Game 7: Win or GO home

[Henacy]

Well its that time that we all have been looking forward to since Sunday, when the Nets couldnt find away to put away the Bad Boys from Mo town, its game 7. The Nets have to find away to pull out a victory on the road or their season is over. Here is how they go about trying to get that victory....

1) Create tempo- The Nets have to find away to get out in the open court. And create some easy baskets of their defense & forcing turnovers. The Nets need to keep this game at an up & down pace for most of the 48 minutes. The Nets are the best fastbreak team in basketball. If the Nets are running that usually means that they are playing great defense & the Pistons arent scoring, which means that the crowd isnt going to have anything to cheer about.The Nets creating tempo will keep the crowd out of the game,which favors the Nets big time.

2) Limit Turnovers-No turnover is a good turnover, but the style of play the Nets use, they are going to turn the ball over at a pretty high rate most nights,so The Nets are going to have to limit the kind of turnovers they make tonight. The Nets can live with turning the ball over when they are in an up & down game, trying to get out in the open court. But the kind of turnovers the Nets cant live with are the ones when they are not on the break. They can not commit turnovers when bringing the ball up after Pistons made baskets, or in the half-court set against the Pistons defense. These type of turnovers lead to easy baskets for the Pistons, which limits our edge in Fastbreak points.

3) Make Perimeter Shots- The Nets are going to have to make their fare share of Perimeter shots inorder to win this game. If Kittles, Harris, Kidd,Rogers & Jefferson dont shoot the ball well in the half court against the Pistons defense the Nets are going to have a hard time scoring tonight. I think the Pistons main goal tonight is to make sure that they get back on defense, which means the Nets may have to play alot in the Half-court tonight. Gotta make shots!

4) Free Throw Shooting - The Nets missed 3 big free throws in the 4th quarter of game 6. And missed countless big free throws in game 5. They can not do this tonight, they have to get to the line & convert on all the easy freebies.

5) Rebounding- I have said all series you have to make the Pistons be a one man rebounding team which is still the correct method imo. But the Nets are still going to have to put an effort into at least containing Ben Wallace on the boards as well. Ben Wallace had 20 rebs(9 were on the offensive end), thats too much. They have to keep been Wallace to about 15 rebounds while keeping everyone else off the boards. I think while boxing out Ben Wallace, the Nets bigs(like Aaron Williams & Jason Collins) need to face guard him. That will be their best way of keeping him off the boards.

6)The intangibles- There are a few other things that most happen for the Nets to get a win tonight, so Iam calling this the intangibles.

The 1st is, the Nets have to take one of the Pistons backcourt players out of the game. The Pistons still get a large bulk of their offense from their backcourt, so the Nets are going to have to shut down either Billups or Hamilton.

2nd thing is Kenyon Martin must stay out of foul trouble. The Nets can not survive if K-Mart is on the bench long periods of time in foul trouble. He is the teams' best rebounder, & low post option. The Nets need about 40 minutes from him tonight.

3rd thing Richard Jefferson must carry us imo. He is the one player the Pistons can't guard in the Half-court or the open court. In this series the only person that can stop RJ has been RJ. He shuts himself down when he settles for the jumper to much. And when he doesnt make the open shot & free throws. Rj needs to go to the basket alot tonght & get to the free throw about 8-10 times tonight. And make your free throws RJ.

All & All, I think we need to use our playoff experince that we have had over past 3 seasons together to get us over the hump of having to win on the road. And limit any big Pistons' runs. Do not give the Pistons' crowd reason to cheer any louder than they already are. And Make some jumpshots please. And hopefully the Nets can pull out what I expect to be a close game in the 4th.

 

[Rave]

Great stuff Henacy, I think the most key and important thing you've mentioned is the 3rd intangible. K-Mart and Kidd are playing well but as foreseen are not at their best or complete selves.

They'd have to rely on RJ who is healthy right now. He has the ability to lead the scoring load right now. He just has to be consistent and play easy, meaning go for his almost surefire drives and inside shots. That jumper's gonna need to be on for them to win. He has to play well without the ball a lot of the time, for they'll probably mostly be looking out for K-Mart since he's such a powerhouse.

The biggest factor again though I feel again, is that they need to get a big lead and keep it as far as possible early in the game so that it'd be hard to catch up. Who knows when the Pistons will simply kill them in little time? Good defense? They have all of that. So they need to be aware all the time and play smart, restricted, meaning strictly simple basketball, meaning always close together so passes won't be intercepted so easily, things like that, the easy fundamentals and intangibles.

