<div align="center"><font color="Silver">Nets : 10-18 (.357) </font>@ <font color="Blue">Knicks : 16-13 (.552) </font> When : 1st of January, 2005 7:30 PM(ET) Where : Madison Square Garden, New York TV : NBALP, Local TV</div> <u>Projected Starters</u> PG : Jason Kidd vs. Stephon Marbury <font color="Blue"> Advantage = Knicks </font> SG : Vince Carter vs. Allan Houston <font color="Silver"> Avantage = Nets </font> SF : Richard Jefferson vs. Tim Thomas <font color="Silver"> Avantage = Nets </font> PF : Nenad Kristic vs. Kurt Thomas <font color="Blue"> Advantage = Knicks </font> C : Jason Collins vs. Nazr Mohammed <font color="Blue"> Advantage = Knicks </font> <div align="center"><u> Key Matchup</u> Season stats Kidd : G: 12 PPG:8.3 RPG:6.0 APG:6.0 Season stats Marbury : G: 29 PPG:20.2 RPG:3.1 APG:8.6</div> <font color="Silver"><font size="4">Nets Key's to win the Game</font></font> *Try to get Jason Kidd back on his old level. If he can play even with Marbury ,the Nets can win the game. *Run and Gun. Now you have VC, don't play half-court offense. *Defend well on the perimeter. Houston and Marbury can be deadly from the outside *Try to outrebound the Knicks. It will be hard, but if it works, Nets could get away with the win. <font color="Blue"><font size="4">Knicks Key's to win the Game</font></font> *Get Allan Houston going. Don't let him repeat that 2 on 11 performance. *Marbury should run all day long and take advantage of Kidd's weak play as of late. *Dump the ball down low to Kurt Thomas. If he can dominate inside, the Knicks can escape with the win. *Ball movement. <font color="Green"><font size="4">Phuzer's Prediction</font></font> I take the Knicks in this one. I expect New Jersey to struggle once again because of New York's good play as of late. Maybe we can see the old Jason Kidd back and he could create much havoc on the defensive end when he's back to his level of last year. Don't count on it though, because I think he still isn't fully recovered of his injury. New Jersey - 78 New York - 92
I dont know this is a hard one to predict. Marbury probably is going to get his 20 easily. But if we can control there frontcourt of Kurt Thomas, Narz Mohammod, on the backboards. And take away their frontcourts easily backets they tend to get. I think the edge then switches to our side because the game becomes a perimeter affair. And without Crawford even with a strong game from Marbury, I dont think they have enuff long the perimeter to hang with us..Richard Jefferson always kills Tim Thomas and Allan Houston trying to guard Vince is a nightmare for them. So I think our big guns can easily have extremely strong games against them. We got to force tempo, get out in the opencourt and get some easily baskets. In the Pacers game, there was opportunites to run but I dont think we took full advantage. If there is a glaring weakness you see in this Knicks team from time to time is on defense, partcularily transition Defense. So forcing tempo will be key. Nenad Krstic needs a strong game, he struggled against Jermaine Oneal last game. The Knicks dont really have that got to post player, since Kurt Thomas scores most of his points in the mid-range/pick & pop situations. And Mohammad scores alot off cleaning up Stephs misses, so Nenad should be able to stay out of foul trouble tonight. So hopefully he can be on the floor long enuff to contribute offensively, cause the Nets really do need 10-12pts from Krstic due to the lack of frontcourt options. Rodney Buford needs to continue his strong play as well. Travis Best needs to give Kidd some solid relief off the bench as well, so Kidd can use most of his minutes in the 4th down the stretch.
94-92 NETS carter will have a huge game...and will post 35 or 39 pts...make it a season high also kidd with 12 assists...and RJ 23pts...
The Jason Kidd and Stephon Marbury matchup shouldn't go one way or the other. I think it is equal. The Nets should win this game because they have more options than the Knicks. We have RJ, VC, and Kidd. The Knicks have Marbury, Thomas, and Mohammed. We have much better guards but they have a better inside game. We should win if we can contain Thomas and Mohammed. My Prediction is a Nets win, 93-86
I'm thinking Nets win 91-87, VC has a great game with 30 points, and RJ gets 21, kidd scores 11. Kidd's got to play good, vc has to beat houston, and in the frontcourt the nets need to play real hard, need a good game from both kristic and collins. knicks can't stop the trio of vc, RJ, and kidd.
I hate it when people do the individual math-ups per position. It doesn't make sense to me because basketball is played as a team sport, which is why the Pistons won last year. It'll be a fun game and I don't want to make any predictions cause it can go anyway.
