Game 68 - Dr Jekyll Doesn't Hide

This is the most schizophrenic professional sports team I have ever followed. I just don't get it.

After the Nets refused to get off the plane in Chicago, squandering a chance to put some distance between themselves and the sub-par teams it is fighting for the chance to be ritually sacrificed to the juggernaut that is Boston, after showing no heart whatsoever, here they come home, a house of horrific play, where they are dead (and I mean dead) even 17-17, and take apart Atlanta, winning the season series against the nearly as schizo Hawks, and looking very good doing it.

I mean, VC exerted his will on the game. RJ gave 100%, at the very least in the 2nd half. And LFrank coached the kind of game you expect from an NBA coach - ie, you wouldn't have to talk about how is lost-ness contributed to the loss-ness.

Tonite and vs Utah they looked like the team they have always looked like on paper - when you have VC and RJ going full bore, this is a hard team to defend, a hard team to beat. A team that's never out of it. When VC and RJ lead, the young guys feed off of it. Sean (Remember Me, Coach?) Williams and Josh (The Big Upside) Boone all elevated their games, caught in the tail wind envelope of the Big Two. Devin Harris is never gonna be JKidd, but that's because Devin Harris is gonna be Devin Harris - a different kind of player, one who can score and altho he cannot yet exert his will on a game like Kidd can (or on an entire season, as Kidd thrice did), he doesn't have to if VC and RJ decide they will. He, too, can be swept up in their jet trails as well, and when he does, you have another Big Three.

Commentators complained that not much defense was played, but I disagree. Sean Williams continues to shine in my estimation, with several key blocks. RJ shut down his man. VC got key rebounds and contributed to several key stops, keeping things from being worse than a 10 point deficit at the half.

Let's not lie - the Meadowlands cum Brendan Byrne cum Continental Airlines cum Izod Arena is barely half full most nights, and that half is not exactly enthusiastic basketball afficionados. Most nights the actual crowd would barely pack the RAC, and half the time most of the fans are there to see the opposition, be it LeBron or KG or even Hedo Turkoglu. It's hard to attribute the play of the Nets last night and vs Utah to the crowd lifting the team. And that's not to mention those ugly, ugly wins the Nets have on either side.

Last night, this Jekyll/Hyde team was solidly Jekyll and a pleasure to watch. So, why doesn't the good doctor show up more often?

I don't think anybody knows. I don't think VC knows why his play has been so bipolar, why it took til Game 68 for him to score near 40. I don't think RJ knows why he has been disappearing in the 4ths of late, only to catch fire the last couple of homestands, only to disappear in between on the road.

And I don't think the estimable Lawrence Frank knows why he steps outside his box to coach like a real coach some games, only to recede to his robotic substitutions and timeout patterns most other games.

I've seen some really, really bad Nets basketball over the years - the Butch Beard Embarrassment, Sam Boo-ie, Yinko Dare, Don Casey's not even walking wounded. Bad, bad basketball. Those teams didn't have games where they put it all together and you said, There - that's what we expected to see all season. No, how they played in those years was what we expected to see - cager crap.

But this team... Vince Carter, Jason Kidd, Richard Jefferson, Nenad Krstic... So much talent you could afford to start Jason Collins as your 5th man, to take an occasional charge and to launch an occasional flat footed three. Two years ago this team won 49 games and had to collapse at the end of the year in order not to exceed the franchise record 52. They spit the bit (or the roach, as it were) vs Miami, the eventual NBA Champs, but still, they looked like a team that could contend for years to come.

Instead, for two years now, we've had nothing but underperformance.

Some of that, as I have documented this season, is attributable squarely on the slight shoulders of Frank, whom I hold responsible for at least 10 losses this year. Nets win them and they're 39-29 and 4th seed in the East, exactly where the Celtics players said they should be after their last meeting with the Nets. And that only assumes them winning 50% of games they lost at the end. They could be 49-19 at this point, with a little luck.

But some of those 20 losses are attributable to a lack of heart, or initiative, or what? On the FAN today, Benigno and Roberts were talking about Isiah and what a crappy coach he's been, about which they expressed some surprise, given how great not just a player but a field general and example he was in the Pistons' glory years. How come he can't seem to get that across to his players as a coach? Joe pointed out that it might be because Isiah as a player was a self starter - he needed little coaching, and thus lacks the ability to identify what it is that motivates those who are not by nature self-starters.

JKidd was a self starter. VC, when he first came over from Toto, was a self starter. RJ can be a self starter. Devin Harris can be a self starter. And some nights you can see it. VC took the team on his extravagantly talented shoulders last night, and so did RJ, and so did Harris. And you can't blame it on Atlanta not being that great, because they proved it against Utah a few nights earlier.

But then you have a game like the one vs the Bulls... "Game"?? No one on the Nets showed any game that night. I expected to see Armond Gilliam coming off the bench...

These guys are pros. VC and RJ have been around long enough to know the value of consistent professional play. Especially when you have so much young talent that is looking to you for their cues.

The Nets are showing that they can actually be better with Devin Harris than they were the last couple of years with JKidd.

The problem is, we never know if they're gonna show us they ARE better on any given night... Or just plain good, for that matter.

Game 67 - No

Listless, careless, diffident basketball. When I turned it on, the Nets were down 37-30 in the second. When I switched back to PBS (yeah, it's that bad), they were down by 10 and shooting over 50%. When I turned back, it was halftime and they were not displaying the score, but soon it was mentioned that the Bulls had gone on a 16-0 run to end the quarter.