 

[jbbCourtVision]

I'm picking the Pistons to take this 95-93 double overtime.

 

[Rave]

Would that score in a double OT because of defense or bad shots CV?

 

[B.e.]

Man this should be a good game,but a tough one for the Nets it will be hard for them to win this game on the road they say that like the home team almost always wins game 7's but I think the Nets can pull it off.They will have to do all the things that Henacy said they will also have to stop Rip Hamilton,he was a huge reason why the Pistons one Game 6,i think they could contain him by putting RJ on him that should limit his points.

 

[throwback]

great pts hen.

the nets need to come out hot in the first quarter like they have in games 3 and 4 at home. if we can get hot in the first and end the first Q with a 30-ish point output then our defense can really sink in.

we have to win the 5's. first 5minutes and last 5minutes of each quarter we need to control. we need to start out hot and player good all around basketball to start each Q and we need to close out each Q in the final 5min. if you can control and win the 5's then your chances of winning are extremely high.

we did win game 5 in detroit which, at that time, was a must win game so our guys know what we can get a win in detroit. the win wasn't the prettiest, but it was a good mental win. if the crowd is taken out of the game early, then its a 5v5 game, not a 5v6 game.

when jason is out, kerry/lu need to protect that ball with their life. james and hunter have shown that they like to pressure the ball when jason is on the bench. if the pressure our backcourt and create to's,then that will fuel their crowd up even more which is what we dont want.

this game could be a game where players are playing for a contract or to stay with this team. whether we win today, lose today or lose sometime down the road if we do win, there will/must be changes to our team. guys like debo/slay/brandon,even maybe collins have to show management that they still belong here and that they can help this team. we all know the debo hasn't been the 6th man of the year since he has been in jersey. he is the first guy that comes to mind when i talk about this. i still think he is gone if he plays bad or good, but he is playing for his next team to have confidence in him. guys like brandon and slay may not get playing time, but they are young guys who might be attractive to some team(s). you can really make a case for every player on our roster except kidd/rj/kmart b/c they are our big three and they have proven themselves over the yrs and this yr, they are above everyone else. so maybe with guys thinking this could be my last game in a nets uniform and want to show their next team what they can do or show rod that they are still valuable to this team that they want to stay will maybe increase their performance and help us get a W.

overall, i believe we can win tonight. we have to get a lead early and make big runs. everyone has to be mentally into the game and give it their all and we should be fine. this team has made records for this franchise and has done things that no other team has done for this franchise and i expect their list of accomplishments to continue tonight. we are a very close group and as long as we communicate on defense and execute on offense, we have a shot. we want to go into the fourth Q with a lead or being by a little where we still have a chance to win. thats all you can ask for on the road, is a chance to win in the 4th. hopefully the ref's won't decide the outcome of this game, please let the players play. if we lose, i rather lose to the pistons than the pistons and the refs. im sure pistons fans feel the same way.

like i said before, whoever advances to meet the pacers is going to have it tough because both teams are banged up and have injury problems. this series was more evenly matched than many ignorant people believed. i've enjoyed the series and hopefully we can pull a win out. if not, then i won't be upset because i know we would've lost to the pistons who are a quality team. hopefully i won't be saying that a few hours from now.

 

[InNETSweTrust]

Great points as usual Henacy. Now here are my takes on this one and some agreements with your points.

1. They have to get to work early in the game. If you can notice, the Pistons has the tendency to start slow. They need to take advantage of this.
2. WIth regards to number 1, they should maintain the tempo that they've dictated. They should run to prevent the bad boys from setting up their half court defense.
3. KMart and the big men should stay out of foul trouble. We got lucky that we won in game 5 even without our big men but that would be a different case in a game 7. We need KMart to play 40+ minutes on this one.
4. Let Kidd play his game. How? By making shots. Kidd will be making those passes, be sure to make it coz once Kidd gets some assists going on, his confidence will go up and so is his shooting.
5. Our shooters. Lu should score 10+ points off the bench and Kerry should score 15-20 points. They need to open up the space inside for KMart.
6. Get Sheed to foul trouble early. This will be KMart's job.
7. Richard Jefferson should have a great game. This game will be won by the team who's Richard played better.
8. Help out Kidd in defense. Rip is playing Miller- like. He's running all around those screens to be open from Kidd. Help defense!
9. Make Billups shoot bad shots. He's a streak bad shooter. He misses in bunches.
10. Contain Big Ben to less than 15 boards. Keep him off the offensive boards.

