Nets Outlast Wizards

Sean Williams was awesome tonight. He got 5 blocks as well as altering a lot of shots. I wish he and Carter would develop that pick and roll a little bit more. That was good to see.

This is an easy game. Give the DARN ball to your creators like VC & Kidd down the stretch. Vince creates for his team.
Please LFrank remember this.

I was a lil’ concerned when Kidd started out shooting the ball at first but the the brick fest soon came to an end. hehe.

VC had a huge rebound, 2 HUGE assists back to back late in the game. This really sealed the deal.

RJ 3rd quarter show was HUGE tonight. BUT tell me how can you NOT attempt 1 shot in the 4th Quarter? Like I’ve said from day 1. He does not create for his teammates so I guess that’s leave him out of big plays late in the 4th Q’s.

Sean Williams is truly growing on me.

Fire Frank!!

They cut down on the turnovers in this game.

SWilliams is getting better by the day. He’s gonna bury poor Collins UNDER the bench.

If JKidd could score like this every night, and still rack up assists, the Nets would be a powerhouse.

Well done Nets!!

yes less turnovers!!!!
sean will got a double double yea!

Well, Kidd make up time, I hope he score like this more often. But as we know for the past 5 years , Kidd doesn’t hit his three points that good. Perhaps this will buy time until Kristic goes back and Marcus make some jump shots.
  Marcus should not overdribble and should protects the ball better when dribbling. He should not follow Kidd’s style of making good plays and assists. I believe he would make more of an impact if he try to be aggressive offensively which will change the game and confuse teams when Kidd comes back and Carter/Jefferson are having a tough time dealing with the type of defense put on them. He should be able to use his quickness , penetrate and draw some double teaming and let the power forward take care of the offensive rebound. Marcus have a different character. Marcus should be set up with some offensive play rather than make him fill the role of Kidd . There is only one Kidd and only one Marcus, who is more of an evasive player who can do fadeaways, running shots and jump shot. I think Marcus is type of point guard that will be effective dishing good assists or making good plays
if his offense become effective. Start with a good screen and 15 foot jump shots a la Derek Fisher or Kerry Kittles.

keep it up. i like the nets
lawerence frank for president.

9 turnovers + high energy = WIN!!!

Sean is gradually IMPROVING. Will soon become a regular 15-10-5 guy, as long as he gets minutes.

Boki MUST STOP PLAYING SCARED and instead play with a chip on his shoulder. Had several bad misses off wide open looks in the 2nd half. Also let some rebounds and steals slip through his hands which could have cost us the game.

The ‘Big 3’ were solid, like they SHOULD BE EVERY GAME
with rare exception.

Frank stayed out of the way, except for his frenzied sideline routine. He needs to chill, just chill.

This was a fun game to attend. The Nets are showing more tenacity. I think the game turned when the Nets went up 105-100…the crowd was on its feet and you could feel the energy…I looked to the Wizards bench expecting a time out, but none was called…the Wizards did not get a good shot and and came away without a score…very strange last two minutes as the teams exchanged misses…no timeouts or fouls at the end.

I predicted that the Nets should win if Sean Will played well and stayed out of foul trouble, he helped turn the game in the 4th. The Nets now own the tiebreaker in this series.

The nets won but it wasnt convincing. They cant seem to find their niche or style of play. They just seem to play to the style of their opponents night in night out. They fell into the wizards style of play and got lucky to pull out a victory. You dont see the nets play a similar style every game You just dont know what type of nets team is gonna show up every night.

The wizards are minus their franchise player arenas, their missing their pg daniels, and they’re also missing their starting forward etan thomas. Yet they seem to find a way to come out every game and try to impose their style of play. Wether these players were missing or not they still are able to avg. over 105 pts/game. That’s a testament to Eddie Jordan’s coaching job.

