<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">DENVER, March 2 (Ticker) -- Maybe teams should start resting their best player against the Denver Nuggets. The Nuggets lost for the second time in three games to a team missing its best player as the New Jersey Nets overcame the absence of All-Star Jason Kidd and held on for a 95-91 victory behind Kerry Kittles, who scored a season-high 34 points.</div> Full Story For all you haters who says that KMart needs Kidd for his points: Box Scores
I think the bench should get alot of credit for this victory because they kept the Nets in it while RJ & K-mart sat most of the with foul trouble. Brandon Armstrong, Brian Scalabrine did an excellent job in the 1st half helping to keep the Nets in it. And the early foul trouble that I figured would cost the Nets the game actually helped the Nets. Since the Nets starters sat most of the 1st half, they were able to play an extreme amount of minutes in the second half. So when Denver went to their second unit in the 3rd & early 4th the Nets still had alot of their starters on the court. Kerry Kittles was really the only Nets starter that wasnt in foul trouble in the 1st half, so he really stepped up & carried them in the 1st half & the whole game for that matter. k-mart turned into a beast after the 1st half foul trouble. He came up big for the Nets in the second half. And RJ did a better Defensive job on Melo in the 2nd half. In the 1st half it looked like Melo was going to get at least 35pts in the game. And Lucious did a good job pushing the ball when the opportunity presented itself. The Nets fastbreak wasnt as crisp as when J.Kidd is there. But the Nets still got their fare share of fastbreak points against a team where easy opportunities are a must, You have to get easy opportunities against Denver because you kno their going to get fastbreak points on your Defense. Overall I think the Nets really proved something to the general public. I think alot of people felt the Nets wouldnt even able to beat a team the caliber of the Hawks, if J.Kidd didnt play. But the Nets prove that they can step up without J.Kidd, at least for a game or two. And hopefully, the Nets can get a W against the Suns tonight as well.
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">DENVER -- The suit was a nicely tailored gray that hung just right, worn over a stylish black long-sleeve crew-neck shirt. The belt was black leather. The shoes had a satiny sheen. Jason Kidd looked just great on the bench last night. And for the first half, his team looked just lousy without him. But even though it took a while, the Nets slowly began figuring out the keys to surviving as Kidd-less orphans -- like who Kerry Kittles was, where Kenyon Martin had gone, and what everyone else could do to get the ball to them. And the next thing you knew, they had turned what appeared to be an inevitable loss into a 95-91 come-from-behind victory. Coming off a deflating performance against the Lakers and the bad news about their team captain's bruised left knee, it was as brave a showing as the Nets have had all season. "That was a tremendous victory for our guys, a quality win against a quality team," coach Lawrence Frank said. "They should feel real good about themselves, the fact that they showed the ability to step up without their captain." To be sure, the Nets could have picked from a gamut of excuses if they had lost -- Kidd being out, early foul trouble for their young forwards, an ankle injury that hampered Richard Jefferson, altitude, jet lag, mountain smog, you name it -- but instead they dug in and, one by one, started doing something about their various obstacles.</div> Full Story By Brad Parks There were plenty of good points in this game as earlier stated by Henacy. The way the bench kept them in the game, Kittles' consistent play and his 3rd quarter outburst and KMart's offensive powers in the 4th and his clamping down on Melo during the 4th. Great win.