If the Nets play their game, they can win it. They are a KMart foul trouble, Kidd's bad game away from elimination. RJ will be big in this game believe me. The greatest keys to this game are Kidd and KMart. It will be hard and it may get ugly.

Nets win by less than 10 points.

 

[dee still ballin]

Nets know how crucial a closing game is. They have been there before and they have the experience. Nets take this one by 4

 

[Martin]

I really hope to see Nets lose,my friend has rubbed Nets success in my face for 2 years and I've had enough from it and i hope to get atleast 20 points in JBB's tournament ,Detroit by 1 (63-62)

 

[jbbCourtVision]

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting Magic Johnson:</div><div class="quote_post">Would that score in a double OT because of defense or bad shots CV?</div>
Defense leads to bad shots so I would say both. Defense moreso.

 

[throwback]

wow, its minutes before tip-off and im starting to get nervous. i think i've been phsyching myself out about good things coming to an end. ah! throw the ball up already! gl to both squads

ps: about time espn puts on a nets/pistons game. they need to stop sucking the west's ass

ps2: about time ben has his fro out!

well after 1st Q, everything..EVERYTHING went Pistons way. down by 7 seems down a lot, but if you think about how the momentum and how bad our shot selections were and rj getting 2 fouls, its not that bad. not lookin at the score you would think pistons would be up by 10-12. time to start attacking the rim

edit again. down by 12 @ half. once again everything went det's way. we are usually good at making adjustments at halftime every since frank took over for byron. just hope the inexperience of his head coaching doesnt come into play. also, rodney has to stop chucking shots up when hes close to the basket. he is playing like he is a mouse inside an elephants body.

 

[KS1]

down by 15, hell no.

 

[30 standing ver]

Wow, I didn't expect this. Detroit by 21. I predicted that Detroit would protect homecourt, but not like this. Better luck next year Nets.

 

[Erin]

What a horrible game!

 

[KS1]

What was wrong with Kidd today?

 

[Ed!]

Wow, we got rocked. I stopped watching in the 3rd. Next year guys, next year...

What a terrible shooting series for Kidd. You gotta give credit to Detroit's defense.

Wierd thing is, we had a 7 game series, and our main guys were puttin up sub-par numbers

 

[Henacy]

Well what can I say right now, I am extemely disappointed. Probably the most dissapointing loss Ive seen in my 10plus years as a Nets fan(well getting swept by the Bulls in 98 was pretty dissapointing too).Hopefully Rob Thorn & Nets ownership watched this game very closely, because this game pretty much sumed up the reason why the Nets have been a championship contender the last 3 years but never a champion.

1) We cant shoot period- When the Nets go back & look over game 6 & 7, & see how many open jumpshots they missed, how many free throws they missed. You can not go 3-16 from 3pt line in a big game its just that simple. The Nets have been living with Kerry Kittles being their only real perimeter shooter for the last 2 season after the trade of Van Horn. And that just doesnt work, Kerry Kittles is way to streaky to ever count on him in a big game. The Nets need some shooters.

2) A bunch of wasted big bodies - The Nets roster is filled with a bunch of PF(some of which try to play center) Jason Collins, Aaron Williams, Rodney Rogers are all useless against big front lines. The Nets need to find some legitmate size that can produce in the low post & on the boards. I cant completely knock Nets mangement for this they have tried to add size to the front line over the years Zo, Mutombo even Todd Macchulluh(misspelled) a few years back, but they all were injury prone. I think the Nets need to be extremely selective this off season in chosing what bigman will be on this team. The Center & back bigman spots have been the death of this team every single run toward a championship.

We have to keep this core group together & build around(RJ, Martin, & Kidd).

This lost hurts but it showed that the Nets need to make a good amount of changes inoreder to compete with these new upstart teams like the Pistons, & Pacers. And the East want be getting any easier because you are going to have to add the Heat & Bucks to teams that can compete for the title in the east. So we have to make changes now, so we can make sure we can get back our title.

Congrats Pistons fans, you just beat the beast of the East, dont fumble it away by losing in the conference finals.

The Nets Will Be Back,mark my words.

