had none.
The Grizzlies though slightly upped their offensive ante in the second half as managed to cling on to a red hot Nets offense that was sharp shooting at a percentage of above fifty.
New Jersey though finally managed to quash the Grizzlies resistance as they sprinted to a 12-2 run in the latter stages of the third frame and took a 73-67 advantage in the fourth quarter.
Vujacic opened the final period with a shot from downtown to set the tone for the Nets and they never looked back. The Nets kept a tight leash on the Grizzlies and didn’t allow them within a striking distance throughout the last 12 minutes en-route to a 101-94 romp.
Brook Lopez scored 26 points on an 8-of-14 shooting while Sasha Vujacic finished with a season-high 16 points. Devin Harris and Kris Humphries recorded 12 points apiece while Travis Outlaw had 11 points and nine rebounds.
For the Grizzlies all the starters got into the double figures while O.J. Mayo came off the bench to lead with 17 points. Memphis offense though, with the exception of Xavier Henry, displayed an appalling inconsistency in finding the net as they failed to improve on their impressive home run.
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