The Coliseum; certainly no Barclays Center
When: 7:30 pm; Wednesday, October 24th, 2012Where: Nassau Veterans' Memorial Coliseum; Uniondale, NY
TV: MSG Network
Radio: None
One week and one day (ok, eight days) from now, these two teams will play each other at the Barclays Center in both the Nets' and Knicks' season-opener and for the Nets, the first regular season game in their franchise's very limited history. However, today, the game they face each other in a game doesn't count at all in an arena that isn't even home to a NBA team, the Nassau Coliseum on Long Island.
The Coliseum calls itself home to the New York Islanders, a NHL team for those of you who don't know. That league, like the NBA at this time last year, is currently in a lockout so for the near future, tonight's game will be the only professional sports contest left to be heldthere in 2012, at least until the NHL work stoppage ends.
Like the Nets, the last preseason game the Knicks played was a loss to the Philadelphia 76ers. The Knicks lost to Philly by a score of 98-90 on Monday night while the Nets fell to the 76ers 106-96 last Friday. In their loss to Philly, New York actually got 23 points from Carmelo Anthony and Raymond Felton each at Melo's former college arena, the Carrier Dome, where he played while at Syracuse and where Monday's game was at. On Friday night (a game which I actually didn't recap for the site, sorry), the 76ers were paced by Thaddeus Young, who hit 11 of his 15 shots on the evening to score 24 points, while also collecting nine rebounds.
On the other hand, in the loss, the Nets got 23 points and 22 points from Brook Lopez and Deron Williams respectively while Joe Johnson added in 18 points. The Nets played pretty well throughout the game but just couldn't stop Philadelphia on offense enough, allowing a 49.4% shooting effort to be had by the 76ers in the final preseason game at the Barclays Center before the Nets and Knicks meet in each's regular season opener in Brooklyn on November 1st.
Probable Lineups
NYK- Felton (PG), Kidd (ugh) (SG), Ronnie Brewer (SF), Carmelo Anthony (PF), Tyson Chandler (C)
NETS- D-Will (PG), Joe Johnson (SG), Wallace (SF), Humphries (PF), Lopez (C)
Final Thoughts
Something of value that I didn't mention before was that the Nets, when they were known as the New York Nets of the ABA (and the NBA in the 1976-77 season), called the Coliseum their home arena from1972-77 and tonight's game represents the team's return there...after 35 years. My dad was a kid during the Coliseum days when Dr. J was on the Nets and they won a pair of ABA championships. That period certainly seemed to be the heyday of the Nets' franchise, at least until the move to Brooklyn.
Random Prediction: Double-part prediction for the Nets' final preseason game as MarShon Brooks will score 15 points on less than 11 shots while I think Brook Lopez will exceed 10 rebounds, continuing his glass presence that has been so prevalent thus far in the preseason.