Jordan has done a tremendous job with what he has left on his roster. This shows the huge difference between the nets and the wizard’s coaching staff. Frank has two perennial superstars and a another player who’s playing at an allstar level and is the 4th leading scorer in the league and yet frank cant get it to work. Even with arenas the nets are a better team, roster wise, than the wizards. So my question is why, why are the wizards playing at a much higher level than our nets?

Saying that Kristic is the answer and difference maker is just a silly excuse. I’m sure he’ll help but the nets have been playing pitiful basketball with or without him. They just cant implement themselves to impose any sort of style. That’s why they’re so inconsistent. One game they try to outscore and play no defense, the other game they cant score and try to play defense, and there are other games where they cant score or defend. They’ve only played one game where they played well as a whole, defensively and offensively, and that was against Cleveland at home.

The nets have more than enough to compete with every team in the league wether its the eastern or westewrn conference. So for them to be in this state doesnt make sense. There are many more inferior teams in the NBA that are playing much better than the nets and almost every team in the league has their own unique style of play, an identity, except the nets.

All this points to one thing, THE COACH. He obviously has proved that he cant get this team, and they’re a veteran team i may add, to function as a sound NBA team with some sort of consistency. I wouldnt be surprised if they lost to Millwakee by 20 tomorrow. The last 3 years where they had bad starts , they turned it around just before time. But this has consequences. The team usually ends up gassed out by playoff time. The reason they get to turn it around is because they have players such as Kidd, VC, and RJ. With those type of players there are no reasons they should be under 500 anytime during the season.

The nets have underachieved so far, and this was the easy part of their schedule. So for them to make the playoffs, which should be a given for this team, they need to step it up, and now. Frank has to let his players play like the last couple of years and throw his play calling book in the trash, cause all that has gotten him is an awful record, the worst offense in the league, and an invisible defense at times that comes through less that it ought to be.

This team is way to talented to play this way. The reason this win wasnt convincing is because the nets barely won at home against a team that is decimated with injuries and are much more inferior to them. For instance, we saw way too much of malik allen out there. he had no good matchups for him to be out there, and got burned on defense every time. This is where magloire would of been a perfect matchup against Haywood. Haywood got way too may easy dunks down low and many easy off tip ins. Yet frank couldnt stop the bleeding even though the answer was right under his nose. Little things like that sometimes can be the difference between a win and a loss.

It Took frank 20 games and many more losses than wins to get the two young bigs in the starting lineup, and it looks like it will take another 20 games and many losses more before he finally realizes that collins and allen have a huge negative impact to the team when they are on the floor, and especially together.

This team better turn it around quickly before its too late. the way they are playing this year is much worse than the beginning of the last two yrs. i cant see them improving with the way they’re being currently coached. Their defense and offense are way too incosistent for them to be called a good team, forget elite for now.

It’s a big stretch to say the nets are better than a healthy wizards team…the wizards are without arenas AND his backup antonio daniels. They’ve improved a great deal this year and will probably be much better with a healthy arenas. the nets have no excuse at this point. they need to start winning right now.

the nets GM needs a pat on the back tho. sean williams…o-m-g.

Mina always writes a book. lol. Tonight was a great win.

Arenas may be a “star”, but he has also been known to be a chucker in the past. I’m not convinced they are that much worse off without him.

Nets won 3 out of their last 4, and two wins were against above .500 teams. Clearly this new starting lineup is working much better.

I agree with you mina in that Lawrence Frank is in large part responsible for the Nets subpar record so far, but at the very least he is improving. He limited Collins to 4 minutes off the bench this game, which is a the only role he’s suited for on this Nets team and Malik was decent shooting the ball tonight, so 18 minutes for him isn’t too bad. Krstic should take most of his minutes once he recovers. He can hit the outside jumper as well as Malik can and does everything else better.

The Big 3 played well, but you can’t expect them to have that kind of game every night. RJ mentioned in a post-game interview that the Nets should be able to win even when one of them is having an off game. He’s exactly right. The Nets have the talent to blow out undermanned teams like the Wizards. It’s up to Frank to maximize that talent.