Game over.

Even if the Nets had the character to come back from something like that (why don't the Nets ever have 16-0 runs?), their coach doesn't know how to help them.

They lose by (you guessed it) 16.

Up down up down up down down down down down down up up down.

Now End The Season...

Game 66 - Finally, a quality win!

So, 66 games into the season, count 'em, 66, and the Nets finally get a quality win!

Utah had just beaten the vaunted (and overrated) Celtics in Boston and had come down to play a diffident Nets team. The expectations were, hey, let's just have a competitive game.

Up by 3 after 1 (and scoring 32 points), they were down by 7 at the half, and 5 after 3. Usually they would pack it in.

Instead this time they showed grit, selflessness and one had a view of what the team could be like if it tried.

There is enough talent on this team to win 50+ games, easily. Even without Kidd.

Can they keep it up?

This week coming up is key - Chicago on the road, Atlanta at home, the two teams they are competing with for the 8th spot.

We'll see...

Game 65 - A Needlessly Shaky Win

Cleveland is a mediocre team, but in the anaemic East they qualify as a good team, even if they swapped 1/3 of their roster with the Bulls. Even still, Ben Wallace did not play, nor did Ziggy.

So it should be an easy Nets win, right?

Looked like it would be - 38-20 after 1. Ok, I've seen many teams cough up a 1st qtr bulge like that before. But 58-47 at the half, looking pretty good.

Well, of course, "teams in the NBA go on runs", the Magnificent Frank has intoned, excepting of course his own club, and so here we are, with 5 1/2 to play, and the Nets are ahead by 1. ONE! Cleveland goes on a 22-10 run, and Frank calls one time out, has a TV timeout, but still hoards them.

I'm sick of such coaching. Just sick of it. I can't even enjoy a gutty win at the end.

Please fire him...

Game 64 - Houston, we don't have liftoff

Same things continue to apply:

Last two minutes of 1st: 2-7

Last two minutes of the half: 1-5

Shooting pct 1st half: 22%

3pt pct in 1st half: 0%

28 points total in the half. That's LESS THAN 50% of the point total when they beat the Bucks and scored 68 in one half. They got only 2 points more than that in the ENTIRE GAME vs San Antonio. And the Nets would need 42 points in the second half just to make that humiliating total...

What's the point?

ADDENDUM:

Okay, game over. The lost by effectively 20. They scored 45, count 'em, 45 in the second half to finish with 73. They broke 20 only in the last quarter. They shot 30% for the game, and ZERO from 3pt land. ZERO!

They let a 41 year old Dikembe Mutumbo (remember him, Byron?) dominate them inside. RJ and VC combined for a whopping 25 points. They should be AVERAGING 25 a game, EACH of them.

Frank's postgame comments were worthless, as were Carter's.

This is a sad, sorry team.

I made a prediction that the Nets would be 28-36 at this point, and even that proved to be optimistic.

Fire Frank, please, Rod.

Game 63 - Mailing it in

No, I'm not talking about the Nets, altho they, too, mailed it in.

I watched the Devils, then UNC vs Duke, and only at the end did I flip over to the Nets g(sh)ame. 100-81 with 5:00 to go in the 4th. I checked Sportsline to see the box score. Down by 9 after 1, 18 after 2, 22 after 3...

I'm not very interested in this blog any more, playing out the string, just like the Nets. I have nothing new to add or say. Frank can't coach in game. The team has stopped listening. They don't care. Thorn has done his job. The owner could give a Ratner's ass.

BTW - the lowly Hawks picked up a game and a half on the Nets tonite, to bump them out of the 8th ("and final") playoff spot. The Nets have yet to lose to Houston on this "brutal" road trip.

The only thing brutal about it is the level of play of the Nets.

Game 62 - Alley...Oops!

This is flat out no fun any more. This is drudgery...

That's how the Nets must feel.

I watched the Devils tonite, then Bill Moyers. By the time I turned it on it was the 4th quarter and they were down 15. Ho hum.

They had a 3 point lead at the half. NO opens up the 3rd with a 16-2 run. The Talented Mr Frank didn't call timeout until it was a 12-2 run. He was actually challenged by a reporter in the post game - why didn't you call another one. Well, you wanna have a few in the bank, at least one, for the last 20 seconds of the game... Brilliant...

I watched the highlights on the postgame. Alley oop! Alley oop! Alley oop! Nets standing flat footed... Alley oop! Alley oop!

Remember 2002, 2003? It was the NETS who were the running team, the fast break team, the JKidd to Kmart alley oop! team. Now the Nets are the Washington Generals of the NBA.

Alley oop!

At one point as they break for commercial they show Tyson Chandler running off the court laughing at the Nets.

I can't imagine this team winning another game all season. Frank is depressed and dejected - he has no solutions, won't change his rigid approach, and the team is not listening. They are incapable of playing a full 48 minutes. Alley oop!

Frank's postgame assessment was right on and very perceptive - they got a lot of fast breaks off our long perimeter jumpshots. Profound, really. So, brain boy, WHY CAN'T YOU COME UP WITH A WAY TO STOP THAT???????????

Ratner doesn't care. Thorn has done his job in the best way that can be expected. Frank cares but is incompetent. The team senses all this and doesn't care anymore.

I don't care any more.