Too Much Barea; and Dirk Makes History, passes Shaquille O’Neal to place 6th on the NBA’s all-time scoring list

For a moment, it almost looked like the Brooklyn Nets were going to give their fans an early Christmas gift. After battling for 48 mins, the Nets pushed the Mavericks to an extra five, but too much J.J. Barea and Dirk Nowitzki proved to be the secret sauce that allowed the Mavs to escape Brooklyn with an 119-118 OT win, two days before Christmas.

The Nets fell to 8-21, (6-9 at home) while the Mavericks improved to 16-13, the 4th seed in the Western Conference.

When it boils down to the nitty gritty, late game execution is the only thing that cost the Nets on Wednesday night. The Nets led 118-117 with 41.7 seconds left in the OT period when Brook Lopez scored on a hook shot assisted by Shane Larkin, who made his return to the court after missing the last four games with a concussion. Twenty seconds later, Dirk returned the favor, giving the Mavs the go-ahead score up 119-118 with 19.2 seconds left in OT. It was all up to Jarrett Jack to win the game for the Nets and unfortunately, he came up short.

Photo (left to right): Brooklyn Nets center Brook Lopez and guard Jarrett Jack 

Brooklyn Nets guard Shane Larkin

After draining back-to-back threes earlier in the OT period that put the Nets in a position to have a shot for the win, Jack missed a fade-away jump shot just inside the three-point line and the game was decided. The tit-for-tat, you score, I score of what transpired in OT mirrors what the first 48 minutes entailed. The Mavericks controlled the first half of this game, enjoying leads of up to 16 points, thanks in large part to Barea and Nowitzki. At the 9:51 mark in the 2nd quarter, Dirk drained a baseline jump-shot, assisted by Barea to give the Mavs a 40-28 lead at the time, and in doing so, made history. With those two points, Dirk passed Shaquille O’Neal to move into 6th place on the NBA’s all-time scoring list.

‘That was a moment that I will never forget for the rest of my life,” Nowitzki said post-game. “It’s surreal passing Shaq; all-time great, legend. Was able to compete against him for a long, long time…..I’m really going to enjoy this one when my career is over.”

In addition to Dirk, Barea made his own history. He scored a team-high 32 (career-high) points in 41 mins, added 11 assists, and burned the Nets every chance he could, hitting big shot after big shot, filling in for Deron Williams who recorded a DNP due to a hamstring strain. With the game tied 105 all and 1:26 left in the 4th quarter, Barea penetrated the lane, beating Larkin on a high pick-and-roll, shot a floater and received the foul for the and-1, putting the Mavs up by three, 108-105 with 12 seconds left in the 4th.

“I was just trying to take good shots and take advantage of guys setting good screens for me, Coach giving me the ball in high pick and rolls and it was working,” Barea said.

It was something the Nets could not stop but head coach Lionel Hollins targeted free-throws as a significant problem in the Nets most recent loss.

“If you want to just analyze stats, I think going six-for-14 from the free throw line was the game changer when you look at it in simplistic terms,” Hollins said. “But they played, we played and somebody, unfortunately, had to lose and it was us.”

If the Nets had won, Thaddeus Young would’ve received the game ball. The forward scored 29 points on 14-20 shooting and like Barea-made big play after big play. Young drained the desperation three to send the game into OT and also blocked Barea on the other end, on his desperation fade-away to win the game as time expired in the 4th.

Brooklyn Nets forward Thaddeus Young

“Just a tremendous effort,” Hollins said regarding Young. “His numbers stand out over other people, but I thought that we got the efforts that we needed and the extra efforts and getting on the floor for loose balls. It was just a great basketball game.”

During Young’s post-game session with the media, he said that there are no moral victories, but there is something the Nets can take from this game and it was their intensity and ability to recover and fight back. There were plenty of times during this game where it looked like the Nets were going to pack it in, look forward to the Christmas holiday, and save their energy for Saturday’s game hosting the Washington Wizards, but they didn’t.

They hung in there and Jack, who scored 13 points follows Young’s sentiments.

“It felt good to fight, it felt like we left it all out there, but like you said we’re not into moral victories. When we put that type of effort on the court we have to come away with Ws.”

Lopez who also scored 13 points believes the Nets can build on their effort against the Mavs.

“The way we’ve played for six quarters, you know these last games, roughly is how we want to play out the rest of the season. We really feel like we’ve come together as of late.”

Like Jack said, hopefully the effort the Nets are displaying as of late turns into wins and Saturday evening will be their chance to walk-the-walk.