J.R. Smith serenades you with Jay Z's "Holy Grail" ft. Justin Timberlake.

J.R., dude, your voice is way too deep for Justin Timberlake's part. Or any part of any song for that matter.

NBA Christmas Carols - Brooklyn Nets Edition.

The Brooklyn Nets really like to stick with the hip-hop vibe that Jay Z sort of created for them. Which makes a lot of sense, because the Nets are basically using Jay Z to suddenly become cool. The black and white jerseys, herringbone court, arena music selection are all credited to the HOVA. His "influence" has spread so deep that they even remixed 12 days of Christmas, only to do another terrible cover.

The trio of Jerry Stackhouse, Kris Humphries and Brook Lopez do have the voices to be Bass singers though. Boyz II Men still needs a Michael McCary. Maybe Jay Z can hook one of them up. Jerry would be my choice out of the three. For starters, he is closer in age and is actually good. USA National Anthem good. 

As for the carol, it was creative enough to take third place in my NBA Christmas Carol Power Rankings. Here is the list in order: 1. Dallas Mavericks, 2. Houston Rockets, 3. Brooklyn Nets, 4. Minnesota Timberwolves, 5. Denver Nuggets, 6. Golden State Warriors, 7. Los Angeles Lakers.

The Feed: Toronto Raptors vs. Brooklyn Nets [11/03/12].

 Recap:

The Brooklyn Nets defeated the Toronto Raptors 107 to 100 in their first regular season game in the brand new Barclays Center. The Raptors came out to a blazing hot start scoring 35 points in the first quarter at 62.5%. But the Nets manage to fight back into the game, scoring 33 points in the second quarter to take the lead at halftime, a lead that Toronto never managed to comeback from.

On a night, the supporting Raptors struggled, Kyle Lowry (28 points, 8 assists and 8 rebounds) and Demar DeRozan (25 points) put the team on their backs and carried 53% of the offense. The 8 turnovers in the second quarter killed Toronto and destroyed the beautiful ball movement they had in the first quarter.

Brooklyn outscored Raptors in paint 52 to 34, much thanks to Brook Lopez who led all Nets with 27 points, Deron William added 19 points and 9 assists. Raptor's early reliance on the jumper, which did hit early came back to haunt them and only resorted to attack the basket late in the game.

Offensive End:
The Raptors like to look for Andrea Bargnani and Demar Derozan early. Andrea usually set a a pick early and instead of rolling hard like the other big men on the Raps, he flares out for a jumper. Demar Derozan get freed by off ball screens (2 of them and allows him to get the ball at the other wing).

Kyle Lowry likes to push the ball off a missed shot, in this game, he took the first shot available. If the defense is set, he will run a pick and roll to attack the basket and will kick out to the open man if given the opportunity.

Jose Calderon is a lot different, he likes to slowly dissect the defense and often (basically all the time) use the pick and roll to create offense.

From what I can remember Brooklyn didn't have specific offensive tactic, the only thing was the deep baseline screen, used to free the player that will likely shoot the ball upon catching it. Otherwise, it is just Deron William's dribble penetration to create chaos within the defense. They did start sloppy early, especially Joe Johnson, who did struggle tonight shooting 5 for 13, with 14 points. He forced a lot of shots, but did not revert back to ISO-JOE, which is a good sign for the Nets.


Defensive End:

Toronto looked great in the 1st quarter, rotating in symphony, reading the offense well and timed the help perfectly, but it ended there. There was a period of good defense in the fourth quarter comeback, it was just too late.

As you would have predicted, the Net's defense was not great either. They do hedge the pick and roll surprsingly well, other than that, they need to work on their rotation, they were slow to recover and the Raptors bailed them out by taking jumpers. When Reggie Evans is on, the defense turns to another level, he really bothers the bigs.



The Moments:

• Brook Lopez has a serious T-Shirt tan, distracted and bothered me the entire game.
• The Betty White temporary tattoo promised, did not happen. Which makes Deron Williams the worst person ever.
• Not once did Jay Z and Beyonce looked excited when the camera was on them. It is no Knicks vs. Net, but it was still a tight game.

Rookie Watch:

Jonas Valanciunas didn't get much action today, got in foul trouble early, finished with 2 points and 3 rebounds.

The Brooklyn Net's New Barclays Center has no toilet paper.

Photo by Adam E. Moreira

When the Net left New Jersey this year, they were were given a new home in Brooklyn. The city spent a billion dollars to build them the Barclays Center. You would think a billion dollar sports revenue would have all the luxuries in the world, but apparently you and I are both mistaken.

From DNAinfo:

Department of Health inspectors this month hit the freshly opened arena’s Calvin Klein Courtside Club with four violation points after they discovered the bathroom at the exclusive lounge was “not maintained and provided with toilet paper, waste receptacle and self-closing door.”

Maybe they are being interpret wrong, seeing that Calvin Klein are sponsors, they might be supplying towels for your butt wiping needs and fresh underwear as you leave. Or it is safe to assume that only rich people can afford the facilities in the center.I mean, who else can afford to wipe themselves with money. 

Just jokes Mikhail Prokhorov, please don't call your former Russian gangster bros to break my fingers, I can help you with this problem. I am sure you don't want your players to have to hold it in during games. If you are looking for some advice for long term NBA success, NEVER GO CHEAP ON THE 2-PLY, 3 is too thick, not optimum for a complete clean.


Source: Nets Are Scorching

Metta World Peace apologizes for having No Swag and ranks other NBA players in "fashion swag."

MWP decided to go off on twitter on Thursday night, and I felt like I had to share this gold mine with you guys.

Spell check please.

Ok, sure. You narcissist.

Bold statement, but Stephen Jackson doesn't agree. Also KD and Westbrook are the only ones wearing backpacks to post game interviews, pretty much a given.

Geez, Tyson Chandler, your momma could have put something better together for you.

Ok, what the hell is money swag? At this point, I am not even sure MWP knows how to use the word.

Pretty sure no one expects you to dress "swag." We just hope you can keep the mind losing Ron Artest within you and not spontaneously combust.

Zing! Complimenting their perfume after implying that Lamar is pussy whipped by his wife, that's so Ron Artest.

What an ending to a day.

Sources: @DaTrillStak5 and @MettaWorldPeace