<div align="center"> @ <font color="Navy">New Jersey Nets</font> (2-10) @<font color="Red"> Portland Trailblazers</font> (6-6) Time: Nov. 28,2004; 5:30pm Place: <font color="Red">The Rose Garden</font> TV: YES Network, NBALP</div> Preview: The Portland Trailblazers are coming off a road defeat to the Dallas Mavericks 92-83, on Friday. But they have one 2 of their last three games including road victories against the Heat and Magic. The Blazers are looking to return to the Rose Garden to begin a 2-game homestand to end the month of November. The Rose Garden has been good to the Blazers as they sport a 3-2 record at Home. The Nets are looking to just finish up a 4 game Western Conference road swing, that saw losses to Denver, the Clippers and Seattle. The Nets are currently in the mist of a 8-game slide. And have not won since November 9th, when they beat these Portland Trailblazers 64-60, in one of the lowest scoring games in the shot clock era. The Nets will look to beat a familiar face and salvage at least one victory on the road trip. <u>Projected Starting 5 </u> <font color="Navy">Nets: </font> PG: Travis Best SG: Richard Jefferson SF: Eric Williams PF: Jason Collins C: Alonzo Mourning <font color="Red">Blazers</font>: PG: Damon Stoudamire SG: Derek Anderson SF: Shariff Abdur-Rahim PF: Zach Randolph C: Theo Ratliff -------------- <div align="center"><u>Players To Watch</u> <font color="Navy">Alonzo Mourning (Nets)</font> / <font color="Red">Zach Randolph (Blazers)</font></div> The Nets Know what they are going to get out on the perimeter with Richard Jefferson, shouldering most of the load. But the Key to the Nets success may depend on what they get in the frontcourt/low post area on offense. With the Nets lacking many frontcourt scoring options, the Nets depend on plenty of offensive production from Zo. The Nets need Alonzo to be a physical down low. And create easy points in the paint. Alonzo Mourning's physical pressence was felt in the first Blazers/Nets matchup. Mourning recorded 14pts(5-10 from the field) and 10 rebounds. But recently Zo's production has started to fade. Zo maybe experiencing some problems with conditioning. Zo has only averaged 4pts & 3rebs per game on the Western Conference road trip. Look for the Nets to try to establish Mourning, early. Zach Randolph has left off right where his breakout year of 03-04 left off..Randolph is averaging 21.5 ppg to go long with 11.2 rpg. Randolph has a favorable matchup on paper against the slow of feet Jason Collins. But in the last matchup the Nets did an effective job sending a big double team at Randolph, using Zo's size to help Collins contain Zach. Look for Randolph to try & opperate a little more in the mid-range area in this matchup. He should be able to create a few more one-on-one isolations against Collins that way. ------------ <font color="Red"><div align="center"><u>Keys To the Game Portland</u> </div> </font> <font color="Red">Shot Selection.</font> In the last matchup against Jersey the Blazers' starting backcourt of Anderson & Stoudamire combined to shoot just 5 for 26 from the field. The main reason the Blazer's backcourt & the rest of the team struggled from the field, was because they settled for alot of perimeter jumpshots. And Portland's offense lacked ball movement. When the Blazers are truely effective they are playing inside/out basketball. The Blazers need to play off Randolph and Shariff down low and then use their shooters as a tool to open up the floor. <font color="Red">Productive Bench Play</font>. On paper Portland's bench should have a edge over that of New Jersey. But that was not the case in the 1st match mainly due to the struggles of key bench players' Nick Van Exel (1-6 from the field & only 4pts) and Darius Miles going 2-14 from the field. The Nets bench outscored Portland's bench 26-12. The Blazer's must turn the bench points edge into their favor. <font color="Red">Controlling the backboards</font>. Despite the Blazer's having the stronger frontline, the Nets also won the battle of the backboards in the 1st match. Winning the battle of the backboards is key for a team like the Nets especially on the offensive boards. Jersey doesnt shoot the ball well from the field, so they need 2nd chance points inorder to be competive. The Blazer's must do a better job of keeping the Nets off the offensive boards then they did in the 1st matchup. <div align="center"><u><font color="Navy">Keys To the Game For New Jersey</font></u></div> <font color="Navy">Strong Production from the Power Forward Postion</font> In the Nets last 5 games Jason Collins' has only provided Jersey with 2.6ppg from that starting power forward position. Those type of # simply arent getting it done for a team to be competive. The Nets need Collins to be involved in the offense just as a method of making Zach Randolph work a little on defense. And not just focus on the offensive end of the floor. <font color="Navy">Limit Turnovers</font> The Key to the Nets offense is limiting turnovers. The Nets already dont shoot the ball well from the field, they can not compound poor shooting with a high turnover rate. The pressure falls on the shoulders of Travis Best to get the Nets into their offensive sets smoothly. The Nets need to limit the silly 24 second violations due to over passing & dribbling. And also Mourning & Collins must be careful to not get caught camping out in the lanes. 24 second & 3nd calls are the ones that are really killing the Nets right now. <font color="Navy">Win with Defense.</font> The Nets simply dont have the offensive fire power to get into a scoring matchup with a team like the Blazers. The Nets must expend most of their energy trying to win this game on the defensive end. Randolph is expected to have a strong perfomance. But they cant let the other Blazer guns get it going. The Nets must find away to limit Van Exel, Stoudamire, & Rahim. The Nets need this game played in the 80-85pt range to have a legit shot at pulling out the victory. Enjoy the Game!
