| Must See TV At The Meadowlands Authored by Mark Kelley - February 17, 2005 - 12:55 pm
| Current Featured Columns | | The First Three Weeks of 2008-09 Now that we’ve had a little time to watch free agency unfold, along with the usual accompaniment of trades, let’s look at some of the key moves and how they impact the teams involved.
Grading The Deal: W's Sign Maggette And TuriafThe Boom Dizzle era is over, and the Warriors quickly recovered by signing two nice pieces to complement their young core.
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But, while Bruce Ratner and company were salivating at the prospect of 15,000+ fans flocking to the arena each night, there were still games to be played. The Nets finished the week with an unimpressive 1-2 record but easily could have posted a 3-0 mark if not for some lackluster play in the final quarters. In their two losses, the Nets were outscored 69-39 in the last period of play. Vince Carter and Jason Kidd showed this week that while two stars are nice, it’s the role players that are a necessity for victories.
February 7, 2005- Philadelphia 76ers @ New Jersey Nets- Continental Airlines Arena
Final Score- New Jersey 107, Philadelphia 97
Player of the Game- Vince Carter (43 points on 14-32 shooting, 14 rebounds, 5 assists)
No Allen Iverson (out with flu-like symptoms), no problem for the Nets, right? Well, not exactly. Having defeated the high-powered Dallas Mavericks in their own building only a few week’s earlier minus their leading scorer, New Jersey came into this game with collective thoughts of respect for the undermanned team. But, through twenty-four basketball minutes that thinking proved to be false. The Nets star tandem of Vince Carter (43 points on 14-32 shooting, 14 rebounds, 5 assists) and Jason Kidd (22 points, 11 rebounds, 16 assists) torched Philadelphia’s perimeter defense in the second quarter with consistent three point shooting en route to a 34-26 advantage for the period. Unable to put their opponents down for good, the Nets allowed Jim O’Brien’s bunch to regain the lead midway through the third quarter mainly due to Kyle Korver’s three point shooting (3 from behind the arc in the first 5 minutes of the quarter) and the continued play of Willie Green (28 points on 10-15 shooting, 4 rebounds, 6 assists).
The mild crowd sat through a back-and-forth 4th quarter that ended up sending the two teams into overtime where the Nets proved to have a little too much for the 76ers to handle, outscoring them 14-4 in the final period. Two unexpected contributors were found in New Jersey’s Ron Mercer (14 points on 7-12 shooting) and Philadelphia’s Kenny Thomas (21 points on 8-16 shooting). But in the end, Vince Carter was nearly unstoppable. Said Kidd of his teammate:
“He was amazing, he did everything.”
February 9- Los Angeles Lakers @ New Jersey Nets- Continental Airlines Arena
Final Score- Los Angeles 104, New Jersey 103
Player of the Game: Jason Kidd (28 points on 10-22 shooting, 12 rebounds, 12 assists)
No Kobe Bryant (out with a severe right ankle sprain), no problem for the Nets, right? Well, as seen through the game played on February 7 versus the 76ers, an ailing superstar tends to be an invitation for a team’s role players to step up. With six players in double-figures, the Lakers followed that mold to a “T”. Lamar Odom, Jumaine Jones, Chris Mihm, Caron Butler, Chucky Atkins, and Luke Walton notched 96 of the Lakers’ 104 points on their way to a 104-103 victory in Continental Airlines Arena.
Yet, on a night in which the Lakers were able to hop a plane following a thrilling victory, it wouldn’t have even happened if not for a colossal “choke job”. With a mere 4:44 remaining in the final quarter of the ballgame the Lakers, trailing by a double-digit deficit, seemed done. But as the television screen showed Los Angeles roar back during the final stages of the games, a logical thought was that perhaps the adrenaline that is felt due to a missed star helped propel the Lakers. Whatever it was, Chucky Atkins still had to drill a clutch game-tying three pointers with 12.1 seconds left in the 4th quarter. That momentum shift allowed the Lakers to go into the extra session (the second in as many games for the Nets) and put their foes away 104-103. Said Coach Lawrence Frank of the Lakers:
“They took the game from us, you have to give them credit. They made the plays down the stretch.”
