Recap
The Mavericks shot 81% in the first half and scored 49 in the second quarter. By all accounts, the final score was a lot closer than it had any right to be. Here's something that caught my eye too:
Vandeweghe, the Nets’ general manager, replaced the fired Lawrence Frank and will coach the team the rest of the season—but not quite yet. Though his hiring was announced Tuesday, Vandeweghe won’t coach his first game until Friday, leaving assistant Tom Barrise in charge one more time.
In a strange arrangement, Vandeweghe handled the pregame coach’s meeting with reporters, then sat in a seat above center court with Del Harris, the former Dallas assistant who will join him on the bench.
“Nobody likes to lose. Period. And obviously we made it clear and you all know this is a developmental year, but nobody expected to be 0-17,” Vandeweghe said. “That’s just obviously not acceptable and I think that it’s not acceptable to anybody and especially the players.”
Clearly Vandeweghe doesn't want to be a part of the long winning streak, especially the record setting 18th consecutive loss, but that sends a pretty poor message when he's letting Barrise take the fall so he can step in after the dubious record has been attained and distance himself from it. Who knows how long the losing streak is going to continue, if Vandeweghe wants to avoid taking control on the sidelines until the streak is broken he could be waiting until mid December; surely he wouldn't push back his debut further than Friday. That would be a complete and utter farce.
I don't have anything against the Nets, but I have to admit I kind of want to see how far they can get into the NBA season without winning a game. Just as it's rare to see a team get on a hot streak and win 15+ games in a row, it's not that often teams have such an awful run of futility, at least to this extent. There's a twisted part of me that's interested to see just how bad it can get for the Nets, because this is turning into a spectacle to behold.
I also think we can end speculation about LeBron going to the Nets. I don't think the cap room, young roster, the move to Brooklyn or Jay-Z's ownership really matters at this point. They could sell the team and divide ownership amongst all of LeBron's closest friends and family, move the team to Akron and get the first overall pick in 2010 and I still doubt LeBron would be sold on playing for them anytime soon.
Can't say I wasn't really expecting this to happen after the lost 10 straight, because that's when I started looking at their future 8 games and knew that if they didn't beat Sacramento, they were going to break the record.