 

[B.e.]

Man what a dissapinting game I expect a lot better from the Nets I didnt think they would go out like this.I think their main problem is:their offense, if they play a good transtion defense team most of the time their whole offense is shut down.So the Nets are basicly a one dimmensional team.

 

[InNETSweTrust]

I am so disappointed right now. I don't know what to say. I'll speak my mind later on when the reality sinks in.

BTW, Allnet. I see that you're viewing this thread. Give it to me.

Congrats to the new Beast of the East. Watch your back. We'll be back next year. Hopefully Thorn will weave his magic again that enabled him to draft MJ for the Bulls and get the big three.

 

[iamme]

in all honesty, i think losing Game 6 at home was demoralizing for the Nets. you could see the fight dissappear from every player. no one stepped up to lead.

all in all, good series. i'll remember the 3OT Game 5 even though it was a loss, since i was actually at the Palace.

NJ definitely has some work to do. their weaknesses have been exposed and exploited.

 

[philsmith75]

Somebody make a shot. Please. Kidd goes 0-8? Penetrate, do something to get to the FT line. Even if you are hurt, do something to create an opportunity. Rodney Rogers going 4-13? Guy is way past being even productive, those minutes and shots should have gone to Scalabrine. The Wallaces just torched Collins and Williams.

 

[throwback]

ah, after sleeping it through, i can now post and lets be honest.

you could've seen this from the beginning. debo and luc got hurt in spring training and in game1. we lost at toranto in the first game of the reason and had a terrible start. kidd/rj/kmart all played in the summer and you could see they were a bit tired to start the season. then as the season went on everybody had an injury except rj and zoran(eventhough he was on the DL i dont think he was actually injured). we then had that horrible game at memphis which basically summarized our season. the franchise was sold, byron was fired and kidd and kmart were still injured at the end of the season.

i had the feeling that after we lost to spurs, all we needed was a player here or there to put us over the top b/c we were only 2wins away from winning a title. rod then went with a risky move and got zo. with zo's problem and mutumbo's failure as a net, we have taken steps backwards instead of foward while detroit made a step foward with sheed and pacers made a step foward with experience and a new coach.

when rod only got zo and we lost aj and had a rookie backup pg for jason, you could tell it would be a long season. eventually u knew that zo was either not going to be the miami heat zo or he would not last the whole season. zo sadly became a bust again for rod. zoran if anything hurt us this year b/c kidd had to play 40+min after 40+min and that takes a toll on anybody. next year, zoran better be able to take over for kidd b/c if he can't then something better happened because lu isnt a pg and having a 3g rotation instead of 4g rotation is big. so with only addtion of zo in the offseason, then the subtraction of zo 2wks into the season and the trade-deadling passing with rod doing nothing, i think he basically gave up on this season. im sure he was lookin at det and indy at that time and saying maybe indy will hit a wall and go on a losing streak and we will go on a winning streak. then det got sheed and rod prolly said to himself 'F Me'. im sure he was thinking that we were better than a sheed-less detroit and probably figured that it would be nets/pacers in the east and he probably thought we had a shot at winning. again if thats what he was thinking he was wrong.

ok, so basically going into this season i knew the chances of us having success was basically 33% unlike 50%+ the last few years b/c there was really no team that stood out as a better team. as the year went on, you could see we were not dominating how we were the past two years. our bench was horrible, and that is probably an understatement. at one time, we actually had a deep bench compared to other east teams, but they improved and rod decided not to upgrade.

ah, so thats the past. not a shocking loss for me because i knew we didnt have a shot against the lakers anyway. so now to the future.

hen said all the right things. i expect a total upgrade next year. the only players that are safe to me are kidd/rj/kmart(yes we will sign him to a new contract or rod needs to kill himself). if we were going to lose to det, a blowout was the best thing to happen for us because it shows rod and the org how much improvement we need. if we lost by a few points then they would look at it like we only need a player, but we need more and a blowout is going to help us for next year eventhough people right now are having a ball making fun of the nets.

~kmart needs help in the middle. twin is a nice/ok type player but he is not going to help us in the future and put us over the hump. he isn't a threat on either end of the court. i would be suprised if there was a coach who said we have to limit collins' rebounds or make sure he doesnt get layups because collins doesnt do any of that. train is nice but he isn't a true center and is better off the bench. we need a true center who can grab 10+boards on a consistant game-to-game basis and be a shot blocker and have a mean streak to get a rebound and go up and dunk it; collins doesnt give us any of that.