February 11- San Antonio @ New Jersey- Continental Airlines Arena
Final Score- San Antonio 101, New Jersey 91
Player of the Game- Vince Carter (43 points on 14-24 shooting, 4 rebounds, 3 assists)
The conventional thinking going into this contest was with or without Tim Duncan (16 points, 15 rebounds, 9 assists but nursing various ailments) the Nets still had an extremely small chance of beating the Spurs. So, it came as a surprise to everyone that two minutes into the 4th quarter New Jersey was still clinging to a 5-point lead delivered to them almost single-handedly by All Star starter Vince Carter (43 points on 14-24 shooting, 4 rebounds, 3 assists). Throw out various dunks, passes, or even stats (though the fact that the Nets were out-rebounded 49 to 33, including 11 to 4 on the offensive side was an important factor in the game), the turning point of the game occurred as Carter leapt to drill another shot over Bruce Bowen (5 points, 4 rebounds) and apparently believed that Bowen deliberately tried to injure him. For those of you who were unaware, Vince Carter not only experienced this type of ‘play’ at the hands of Bowen in the past, he also explained the situation to the referee’s. After hitting the ground in an awkward manner and sensing that the referee’s would yet again swallow their whistles, he did the first thing that came to his mind: he went after Bruce. When the officials tossed him after the attempted melee they were essentially saying, “Game over, Nets”. The Nets, hamstrung without their one-man wrecking crew, then watched as the Spurs capped off their 42-20 4th quarter with a 101-91 victory. But, the actions of Bruce Bowen were the story in the end. Said Jason Kidd of the sequence:
“That’s probably the only way they would have stopped Vince tonight. He was really rolling.”
RealGM Player of the Week:
Vince Carter (37.66 points/game, 47% from the field, 44% from the three point line, 8 rebounds/game, 4 assists/game)
Was there really any doubt that Mr. Carter would be “enshrined” following a week in which he sandwiched two 43-point games around one of a ‘mere’ 27 points? With all due respect to Vince’s running mate, point guard Jason Kidd, this was Carter’s week.
With games of 43, 27, and 43 points (including a 47% shooting mark) Carter almost single-handedly kept the Nets flowing offensively. Aside from the aforementioned field goal percentage, Vince hit 12 of his 27 three pointers (44&) and had impressive rebounding and assist marks; 8 and 4 per game, respectively. It doesn’t hurt when you have this next man feeding you the ball, though…
It’s not often that a player compiles two-straight triple doubles, averages 20.33 points/game (including a 10-23 mark from outside), 11.66 assists/games and grabbed 8.33 rebounbds/game yet is overshadowed by a teammate. These numbers, obviously obtained by Jason Kidd, look great on their own. It’s when you look at his assist to turnover ratio that you realize what he accomplished (17.5 assists to 1 turnover).
Nenad Krstic continued his development, matching his career high of 17 points (on 7-12 shooting) and also collecting 8 rebounds against Tim Duncan and the Spurs at Continental Airlines Arena last Friday.
Ron Mercer, thought to be a priority on offense when he was signed last summer, flashed some of that offensive ability on Monday against Philadelphia, scoring 14 points in the 4th qurter and overtime of the game on 7-12 shooting.
Billy Thomas continued his surprising production, bagging 4 three pointers against Philadelphia.
Brian Scalabrine underwent surgery on his knee and will be out for an extended period of time.
How the Rest of the Atlantic Fared:
Philadelphia, the current leader of the division, went 2-2 this past week including victories against Toronto and Orlando. Boston, presently in 2nd place, went 2-1, defeating a divisional foe in New York. Speaking of the Knicks, they finished the week at 1-2 with their lone victory coming against the Utah Jazz while Toronto failed to pick up a win, ending the week 0-4.
The Week Ahead:
The week of February 13th brings three tremendously talented teams to Continental Airlines Arena in Denver, Minnesota, and Sacramento. All of this will be overshadowed, though, by Kenyon Martin’s return to the arena on February 13th.
February 13- Denver Nuggets @ New Jersey Nets- Continental Airlines Arena
“Ken-Yon Mar-Tin! Ken-Yon Mar-Tin! Ken-Yon Mar-Tin!” Net fans can remember these cheers as though they occurred only last season. Oh wait, they did. While Martin’s return is the story, there is still a game to be played. Expect the Nuggets to push the tempo.
February 15- Minnesota Timberwolves @ New Jersey Nets- Continental Airlines Arena
How fast the T’Wolves have fallen. Considered NBA championship favorites during training camp, they have been unable to string together victories even with “The Big Ticket” Kevin Garnett playing his usual great basketball. With that said, the Nets have nobody- both offensively and defensively- who can stick with him.
February 16- Sacramento Kings @ New Jersey Nets- Continental Airlines Arena
The back-to-back concludes with arguably the second-best team in the Western Conference coming to town. Chris Webber (21 PPG) and Brad Miller (31 points in Sacramento’s first meeting with the Nets) will pose immense problems for New Jersey’s frontline.
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