Game not sore subject to the Nets

["Stephen Beauregard" <sb@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Game not sore subject to the Nets


By Elliott Denman, Globe Correspondent, 5/9/2003

AST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Bring up the subject of their May 25, 2002,
FleetCenter disaster and the New Jersey Nets hardly wince.



Ask for details of the stunning 94-90 loss and the evaporation of a 26-point
lead -- a shocker of a setback that put the Celtics up, 2-1, in their
best-of-seven Eastern Conference finals -- and the Nets talk freely.

''That was like a freak thing,'' Richard Jefferson said yesterday. ''It was
one in a million chances for something like that to happen. There was a reason
that was the biggest lead anybody [a playoff team] ever lost.

''You keep flirting with fire, you're going to get burned, and that's what
happened. And sometimes there's nothing you can do about it. Now, we know that
it was a great learning experience.''

Fifty weeks have passed. The Nets have beaten the Celtics in eight of the last
nine meetings. And the Celtics' road -- this time in the Eastern Conference
semifinals -- seems all uphill as the series returns to the FleetCenter
tonight and Monday night.

A minisequel seemed to be in the script Wednesday night. The Celtics had run
off the first 14 points of the fourth quarter. They'd restored suspense to a
game that once seemed headed for a blowout.

But the Nets refused to fold. May 25, 2002? Ancient history.

They did not panic. They stuck to business. They restored order, calmly scored
14 of the next 21 points, kept the Continental Airlines Arena faithful from
nibbling their fingernails to the nub, and went on to a 104-95 triumph that
sent them off to Boston with a 2-0 series lead and the sense they have the
maturity to handle any kind of emergency.

''You know what, to be honest with you, I really didn't feel low after that
game [last year],'' said Nets coach Byron Scott. ''Sure, I was disappointed
that we let the game get away. In the locker room after, I can remember, all
our guys' heads were just down. But it wasn't that big a deal. I reminded them
that they just had to put a better [final] 12 minutes together. We'd played
well to a point, then we just stopped playing.

''Sure, we were upset with ourselves, because that was our game, and we just
blew it and we knew it. And we came back the next day with an unbelievable
effort.''

Sure enough, the Nets took the next three from Boston en route to the NBA
Finals.

As his players' stature grows, Scott's stature as a coach grows, too. He seems
to press all the right buttons and none of them is called ''panic.''

Better balance and defensive determination are the Nets' other major
advantages.

While Paul Pierce clearly commands the Celtics' offensive spotlight, the Nets
seem to have a roster full of contributors. All five starters scored in double
figures Wednesday night and top reserves Aaron Williams, Lucious Harris,
ex-Celtic Rodney Rogers, and Anthony Johnson provided solid minutes.

Even Kenyon Martin -- the most volatile Net -- is playing it cool.

''Right now, I'm just trying to tone it all down, as much as possible,
anyway,'' he said.

Martin has kept Antoine Walker in check and become a force of his own. He
knows the hostility potential of FleetCenter fans but says he's going to shut
it all out.

''Of course, I hear it,'' he said. ''If it's funny I'll listen to it and maybe
I'll laugh or do whatever. But if it's derogatory, I don't pay any attention
to it.

''The best way to deal with that stuff, really, is when you're playing well
and you're winning.''

Thanks,

Steve
sb@maine.rr.com

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