Troublesome Brooklyn Nets Left Home Alone

Brooklyn Nets 122

Philadelphia 76ers 109

The Brooklyn Nets were without parental supervision Thursday Night as Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving were inactive for their match up against the incoming seven-win Philadelphia 76ers, fortunately for them, the kids took good care of the house. With Joel Embiid and Ben Simmons on the second half of a back-to-back, they looked less like perennial NBA All-Stars and more like sleep deprived Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern who forgot their burglary tools on the bus. Unable to break in and search through the Nets family wares, the 76ers were left to be pummeled by paint cans, spiders and leftover Christmas decorations on the front porch before heading back home to rest up and get in early to the lost property box at the bus station tomorrow morning. Embiid and Simmons did manage to flood the visiting locker room by clogging the sinks in a small moral victory they will take into Saturday's game against the Denver Nuggets. The Nets head to Memphis tomorrow in a situation they hope will not result in having to Parent Trap Kyrie Irving back onto the team.

Philadelphia looked like they were ready to go home from tip off. After missing several wipe open looks from deep in the first quarter they turned to their defense to help buoy their shooting woes and promptly gave up 122 points to a team missing three starters and dressed like they ironically missed the nineties in the Pacific Northwest. Lucky to find themselves down by only 10 at the end of the third quarter they soon saw the deficit balloon to 17 along with their hopes of an eight and one season start. A forgetful night for Philly with probably more on their collective minds than a midweek trip to Brooklyn.

Brooklyn looked more energetic as their bench took to the starting line up. With the speculation of Kyrie Irving's absence starting to make noise through the media they put to bed the story line that it cost their team a win. Caris LeVert and Landry Shamet gleefully took control of the offense and never looked back. LeVert isn't a number one option on a playoff caliber team but his role as step in and take the game over for a week or two might be perfect for him. Jerrett Allen and DeAndre Jordan did their due diligence against Embiid defensively and on the boards holding him to a relatively unremarkable 20 point, 12 rebound double-double. One for one while mum and dad are blissfully unaware in the French capital.

---

- Marv Albert and Chris Webber were deep in their broadcast notes half way through third quarter, talking about milkshakes and ranking the best afros in Nets team history, they were two timeouts away from a deep dive into the Nets flirtation with being called the New Jersey Swamp Dragons.

- Without belittling the triumph it is to make an NBA roster, Dakota Mathias looks like he works at a golf course pro-shop, telling the same joke to 42 different customers each day.