Maybe the Nets shouldn't be so quick to beg for consistency. As they took care of the Knicks 96-83 on Wednesday, the Nets witness the downside of such a characteristic: regularly poor play. New Jersey won for the 12th straight time at home; the Knicks have lost 13 of 14 and can't win without Stephon Marbury (0-7 without him). The Nets appear ticketed for the playoffs and homecourt through at least one round; the Knicks continue to improve the Bulls' draft pick (they get the Knicks' selection this June, whether it's in the lottery or not).
Playoff basketball in the NYC area came and went just that fast. The Nets are done for the season after a 110-97 loss to Miami on Sunday afternoon. Dwayne Wade continued to torch the Nets with explosive play; amazingly, Wade averaged 26 points, 9 assists, and 6 rebounds per game for the series in just his second NBA season. Add those stats to those of 3-time champion Shaq, and the Nets were doomed.
Jason Kidd and Allan Houston, who both returned recently from injury, saw limited action, playing 21 and 11 minutes respectively. Some credit for the win has to go to the Knicks defense though. No matter how bad the Nets are, the Knicks managed to hold the Nets without a field goal for more than 15 minutes during the 3rd and 4th quarters.
The Sports Guy has said it many, many times, but we’re gonna repeat it here. It’s hard being an NBA fan these days. I’m not even talking about stye of play, tattoos and cornrows, the flood of high school kids in the league, etc. I’m talking about NBA starts demanding top dollar contracts and then asking to be traded when their team suffers because of it. Case in point, Jason Kidd of the New Jersey Nets.
Embattled Brooklyn apartment dwellers have taken their fight against the proposed site of the new arena for the "Brooklyn Nets" all the way to Athens. A group called Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn unveiled a banner on one of the endangered apartments which reads "Dr. Rogge and the International Olympic Committee, Please Don't Destroy Our Homes." If New York City is awarded the Olympic Games in 2012, the proposed basketball arena would be used to house the gymnastics competition. Local residents hope that by appealing to the International Olympic Committee, a new space for the arena can be found where the current populace won’t be forced to give up their apartments via eminent domain.
- It may be the off-season, but there is plenty of NBA news: the Knicks are active, but the Nets are in jeopardy after losing Kenyon Martin.
Bruce Ratner may soon regret not ponying up the dough to keep Kenyon Martin in Jersey. Jason Kidd is contemplating demanding a trade, Richard Jefferson is no longer a lock to resign with New Jersey, ditto for Rod Thorn, whose contract expires in two years.
Rod Thorn threw in the towel last night and started discussing a sign and trade with the Nuggets that would ship Kenyon Martin out West. "You guys will find out soon. Something is going to happen soon," said Martin.
At 12:01 AM this morning, NBA free agents finally became eligible to put their John Hancock on the deals they agreed to over the last two weeks. While most of the press is focusing on where Kobe Bryant will land, local hoops fans are waiting with baited breath to find out what Kenyon Martin decides to do.
The NY Post and ESPN are reporting that the New Jersey Nets have reached an agreement in principle with the Portland Trailblazers to send the 22nd pick in Thursday's NBA draft to Portland for backup PG Eddie Gill and $3 million. Due to league rules, the trade cannot be officially announced until Thursday night.
Gothamist wonders what's going through the minds of Pistons players right now. They thought they had the Nets all figured out, but you can never count out a champion. The two teams meet again Friday at The Palace for game 5. We're liking the Gothamist/Whatevs Smackdown a little more now that the series is even.
Last night's win gives Gothamist some hope for our bet with Whatevs (Shut up! We can dream, can't we?). Hopefully, the Nets can use this game as a building block to win three more. Jefferson will need help from the rest of the team to do that. Yes, we're dreaming. Game 4 is Tuesday at 8 p.m. in New Jersey.
Okay, maybe Gothamist was a bit optimistic about the Nets/Pistons series yesterday when we said, "Gothamist thinks it could be an excellent series," or "this series is as good as the Eastern Conference gets," but we did say "could" and that "we don't typically get too excited for NBA action since it's not that fantastic anymore." So we're off the hook, right? We'll pin everything on the Nets, who played an ugly, ugly game, losing to the Pistons, 78-56 (box score), halting their 14 game playoff win streak within the conference. The Nets were stifled by the praise-worthy Pistons defense, who stopped almost everything the Nets attempted.
With improvements on both the Nets and Pistons, both teams know that this series will be different than last year. The Pistons acquired Rasheed Wallace at the trade deadline this season and went 20-6 after he joined the team. In their one game since the Wallace trade, the Pistons beat the Nets, 89-71. That game ended the Pistons' record-setting streak of holding opponents under 70 points at 5 games, which the Pistons were not happy about. The Nets were fouling in the final moments of the game to get the ball back and scored a basket with 1.1 seconds left to give them 71 for the game.
After the game, Kidd said, "With all the talk throughout the year that they were going to catch us, that they were a better team, they wanted to play us in the playoffs; like I said, sometimes it's fools gold. Sometimes you wish for something that you wanted but in reality you don't want it. They got what they needed." The Nets will play the winner of the Milwaukee-Detroit as the Knicks go home to watch the rest of the playoffs on TV. Perhaps they will go home and talk about how they were robbed and how they were actually the better team and will wage-war against the Nets next year.
While there has been plenty of trash-talking this series, the first competitive game was last night. For three games, the Nets have put up, and it's time for the Knicks to shut-up because the Knicks don't have the game to challenge the Nets. "Team leader" Stephon Marbury has vanished in the second half of every game this series. He notched his first second-half field goal all series at the 10:18 mark in the 4th quarter last night. Marbury also missed an important free throw at the end of the game. This is the player that is supposed to lead the team? Good job Steph.
The Knicks were handed another loss by the Nets last night, falling 99-81 (box score) and digging a two game hole for themselves. After a few days of talking about the physical nature of the game, the Knicks were seven points closer than Saturday (box score), but still ended up with a loss.
The Daily News thinks it could be "Knicks vs. the Nicknames" because of all the nicknames the Nets have: J-Kidd (Jason Kidd), R.J. (Richard Jefferson), K-Mart (Kenyon Martin), Debo (Rodney Rogers), Veal (Brian Scalabrine), Slim (?), A-Train (Aaron Williams). That got Gothamist thinking (we do that once in a while), "What would be some good "Knicknames" for the Knicks?" Prime Minister (Cezary Trybanski), Mr. Softee (Allan Houston), Cap Liability (Vin Baker), Mpolondo Mukamba Jean Jacque Wamutombo (Dikembe Mutombo), Mama Can't Spell (Anfernee Hardaway).
