Nets routed by Hawks in home opener
NEWARK -- Rookie MarShon Brooks had 17 points to lead the cold-shooting Nets, who looked tired coming off a season-opening win in Washington on Monday night, and the Atlanta Hawks opened a double-digit lead early Tuesday night and cruised to a 106-70 victory over the sluggish Nets in their final home opener at Prudential Center.
The Nets gave up early, sitting Deron Williams and Kris Humphries most of the second half. Deron Williams finished with 10 points on 3 of 11 shooting with six turnovers, while Humphries had 11 points and six rebounds.
"This is very disappointing that we came out and put up a stinker like that in our first one," Deron Williams said. "It was one of those games where nothing seemed to go right. We have a lot of work to do and not a lot of time to do it."
Marvin Williams had 14 points and nine rebounds, Jeff Teague 13 points, Joe Johnson 11 and the Hawks got big games off the bench from Zaza Pachulia (13 points and 11 rebounds) and Vladimir Radmanovic (17 points) in finally opening the lockout-delayed season by embarrassing the Nets in a game in which the crowd was booing the Brooklyn-bound team by halftime.
Nets coach Avery Johnson was upset his team showed no effort, adding if his players were in the stands, they would have booed, too. "There is no excuse," Johnson said. "Take your hat off to Atlanta. They were rested and ready, locked and loaded, and they were ready to go from start to finish. We just couldn't get untracked."
The Hawks, who held the Nets to a dismal 31-percent shooting from the field, took command early as Williams hit two three-pointers in a game-opening 11-2 spurt. Atlanta led 28-11 at the end of the first quarter with Radmanovic supplying a late spark with nine points.
Atlanta, which has made the playoffs the past four seasons, was not overly impressive. It shot 44.2 percent from the field and showed only flashes of good basketball. The best came early in the second half when Williams and Josh Smith combined on a fast break in which the ball did not touch the floor and they exchanged four passes before Smith hit a layup.