<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">The Jason Kidd and Stephon Marbury matchup shouldn't go one way or the other. I think it is equal. The Nets should win this game because they have more options than the Knicks. We have RJ, VC, and Kidd. The Knicks have Marbury, Thomas, and Mohammed. We have much better guards but they have a better inside game. We should win if we can contain Thomas and Mohammed. My Prediction is a Nets win, 93-86</div> I think Marbury will win it, Kidd is still great, but his offense isn't on par yet, he hasn't found his rythm, and won't be able to have the scoring contribution needed. If Kidd was 100%, and had his rythm, he would have 2 triple doubles already because the past 2 games he's had what, 11 rebounds and 11 assists, and 11 rebounds and 10 assists.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Henacy:</div><div class="quote_post">I dont know this is a hard one to predict. Marbury probably is going to get his 20 easily. But if we can control there frontcourt of Kurt Thomas, Narz Mohammod, on the backboards. And take away their frontcourts easily backets they tend to get. I think the edge then switches to our side because the game becomes a perimeter affair. And without Crawford even with a strong game from Marbury, I dont think they have enuff long the perimeter to hang with us..Richard Jefferson always kills Tim Thomas and Allan Houston trying to guard Vince is a nightmare for them. So I think our big guns can easily have extremely strong games against them. We got to force tempo, get out in the opencourt and get some easily baskets. In the Pacers game, there was opportunites to run but I dont think we took full advantage. If there is a glaring weakness you see in this Knicks team from time to time is on defense, partcularily transition Defense. So forcing tempo will be key. Nenad Krstic needs a strong game, he struggled against Jermaine Oneal last game. The Knicks dont really have that got to post player, since Kurt Thomas scores most of his points in the mid-range/pick & pop situations. And Mohammad scores alot off cleaning up Stephs misses, so Nenad should be able to stay out of foul trouble tonight. So hopefully he can be on the floor long enuff to contribute offensively, cause the Nets really do need 10-12pts from Krstic due to the lack of frontcourt options. Rodney Buford needs to continue his strong play as well. Travis Best needs to give Kidd some solid relief off the bench as well, so Kidd can use most of his minutes in the 4th down the stretch.</div> How are you going to contain Kurt Thomas who is averaging a double double and Nazr who's nearly averaging a double double and is one of the best offensive rebounders in the game? I thought this issue of the Knicks transition defense was taken care of when we played the Magic and Nuggets. The Knicks transition defense is good! There's nothing more to be said about their transition defense. What do you want from Nenad?? You pitted him against one of the elite powerforwards in the league? What did you think would happen? As for staying out of foul trouble...if we plug Sweetney in there we'll still get alot of rebounds and good defense and a post threat, one that Nenad can't deal with. Kurt will take Kristic out of the game with his defense. Dont expect much out of him. The Nets will not be able to get into transition period. People forget that to get into transition you have to play defense for 24 seconds and then rebound . The Nets have trouble with both of these especially the rebounding part. In a perimeter game the Nets dont have an advantage. More isnt better. With our two guards it's simple. One slashes, the other spreads the defense. As for the Nets only one perimeter player has an impact on the game at a time. Carter is a tough match up for Houston defensively. However our help defense has been great as of late. Plus Carter isnt a particularly good defender either. It goes both ways. Besides what makes you all so sure that Houston will be guarding Carter? The Knicks will win this one in double digits.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting og15:</div><div class="quote_post">I think Marbury will win it, Kidd is still great, but his offense isn't on par yet, he hasn't found his rythm, and won't be able to have the scoring contribution needed. If Kidd was 100%, and had his rythm, he would have 2 triple doubles already because the past 2 games he's had what, 11 rebounds and 11 assists, and 11 rebounds and 10 assists.</div> Yeah that's a good point.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Tribute to H2O:</div><div class="quote_post">How are you going to contain Kurt Thomas who is averaging a double double and Nazr who's nearly averaging a double double and is one of the best offensive rebounders in the game? I thought this issue of the Knicks transition defense was taken care of when we played the Magic and Nuggets. The Knicks transition defense is good! There's nothing more to be said about their transition defense. What do you want from Nenad?? You pitted him against one of the elite powerforwards in the league? What did you think would happen? As for staying out of foul trouble...if we plug Sweetney in there we'll still get alot of rebounds and good defense and a post threat, one that Nenad can't deal with. Kurt will take Kristic out of the game with his defense. Dont expect much out of him. The Nets will not be able to get into transition period. People forget that to get into transition you have to play defense for 24 seconds and then rebound . The Nets have trouble with both of these especially the rebounding part. In a perimeter game the Nets dont have an advantage. More isnt better. With our two guards it's simple. One slashes, the other spreads the defense. As for the Nets only one perimeter player has an impact on the game at a time. Carter is a tough match up for Houston defensively. However our help defense has been great as of late. Plus Carter isnt a particularly good defender either. It goes both ways. Besides what makes you all so sure that Houston will be guarding Carter? The Knicks will win this one in double digits.</div> You slow down Kurt Thomas by cutting off Marbury's passing lanes in the pick & roll. Kurt Thomas still needs that to score. And Narz even tho he is better in his offensive game he still gets most of his points on the offensive boards. So that reqires team rebounding to help the bigs on the backboard. And who is the elite powerfoward or frontcourt player on the Knicks? Mohammod and Kurt Thomas are solid far from elite tho....Nenad has played well against alot of bigs Rasheed Wallace in the Detriot game, Emeka Okafor in the bobcat game. I think he can compete with that Knicks frontline. I dont think anybody has forgotten that the key to getting in the opencourt starts on the defensive end. The Nets have yet to live up to their potential on Defense, but trust me their will be opportunities to run against the Knicks.
