The Nets played an impressive game 3 on Sunday night, as they controlled the tempo right from the start. Scoring 11 fastbreak points and opening the game on a 15 to 2 run. The Nets will need to set the same exact type of tempo tonight out of the gate. They need to get the Continental Airlines Arena into the game early & then feed off them for the rest of the game. But I think the Nets will need a few more things tonight to get a win.... 1) Production from Lucious Harris- With Jason Kidd struggling to shoot the basketball due to his injury, the Nets need Harris to step up & provide some points in the backcourt. Kittles will more than like get double digits in the backcourt But the Nets need one more person to step up & knock down some outside shots. 2) Kenyon Martin most stay out of foul trouble- In game 3,RJ really step up. So inside production in the paint needed. The Nets were able to get out in the open court to produce points in the paint. But with a better defensive effort expected from the Pistons tonight, the Nets open court opportunities maybe alot more limited. The Nets will be forced to play in the half-court alot more. That is where the pressence of Kenyon Martin will be needed. 3) Rebounding- The Pistons Ben Wallace is a beast on the boards as proven by his play thru the 1st 3 games. The Nets need to try to contain him. But more importantly I think they need to keep everyone else on the Pistons off the boards. Make the Pistons be a one man rebounding team similar to what they were last year. That means keeping a body on Rasheed, Corliss Williamson, Prince & keep the Pistons guards off the boards as well. 4)Limit turnovers- The Nets are only averaging about 16 turnovers a game. That is kind of high but the Nets game live with that if they are turning the ball over while trying to get their fastbreak game going. What the Nets can not live with? is when they get into the plus 20 area with their turnovers. But all & all, I think the Nets need another good defensive effort. They need to continue to limit the Pistons' backcourt like they did in game 3. The Nets need to force the tempo every chance they get. They need to get out on the break. And when the Pistons limit their fastbreak game, guys like Kittles, Harris, Rodney & RJ make shots in the half court. And K-Mart must give the Nets a few buckets down low or get to the line. Also I like seeing Brain Scalabrine in the game when the Nets lack energy. Aaron Williams, JC, K-Mart & the Nets guards most team rebound to try to contain the Pistons on the Boards. We need this one if we are going to pull this series out.
Great post Henacy. I agree with all of it. I'm gonna stress that Lucious Harris and Jason Collins both really need to step up. Lucious as you said needs to score more, and Collins and Martin needs to box out the Detroit big men and limit Detroit's points in the paint. My prediction: Nets by 5
Dang the Nets just made Detroit cause like 4 to's in a row in the 1rst quarter hopefully they can keep the momentum they now have throughout the rest of the game.
Looking good Nets fans. This is basically the same as game 3. Except that Kidd is scoring and Ben only has 12 boards. Nets up by 21 at the start of the 4th. Edit: Nets still up by 16 at the 6:34 mark. Kidd is one board shy of a TD.
Only one question remains. Will the Nets get 90? That in itself, would be a miracle even if they had 75 points or whatever it was coming into the 4th.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting 30 standing ver:</div><div class="quote_post">Only one question remains. Will the Nets get 90? That in itself, would be a miracle even if they had 75 points or whatever it was coming into the 4th.</div> Of course they can. They only need 7 more points. Right now, They've outscored the Pistons in the paint 38-18. They've outscored the Pistons on the break 23-8. They've outrebounded the Pistons 43-30. Only a miracle can save the Pistons with those numbers. Edit: Nets hit 90 with a little over 2 minutes to go. Kidd got his TD.
Series Tied <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">It took four games, but Jason Kidd finally put his imprint on the Eastern Conference semifinals. Kidd collected a playoff-high 22 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds as the New Jersey Nets evened their series at two games apiece with a 94-79 victory over the suddenly struggling Detroit Pistons. A perennial All-Star, Kidd had averaged just 7.3 points on 22.5 percent shooting in the first three games of the series. The superstar point guard was badly outplayed by Chauncey Billups in the first two games in Detroit and made just 2-of-14 shots in a win in Game Three. Notching his seventh career postseason triple-double, Kidd bounced back in a big way as he brilliantly alternated between playmaker and scorer. In the first half, he handed out eight assists as the Nets built a 47-40 lead. In the third quarter, he scored 13 points as he finally found his stroke.</div> Link Box Scores
Lucious Harris needs to take more? I always thought myself, that he needed to make more, he, Collins and Rodgers are more than capable of offense. The way he stepped up overall and the way he and Kidd worked together was great, I'm hoping that'll last or better yet, become something. How did Scalebrine do?
