TheKidHypno
Coming for that #1 spot!
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The Nets are still a half-game behind the Hawks in the race for the final playoff spot in the East. But they've won five of their last eight games and are starting to resemble the kind of team everyone thought they'd be this season, even if it may be too late.
So how over the first 3-1/2 months of the season did the Nets end up in a hole they may not be able to dig themselves out of?
As far as Richard Jefferson is concerned, the team was distracted by the situation surrounding a certain former teammate.
"I'm not going to lie," Jefferson said Thursday, "we were dead men walking with the Jason Kidd situation."
Jefferson was referring to Kidd's desire to be traded from the team, which the future Hall of Fame point guard made public in late January, the day after the Nets had lost a ninth straight game.
However, Jefferson confirmed yesterday what many had already known, that Kidd's unhappiness with the team was a not-so-well-kept secret inside the locker room. Jefferson said that made it difficult for the Nets to concentrate on priority No.1 - advancing to the playoffs for the seventh straight year.
Now the team's postseason streak is in jeopardy, as they have just 10 games left to leap over Atlanta, starting with tonight's game in Indianapolis. Considering the margin between the Nets and Hawks, that may not seem like such a tough task, but Atlanta has a more favorable schedule than the Nets, who play the Suns at home on Saturday and still have five road games left after tonight.
"Everybody knew it was time and that he needed a change and that he wanted a change," Jefferson said of Kidd, who was granted his wish when he was traded to the Mavericks on Feb. 19. "People made it seem like it was only like that when he went public. No, that situation had been going on all season, but it was behind closed doors."
The Nets have gone 8-11 since the Kidd trade, which also sent Antoine Wright and Malik Allen to New Jersey in exchange for Devin Harris, DeSagana Diop, Trenton Hassell, Maurice Ager and Keith Van Horn (who is inactive after coming out of semi-retirement to make the deal work financially). But after a six-game losing streak that threatened to sink the Nets, they've gone 5-3 to stay in the thick of the race.
With Harris playing point guard, they've scored more than 100 points six times in the last eight games - including 117 against Utah, 125 against Cleveland and 124 on Wednesday against Indiana, all home victories. Jefferson's only regret is that he, Harris and Vince Carter couldn't have been hooked up sooner so that the transition period didn't conflict so much with the final playoff push.
Jefferson explained that the early-season struggles also had to do with the fact that the Nets just weren't "clicking" like the team that had made it to a pair of NBA Finals and was consistently in contention for a division title.
"That didn't happen this year just because we didn't have that resolve," Jefferson said. "And now that we're starting to get it I just hope that we have enough time."
So how over the first 3-1/2 months of the season did the Nets end up in a hole they may not be able to dig themselves out of?
As far as Richard Jefferson is concerned, the team was distracted by the situation surrounding a certain former teammate.
"I'm not going to lie," Jefferson said Thursday, "we were dead men walking with the Jason Kidd situation."
Jefferson was referring to Kidd's desire to be traded from the team, which the future Hall of Fame point guard made public in late January, the day after the Nets had lost a ninth straight game.
However, Jefferson confirmed yesterday what many had already known, that Kidd's unhappiness with the team was a not-so-well-kept secret inside the locker room. Jefferson said that made it difficult for the Nets to concentrate on priority No.1 - advancing to the playoffs for the seventh straight year.
Now the team's postseason streak is in jeopardy, as they have just 10 games left to leap over Atlanta, starting with tonight's game in Indianapolis. Considering the margin between the Nets and Hawks, that may not seem like such a tough task, but Atlanta has a more favorable schedule than the Nets, who play the Suns at home on Saturday and still have five road games left after tonight.
"Everybody knew it was time and that he needed a change and that he wanted a change," Jefferson said of Kidd, who was granted his wish when he was traded to the Mavericks on Feb. 19. "People made it seem like it was only like that when he went public. No, that situation had been going on all season, but it was behind closed doors."
The Nets have gone 8-11 since the Kidd trade, which also sent Antoine Wright and Malik Allen to New Jersey in exchange for Devin Harris, DeSagana Diop, Trenton Hassell, Maurice Ager and Keith Van Horn (who is inactive after coming out of semi-retirement to make the deal work financially). But after a six-game losing streak that threatened to sink the Nets, they've gone 5-3 to stay in the thick of the race.
With Harris playing point guard, they've scored more than 100 points six times in the last eight games - including 117 against Utah, 125 against Cleveland and 124 on Wednesday against Indiana, all home victories. Jefferson's only regret is that he, Harris and Vince Carter couldn't have been hooked up sooner so that the transition period didn't conflict so much with the final playoff push.
Jefferson explained that the early-season struggles also had to do with the fact that the Nets just weren't "clicking" like the team that had made it to a pair of NBA Finals and was consistently in contention for a division title.
"That didn't happen this year just because we didn't have that resolve," Jefferson said. "And now that we're starting to get it I just hope that we have enough time."