Great win. We took advantage of our opportunities in the transition game early. Krstic had a productive game as I felt he would. But the continued stellar play of Rodney Buford was the key. I didnt think he was going to play that well in the 2nd half after Coach Franks left him on the bench for the entire 3rd quarter. But he came right in in the 4th after sitting a long period and knocked down some big shots..that shot(the 3) on the right baseline late in the 4th when the Knicks were on a run & cut our lead to 6, was ball game really. Carter & Jefferson still have away to got till they are completely comfortable together & sharing the ball. But it look good at times...I think they actually look better when one of the two is on the floor with Buford cause of his ablity to effectively stretch the D, the way he is shooting it, right now. Travis Best gave Kidd some solid minutes to rest, particularly in the 1st half. Iam not for sure if alot of Nets fans are in the liking that Best looks for his shot so much. But Iam one of the few that is OK with Best looking for his shot when he is in the game. Best is most comfortable as a scorer.And Kidd isnt providing much individual point production. So if we can get 8-9 points per from Best, to increase our point production from the pg spot, Iam Ok with that. Jabari Smith is giving us some good minutes as well. He competes on Defense and on the backboards. And he is a solid passer for a big. Right now our frontcourt isnt that talented outside of Krstic but guys are scrappy even Collins is willing to throw his body around a bit more. But he still stinks at finishing plays around the basket. Also I think we are getting by on the fact that we can play 3 wing players(Buford, Carter, & Jefferson) alot together because they are athletic. But I dont know if we can get away with that against the bigger frontlines. Great win tho...given the situation probably our biggest of the year, so far.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting MagicFan3:</div><div class="quote_post">The Jason Kidd and Stephon Marbury matchup shouldn't go one way or the other. I think it is equal. The Nets should win this game because they have more options than the Knicks. We have RJ, VC, and Kidd. The Knicks have Marbury, Thomas, and Mohammed. We have much better guards but they have a better inside game. We should win if we can contain Thomas and Mohammed. My Prediction is a Nets win, 93-86</div> Your prediction is really correct ... This game New York doesn't have too much front court advantage, because Krstic and Collins the duo had played a good game on defense and offense. Otherwise, we have a stable backup ( best and buford ) , and our best back court Kidd,Carter,Jefferson scores in average.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting MagicFan3:</div><div class="quote_post">The Jason Kidd and Stephon Marbury matchup shouldn't go one way or the other. I think it is equal. The Nets should win this game because they have more options than the Knicks. We have RJ, VC, and Kidd. The Knicks have Marbury, Thomas, and Mohammed. We have much better guards but they have a better inside game. We should win if we can contain Thomas and Mohammed. My Prediction is a Nets win, 93-86</div> NOOOOO I was so close!!! Anyways great game by the Nets. Good to see us winning and lets start a streak right about now.
good game for the nets. I knew that New Yorks bigs wouldnt be able to match the the VC, RJ, Kidd trio. Sure Kurt's a decent on ball defender, but not a serious offensive threat. And since Kristic doesnt need to score 20 for the nets to win thats not a huge deal. Nazr's a good offensive rebounder, but isnt a great offensive player otherwise, so Collins shouldnt be TOO far behind him in most games as far as statistically production. And as far as rebounds go, even the the New York bigs are better, Carter, Jefferson and Kidd kill TT, Houston and Marbury on the boards, easing the pain a little. The zone worked well, i thought of it before the game when i remembered how Marbury struggled with it while at the Olympics. Nets to win Atlantic.
