Another big win for the Nets tonight....
As we all know tonight was the 2nd game of the huge home & home series against a New Jersey opponent for the 8th seed in the playoffs, the Pacers. The Nets took the first game on Sunday, 94-85 brhind 30 point effort from Vince Carter. But inorder for it to truely be a successful push toward a playoff spot the Nets needed to win both games. Early it look like the Pacers, even without Jermaine Oneal were looking to deny the Nets of such success, behind the strong 1st half play of Miller, Jones & Jackson the Pacers took an 8point lead in to halftime. But in the 2nd half the Nets supporting cast step up to supply Vince with some help. New Jersey was able to get strong minutes from Travis Best off the bench along with Cliff Robinson. But the most impressive of the supporting cast had to be the play of Nenad Krstic, who displayed some pretty good post moves against Dale Davis a guy who has lasted a decade plus in this league simply off his ablity to defend the post. But Krstic made some nice moves against him.
One move that stands out is a move Krstic made in the 2nd half, where Dale Davis tried to use the veteran move off backing away from the offensive player, when the offensive player looks for body contact on his spin move. A defensive tacket that Rick Mahorn use to do alot call "pulling the cheer" out on inexpereince post players. If you have followed the Nets closely this year, you will have noticed that defenders often catch Krstic with this move. And Nenad often travels or gets called with the charge. But tonight he was able to keep his body control. And didnt let tacket throw his game off, he still made his drop step moves. And looked good offensive, just another step in the growth of Nenad.
Other then that nice win for the Nets, big win off course. Vince had what is begging to seem like a normal 30+ point effort, including a couple of nice back to the basket moves against Fred Jones in the forth quarter when the Nets went on a 15-3 run to overcome the Pacers lead. And stetch a lead of there own out to 7pts.
New Jersey has some pretty solid test against decent Western Conference teams in the next two. While the Grizzlies arent a Western elite they have played excellent ball under Mike fratello. And now have Pau Gosal back so the Nets frontline will have to put in work for them to be successful. Also coming up on the schedule is the Timberwolves, who are the Western Conference version of Jersey sitting on the playoff door step, loooking to fight their way into an invite. So Jersey has got to find away to set it up even another notch. At worst 1-1 is where they need to be in these next 2.