everybody that played contributed in a positive way, from kidd to veal to brandon. everyone realized what this game meant and showed that we know what it takes to win games that need to be won. hopefully we can continue that going into the palace, going to be extremely tough to do; one of the hardest places in my personal opinion to win at. veal came in and gave us energy like he always doest and got some 2rebs but he was also involved in tipping rebs to others, very active. the game was excellent to watch. the energy of the crowd was great, players energy was great, everything was great. only if we can play like this on the road and every game then we can be a serious league threat to win it all. lu and debo need to come up big on the road to help us out. hopefully this game is the game to ignite kidd's scoring b/c on the road we can use his shooting. fastbreak was on, we had good halfcourt offense and defense was good again. just need to keep playing like this is detroit. we now HAVE to win in detroit to have a chance to win this series. i hope we dont play in game 5 how the pistons played in game 3. maybe feeling a little to confident and get behind early and once ur behind on the road, its not easy to come back and win. rip was crazy, too bad nobody else wanted the ball as much as him. he has a nice stroke and kept the pistons from losing by twice as many. ben had 15rebs but only 6pts. besides those two, not other two did anything that stands out. nobody else was in double digits besides rip which i really find hard to believe. you would think at least somebody would get hot and make 5shots or get to the line a few times to at least get 10-12pts. barkley's predition streak is still a losing one. at halftime it was 47-40 NJ and he guarenteed that the pistons would win b/ the nets were "playing" pistons style (i didnt see that) and said that they only had 47 pts. i guess he didnt realize that if we were playing piston ball and winning, that normally is a good thing for a team, but thats chuck for ya.
Here are the five things that went right for the Nets -- and wrong for the Pistons <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">Kerry Kittles made jump shots. Jason Kidd dominated. Kenyon Martin revved up the crowd. The Nets doubled up the Pistons in the rebounding column. And, before it was over, the Pistons did the unthinkable. They gave up.</div> I love this part: <div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">3. Kenyon issued a beating. It remains unclear what the press table did to offend Kenyon Martin. But the Nets forward certainly punished it, slamming his fist against the padded table three times, knocking over a phone and waking up the sportswriters. Martin thought he had stolen the ball from Pistons forward Mehmet Okur. Instead, he bobbled it out of bounds -- and started pounding. The crowd responded to his passion with some noise of its own. "It sends a message," guard Lucious Harris said. "To see him pounding on the table because he lost the ball out of bounds, that's the emotion that we're going to have to play with the rest of the series."</div> Full Story
Man its like the Nets read the keys to the game. They did exactly what they needed to do to win tonight. 1) They got the production from Lucious Harris. Him getting into double-digits is key in this series imo. If the Nets are going to win this series they are going to have to do it by out scoring the Pistons backcout. They need Harrris to be that 3rd scorer to help addd points to the Nets backcourt & space the floor. I will take 11pts every night from Harris. 2) Kenyon Martin still picked up alot of fouls but mostly toward the end of the ball game when it was pretty much out of reach. But once again K-Mart proved why he is the pulse of the Nets imo. His aggresssiveness & Defensive energy was unmatched last night by anyone the Piston's. Ben Wallace couldnt even match K-arts energy level last night. 16pts & 15rebs against the Wallace boys, you really cant ask for from K-Mart. And his defensive exchange with OKur in the 2nd half was classic Kenyon. 3)I knew Ben Wallace would get his share of rebounds which he did 15 to be exact. But we limited the rest of the Pistons on the boards. And I think that is the type of approach you have to take against them. Make the Pistons be a one man rebounding team. If we do that we stand a good chance of out rebounding them for the rest of this series. 4)We did a solid job of limiting our turnovers last night. For the Nets to commit only 16 turnovers, the way they were runnning up & down the floor taking risks in the open court, was huge. The Nets can live with the turnovers they commit while getting thier fastbreak game going. Its the turnovers in the half-court set & when bringing the ball up after made baskets against Detroits full court press, that killed them in games 1 &2. Those are the type of turnovers the Nets cant commit. Another excellent game by Kerry Kittles who has put together an excellent playoff run so far imo. His defense was Big vs Marbury in round 1. And it has been major once again vs Billups in this series. And he has been solid on the offense end as well. J.Kidd proved why he is the best all around point guard in the league. Hopefully he cant keep his shooting stroke for the rest of this series as we return to Mo-town. When he knocking down the perimeter shoot we are a different team. The one negative would be the foul trouble our Bigmen have been getting into. Jason Collins, Aaron Williams, Rodney Rogers, K-Mart are going to have to stay out of serious foul trouble in game 5. We need to keep out bigman rotation intact in game 5, or it may hurt us at the end of the game.
all true hen. the last point u made i think is key. #1 kmart absolutly needs to stay out of trouble. he cant pick up 2 in the 1st quarter. if he is going to get two, i rather it be at the end of the 2nd quarter b/c then u know frank will take him out so he doesnt pick up a 3rd b4 half. twin/train/debo/veal need to play a little smarter when it comes to defense where they are picking up the fouls. i can understand maybe in game 2 or game3 that you are still 'feeling' out the refs, but its game4 and beyond now. you gotta know what the refs are going to call and are not going to call. if our big guys get in foul trouble in det, then that is going to make winning in the palace and even more difficult task. lu/debo played well. kerry had another quiet/under the radar type of game which he normally has. he still had a few 3's wide open that he missed, but he did come out in the 3rd and make 2/3 shots in a row which was great to get out of halftime making shots and keeping the pressure on them. kerry needs to continue his defense and scoring for us to win game5. our guys knows what it takes to win, so hopefully guys will once again step up and win a pivitol game away. should be great energy. you know detroit is going to bring it, hopefully we can and will.
