The Nets dropped their 4th game of the season, 3rd at home in a 94-78 loss to the Mavs. The Nets were extremely competive in the matchup despite guys like Jason Collins playing on a injured ankle. And the absense of Ron Mercer, who will have knee surgery monday, in the lineup. But even without Mike Finley in the lineup, the Mavs just had to much offensive fire power for New Jersey. The Mavs ran alot of one on one isolations for Dirk against the Nets depleaded frontline. Jason Collins on one ankle was just no match for Nowitzki. And defensive specialist Eric Williams was just to small to cause any problems for Nowitzki, as Dirk got great looks at the basket all 2nd half. Dirk finished the game with 31pts & 7ast, 10-18 shooting from the field. It was pretty much a two man show for the Mavs for much of the afternoon as, Dirk & Jerry Stackhouse(28pts 10-18 shooting from the field), took turns tourching the Nets defense. Jersey, who already struggles to produce points, really suffered because Zo, who played 40 minutes in a game mid-week against Philly, was not in the starting lineup. Coach Lawerance Frank wanted to limit Zo minutes, early. But Zo still ended up playing 22 minutes. But struggled really to find his offensive game. He went 1-3 from the field & 3of 6 at the line. Zo only finished with 5 pts, 8pts shy of his near 13 a game avg on the season. With Zo struggling guys like Zoran Planinic 16pts and Eric Williams 15pts tried to pick up the slack. But with little contribution from the bench. And Rodney Buford, who the Nets look to be an offensive spark, going 2-16 from the field, as usal the pressure was on Richard Jefferson to carry the team. Jefferson played 44 minutes, 28pts and 10rebs. But as he faded in the 2nd half so did the Nets. The Nets clearly need some more offensive help for Jefferson. The Nets cant expect Zo to be that #2 option every night, especially when the Nets guard have such a hard time delivering him the ball in the post for some reason. The Nets need some more production from guys like Buford and Scalabrine more consistently. Eric Williams is starting to come around so thats a good sign. But the Nets need more consistency from certain guys. Jason Collins playing on one leg is a killer, right now. Jason Collins started off the year with such confidence but the leg injury has slowed him down tremendously. I dont know whats going on with A-train but man it really hurts to see him wasting away on the bench. Coach frank's got to use him or the Nets need to trade him for a role player that can help us at another position. Anyway we got the Rockets coming up, they dont score alot besides Ming and Mcgrady(if he plays), so that should be one of those grind it out type games. Those are the more winnable style games for us. Boxscore for Today's game: Espn.com
It's certainly not easy being a Nets fan, but then again losing is nothing new to us. RJ is really trying and playing hard out there, but he's no Pierce, T-Mac, or AI, not close. He can't do it alone and needs better players out there. The Nets need scorers in the worst way. Is Fizer still availble? We just need something out there. RJ's not the greatest scorer himself. Zoran is doing a lot better than last year, but he's too inconsistent. Nenad isn't impressing me at all. He's like our version of Darko. I'll still give him credit though.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting nextlevelgame:</div><div class="quote_post">It's certainly not easy being a Nets fan, but then again losing is nothing new to us. RJ is really trying and playing hard out there, but he's no Pierce, T-Mac, or AI, not close. He can't do it alone and needs better players out there. The Nets need scorers in the worst way. Is Fizer still availble? We just need something out there. RJ's not the greatest scorer himself. Zoran is doing a lot better than last year, but he's too inconsistent. Nenad isn't impressing me at all. He's like our version of Darko. I'll still give him credit though.</div> Naw, Marcus Fizer got signed by the Bucks a few weeks ago. But he has to serve a suspense 1st, so I dont think he has started to play. yet. We should have really try to reel him in cause our frontcourt is relying way to much on Zo's production. And he just cant bring it every single night,which is understandable at this point in his career.And with Collins playing on one leg, our frontcourt looks even thiner. I dont understand why coach frank isnt using A-train. If he isnt going to use him he should put him out their as trade bait, I know he wont land anything spectacular. But maybe he can land a player like Dajuan Wagner,or some other, low budget type scorer. I think Aaron Williams would have some halfway decent trade value, seeing as landing solid bigbodies are slim nowadays..
