re: this could get ugly

["Ozersky, Joshua A" <OzerskyJA@corning.com>]

I know exactly what this feeling is, since I've been writing about it in 
my bskball.com column all year.  For me, the mail-in in Charlotte was the
worst, because that was the game that could have brought us to .500.  As
for the game last night, I guess I'm not as upset because -- and this may be
my ignorance -- I really don't think the Celtics "let" the Nets score so much.  
I mean, this is the oldest debate in basketball, but how much of good offense
is bad defense, and vice versa?  The Nets looked great!  The shot the lights out,
made crisp reversals, got great shots, and made them.  It really didn't look to me
like a lazy performance by the Celtics.  I did think they suffered from guys "trying
to do it themselves" in Tommy's words, but on D, I think they just got outplayed.
It happens.  Likewise, losses against Vancouver and Chicago strike me as the
fault of mental paralysis and fear of losing.  The Charlotte game was the killer; that
and the Knicks game right afterwards.  Well, we are finally at six under, the number
I feared for so long.  And we need to beat the Pacers to get back to five before going on 
a six game road trip.  I am hoping that last night was a wakeup call, and that we can at 
least go .500 on the trip.  (Only Portland and the Lakers are sure losses.)

At times like this I just stop watching the games, figure the Celtics for a bad team,
and unsubscribe to the group.  But we have been playing really well, and I think the
Nets just got really, really hot after losing many close games in the past few weeks.  I
mean, how many times do you expect Kenny to contain Stephon Marbury?  I don't
know if we can win tonight, but I think we have a chance to beat Utah, and if we can get it together and beat Dallas and Vancouver and Golden State, we could come home and be
back in the thick of things.  The March and April schedules are real easy if we play with
any consistency at all.  

Re Fortson:  I like the idea of getting a scorer like Nowitzski off the bench, but I would really prefer to get a dominant defensive player at any position, a real animal.  That said, I also like
the BSG's idea of Fortson and Williams for Manning and a pick.  

Mark Berry wrote:
I know Pitino has said he'll stand pat, other than Fortson, but if we lose tonight and then fare as well as I expect on the West Coast trip, I say allbets are off. If we're riding a six- or seven-game losing streak two weeksfrom now, and we haven't shown any signs of improvement, I wouldn't besurprised to see this team blown up. And despite my belief to this pointthat we should stay the course, I wouldn't be disappointed to see somedrastic changes.Last night was completely discouraging because it was one of those games youneed to win if you really want to stay in the playoff hunt and we didn'teven compete. I think the only guy on this team who really cares about theplayoffs is Pitino. The rest pay it lip service, but when they really get achance to show they mean it, they roll over.I'm tired and disgusted by all this. A 47-point first quarter by the Nets? Have the rest of you been able to shrug that off? I haven't. Feeling defeated,

Joshua Ozersky
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