Giving Sean and Josh both 30+ minutes was a good move. The one thing I wish he’d do more of is run some low post plays for Sean and/or Josh. They’re basically garbage men out there. Everytime I see Sean with his back to the basket fighting for position in the post, he never gets the ball. He’s always waved off the block for the same predictable high screen and roll. Running a couple plays a game through him won’t kill you Frank. It makes the opposing defense think a little bit and frees up our shooters if he draws a double team. Posting up VC/RJ/Kidd is OK, but it takes away one of our shooters.

As of now, the halfcourt offense is way too perimeter oriented. If the Nets can’t get out and run, they have to rely on shooting contested jumpshots to win games and that’s not going to work consistently throughout the season. They need some sort of interior presence either to draw a double team or to score in the paint if they want to become more than a mediocre team.

I also agree on Magloire getting more minutes. It’s like he has Marc Jackson syndrome or something. Frank refuses to give him a chance. He’s not perfect, but he’s big and he can rebound the ball. Against teams with big players like Haywood, he should be the first big off the bench. How do you explain Billy Thomas getting off the bench, but Magloire getting DNP CDs?

I really hope Frank gets it together so the rest of this season can be salvaged. There’s still time for the Nets to regain their status as an Eastern Conference contender. They can start by putting together a winning streak to get back to .500. Next game against the Bucks should be a win.

Be it Stephanski or Thorn, whoever drafted Sean Williams with the 17th spot in the draft is nothing short of a genius.

14 points,10 rebounds and 5 blocks in his rookie year!

I´ve said it before and I say it again, if we run our offense through Carter we are a dangerous team

VC is just one of the most intellegent players out there…….his bball iq is off the charts

he is the man and Frank has to keep playing through him

BTW, RJ was really huge in the third, I really have to give him credit…………..and our bigs Rook and Boone are really becoming better and better

Great posts by mina and jonathan, I enjoy reading your meaningful commentary, in fact, I enjoy reading your comments much more than Dave D. or Al’s articles as they seem to bring up important questions that the media is not brave enough to ask from the coach. Such as:

-how come he is not playing Mags at all, even though there has been match-ups where it makes perfect sense to play him
-why did it take the coach 20+ games to figure out the Collins+Allen combo is futile. I mean we are just watching games, this guy is watching them every day in practice
-why even after starting Boone and Sean is he is still drawing plays as if he has Collins and Allen on the floor. Their athleticism is getting us rebounds and there is the occasional VC drawing a double to hand it off to Sean, but these are not designed plays. How many pick and rolls with Marcus and Boone have we seen this year? We have seen a few with Sean and VC/Kidd and they have resulted in NBA plays of the night, that’s what our number 1 offensive option should be – get an easy dunk off of an easy pick and roll. Having RJ and VC run through two screens to jack up a 15 foot jumpshot or having RJ bust his tail to get a whistle should be the number 2 offensive options.

Coach, hope you are reading this:

1. Let Kidd run the floor
2. design plays for Sean and Josh, where you are using their athleticism and ability to finish around the rim
3. Never, ever, ever, ever, ever have Allen and Collins on the floor at the same time
4. Give Magloire some minutes

Agreed on Carter, but I wish he could guard!

i liked what i saw last tonight. they played real hard and didn’t turn the ball over much. for once, nets didn’t look confused on offense. can’t ask for much more than that. now only if we can get a blow out win but i think that’s an aberration at this point.

Got the win – that’s what counts.
Big three all played well.
If S. Williams adds a 15 foot jumper to his game, he has unlimited potential.
Boone made some mistakes – but was OK.
Malik Allen was off again – now he’s afraid to shoot. My advice – SHOOT.
When Nachbar sets his feet – he’s a good shooter. If he rushes his shot or drifts even a little – he misses. He needs to be very disciplined and do it exactly the same way every time. If it gets blocked – it gets blocked.

The problem I see here is that it was another close one. They can never build up a lead. When was the last time the Nets could sit their starters in the 4th? Once they get a small lead, they lose focus. No killer instinct.