~backcourt improvement. aside from jason needing a solid backup, we need gunners/scorers. i love kerry as much as the next guy, but he just isn't consistant enough for us. we need a guy who can make 3's on a consistant basis. kerry is only a threat if he gets on a streak which seems to be twice a month at max. he is a good defender and can finish in the open court(pretty much any sg can). he is going to be in his 8th yr next yr so it is not like he hasn't had time to grow as a player. he has been a starter and has had plenty of opportunities to improve his shot, he hasnt and it is time for a change. i have a feeling that rod is loyal to him and that kerry will stay next yr and i hope that doesnt happen unless we cant get an upgrade.

~bench change. i expect debo to be the first one gone and a few following him. nenad is coming over next year to come off the bench and he probably won't be that much of a help his first year in the league and learning a new language and new system so you cant count on him to really help us. whatever he gives us is a bonus. we need quick/energetic players off the bench who have so sort of threat on the offensive end. we need a guy to come off the bench like a jim jackson who can come in a hit some shots or like a bobby jackson who can bring energy and change a game. we need to have big bodies to compete against the west. that is how rod needs to build this team next year. if you can compete against the west, then we will obviously be fine in the east. get big bodies and get perimeter shooters.

~halfcourt. everyone loves to bust on the nets for not being the best halfcourt team and that we cant shoot, yet we have made it to the finals two years in a row. we can shoot, just not consistantly. that needs to change. if we can get greatly improved in our halfcourt, then we will absolutly have a shot at a title and i think most people will agree. we need a guy who can catch and shoot and make. we need a 3pt threat to make an open 3pter. kerry is consisdered our 'threat' and that shows you how bad we have it. lu isnt the answer and we know zoran cant shoot. we also need a guy who can break down the defense and be a threat. a guy like AI pops to mind, im not saying get him im just saying someone like him. a guy who can break a defense down and get a layup, guy who can shoot the 3 and a guy who can make an open jumper regularly.


*sigh* i could really go on and on what we should/need to improve on. we dont need to gut the team, just add and subtract. we cant afford to have guys like slay/brandon/veal/zoran just sit on the bench, yea veal got some minutes, but that was basically one game. we can't afford to play against teams who have depth when we always have 4 guys sitting on the bench earning money the easy way. we have to have 12 guys that can play any moment of the game and contribute in a positive ways on most nights. i don't expect eveyone to be gone, just some like debo,slay,brandon and possibly kerry,veal and maybe train/collins if we get a new center. something needs to happen.

eventhough we did lose, you know we have the core and will be back next year. this wasn't a one year wonder or anything. we obviously have been the best team in the east for the past 2yrs and we won't be taking a step backwards next year unless something screwed up happens in the offseason. year wasnt a total loss, rj grew and will be an all-star next year and every gained experience for future years.

does anyone have the nets cap situation and a list of upcoming FA's and their salaries last year? if so please post b/c then we can talk who we should go after and see if it can work.

 

[InNETSweTrust]

What went wrong?

This pretty much sums up everything:

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">They say Game 7 can help define an athlete. Aaron Boone. Willis Reed. Stephane Matteau. All came up big in the deciding games, and as a result, they are part of history.

Unfortunately for the Nets, this works in reverse. The franchise had never played a Game 7 in the NBA before last night, and if this current team does not get another chance, history will not reflect positively on their performance on the biggest stage.</div>

Link

BTW throwback, go to this thread that I created to answer some of the questions you're asking:

http://www.justbball.com/forums/showthread...0074#post240074

 

[InNETSweTrust]

OT: Hey Allnet, what happened to our sig bet? I'm trying to send you a message but I can't send it to you.

 

[mike18946]

<div class="quote_poster">Quoting InNETSweTrust:</div><div class="quote_post">OT: Hey Allnet, what happened to our sig bet? I'm trying to send you a message but I can't send it to you.</div>

I'm been very sick over the past week so I havn't had time to post but It did slip my mind about the sig. I will try and get something sorted soon for you.

You send a PM? not sure why I can't get it. Unless I'm over the limit. Will have to delete some of my PM's I guess.

 

[InNETSweTrust]

Nah, I just clicked on the wrong link. I was clicking on the send email link. It's ayt I'm in no hurry. LOL. Oh and get well soon.