Man either its very good defense or very ugly offense. I'm lookng at NBA.com and its half time New Jersey 25 Portland 30. YUCK!
<div align="center"> - <font size="3">71-83</font></div> <u>Leading Scorers</u> <font color="Red">Zach Randolph</font> (Por)- 23pts <font color="Navy">Richard Jefferson</font> (Njn)- 20pts <u> Player Of the Game</u> <font color="Red">Zach Randolph</font> -PF Game Statline 41(min) - 8 of 22(fg) - 7 of 11(ft) - 15(reb) - 2(ast) - 23(pts) Post Game Wrapup: The Nets end a 4 game road trip with another loss. The Nets have drop 9 consecutive games. And find themselves looking at a 2-11 record(5th worst start in Franchise history). Neither the Nets nor the Blazers came out the gates Blazing. And the game quickly seemed head in the same direction of their last matchup at the Continential Airlines Arena(a matchup the Nets won 64-60). In tonight's matchup the Nets led 10-9 after the 1st quarter. But the Blazers started to wake up in the 2nd quarter. And took as much as a 9pt lead mid 2nd quarter. The Nets fought back late 2nd quater and found themselves down only 5 at the half. 30-25 half time score in favor of Portland. The 3rd quarter is where the Blazers put some distantance between themselves and the Nets. Led by Derek Anderson's 10 pts in the quarter, the Blazers add 5 points onto their half-time lead. And led Jersey by 10 going into the 4th. In the 4th quarter the Blazers just used their post strenght of Zach Randolph to hold off any possible Jersey run winning to take a 83-71 victory. The Nets were plaqued by their usual enemy a lack of offense. The Nets try to establish Alonzo Mourning early. And did a good job as Zo scored 4 quick points on the Nets 1st couple of trips down the floor. But Zo had to rest on the bench most of the 1st quarter and early 2nd quarter. And Zo never really was able to get himself back into the offensive flow. Most notably in Zo's struggles was his difficulty at the free throw line. Zo suffering from an injuried finger, really couldnt get it together at the line. Zo went 1-6 at the line, including a 3rd quarter airball that didnt even come close to getting to the rim. Along with Alonzo struggles, was another noticably inconsistent performance from the Nets bench. Key bench members, Rodney Buford, Brain Scalabrine & Zoran Planinic combined to go 4-22 from the field. And only chipped in with 8pts. An upsetting sight was the lack of playing time once again for Aaron Williams. Atrain once again sat the entire game, as for reasons unknown finds himself out of coach franks rotation. The only bright spot for the Nets bench was rookie Nenad Kristic, who lifted the Nets off the bench with a physical spark. Getting in the game and showing his willinginess to bump downlow with Randolph and Ratliff. But all & all another dissappointing offensive performance by the Nets. Next Game Tuesday at home against the Bobcats
The Nets need someone else for offense. It seems as if Jefferson is the only one providing it. The Nets are still a good defensive team. They held the high scoring Sonics to 79 points. They have a great defensive system no one on the team is a great defender it just seems that they play great team defense. If they only had decent offense as well they would be a pretty good team. Their lack of offense really showed when it was 25-30 tying the halftime record with the least amount of points. I thought that they were capable of beating the Blazers because they beat them at the Continental Airlines Arena.
<div class="quote_poster">Quoting mrj18:</div><div class="quote_post">The Nets need someone else for offense. It seems as if Jefferson is the only one providing it. The Nets are still a good defensive team. They held the high scoring Sonics to 79 points. They have a great defensive system no one on the team is a great defender it just seems that they play great team defense. If they only had decent offense as well they would be a pretty good team. Their lack of offense really showed when it was 25-30 tying the halftime record with the least amount of points. I thought that they were capable of beating the Blazers because they beat them at the Continental Airlines Arena.</div> Yeah our Defense is one of the better Defense in the league but it goes un-noticed and will continue to go un-noticed because we dont get the W. All it really takes is one scoring spert like a 9-0 run or 10-1 run, something like that to beat us. We pretty much can never get down by double digits in a game because we simply dont have the offense to fight back into a game. Even when we are getting Defensive stops. I dont know what the Nets are going to do to get another guy in here who can score. I dont even think we need a major scorer, just someone who we can count on consistently for double -digits. Or then RJ we dont know entering a game where we are going to get another double digit performer from. One night it maybe E-Will another night it maybe Zo, but none of them are bringing it to the table consistently enuff for us to count on. Our bench is extremely inconsistent with Brian Scalabrine and Rodney Buford, having strong performances seemingly once every five games. Out of all the players we let go in the offseason, I think the one that is really killing us right now is Lu. Lucious was still affordable for us to keep. And He really loved to step up & prove him self when parts were missing from our lineup like last year with Jason Kidd out. And alot the times Kittles was out with his leg problems over the years. Lu would have been a guy we could almost count on to bring 10ppg in a time like this. And hjaving that type of player would problably be the difference in wins & losses in alot of these close grind out/low scoring games so far this year.
I would expect the Nets to lose A LOT more. well thats what the Nets get for getting rid of K-Mart. He was their star player.