Low TO + high FT% and all else equal = victory, Congratulations to RJ for no TO and to Kidd for hitting his shots finally.

I completely agree with mina
The better coaches are have an intuitive sense of ebb and flow to the game. He recognizes the talent on the bench and uses it.
Witness ex net E Jordan who is not only prepared but has a system that works for his players. By the time Frank learns his lessons yet another disappointing season will be over and Mr. Kidd will be playing somewhere else.
And the seats will be empty.
With the team we have it is embarrassing to have lost to the Knicks once let alone twice …that should have been enough to look for a more effective coach who can utilize the talents available to an optimal state
mo

newark hawk is right when he says Boki has to stop playing scared. He needs to strengthen his confidence.

I also agree w/ halwas about Allen needing to shoot more.

Allen has shown that he can knock down the 15-20 foot jumper, but he stops shooting when he misses a few.

I think this is a key job of a coach; to build confidence in his players, and, to let them know that they still have his support, even when they make mistakes or hit a slump.

I think the Nets should package Magloire, Armstrong, Collins, and Wright ( and maybe Marcus Williams as well? ), for one all-star quality shooting guard.

I like Magloire, but he’s just too slow for the Nets’ style of play.

Wright’s a good player, but he lacks the ‘killer’ instinct on offense. He doesn’t aggressively look to score.

Enough with Kidd not shooting well. That’s not his game. And plus, he’s 15th all-time in 3-pointers made. Ever since he came to the Nets, he’s averaged 121 made 3-pointers. If he keeps this average up for this season, he can move 10th all-time in 3-pointers made, maybe even the 9th spot.

He’s not as bad of a shooter than people think.

@ Mina, Jonathan and Nikolay

You all made great points. My only disagreement is regarding MAGLOIRE. He does rebound well, plays okay defense, but what else can he do? He can’t shoot, he can’t pass, he can’t run. I agree that he’s better than Collins, but who isn’t better than Collins?

I’d love to see Thorn package Magloire’s EXPIRING CONTRACT with our first round pick(lottery protected) for the wing shooter that we so desperately need. Maybe Thorn can work a deal with Stefanski for KYLE KORVER. Korver would make us SOOOOOOOO much better!!! He might even be able to teach Nachbar how to shoot again.

P.S. I also agree with Nikolay about the BEATWRITERS. They spend virtually all their time MAKING EXCUSES FOR FRANK’S ATTROCIOUS COACHING, circulating RIDICULOUS AND NEGATIVE NET TRADE RUMORS and writing blah, blah, blah game summaries.

@ NetKnic

Forgot to give props to NetKnic. Good points about Magloire and Frank. Magloire is WAYYYYY TOO SLOW for our style of play. And Frank DOESN’T BUILD CONFIDENCE, BUT INSTEAD DESTROYS IT!!!

Wright is definitely a dissapointment offensively, but DEFENSIVELY HE’S BEEN SUPERB. He’s done an amazing job guarding Kobe, Carmello and Lebron, which takes a HUGE LOAD OFF THE BACKS of the ‘Big 3’!!!

@ newark hawk

I agree w/ your post, but I think it’s too late for Korver. The Sixers just sent him to Utah for Gordan Giricek and a 1st round pick.

korver just got traded to jazz…so much for that proposal newark lol

THAT WAS A GOOD WIN FOR THE TEAM, ITS BUILDS OUR CONFIDENCE.
LAWRENCE FRANK STILL HAS TO GO! FIRE!! FRANK!!! PLEASE BEFORE ITS TOO LATE.

I guess the ‘76er and Jazz GMs read this board, but too bad Rod Thorn doesn’t. About 2 hours AFTER my 1:56pm post above, Korver for Giricek and a protected first rounder was announced on NBA.com. Previously, there were no trade rumors about Korver. Maybe the media should check out this board if they want to discover which players are REALLY ON THE TRADING BLOCK!!!