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Blazers @ Nets: Monday, January 14th By Matt McQueeny, NJNets.com Portland Blazes into IZOD Center Monday Night The Nets were back out on the practice court today in anticipation of their match up with the young and red-hot Portland Trail Blazers on Monday night at IZOD Center. On Friday night, New Jersey lost at home to the league-best Boston Celtics 86-77 in a game where they stuck strong for three quarters of the game – even leading by five going into the fourth - and then just ran out of steam. Going into the game, the Nets had won eight of 10 and while they were obviously disappointed by the results against the Celtics, they have been on an uptick of good play. “We look at this way,” said Nets Head Coach Lawrence Frank. “We’re going into game 37. We’re better than we were after Game 20. We’re better than we were after game 30. But we still have a long ways to go. To me it’s all about the process and how we’re playing. We’re playing better basketball, but we understand there’s a long way to go. There are 82 games. Every team is a little bit different in terms of how they’re built and how they function and I think for us we’re looking steadily to get better throughout the season. The key is to never get content. You always have to compete and be driven to do better. “We’re playing better than we did 10 games ago,” said Richard Jefferson. “We’re playing better and it’s gotten better every 10 games or so. Now, do we feel like we’re one of the top teams? That would be sad if you’re a .500 team and you’re one of the top teams. Over the last 10, 12 games we’re playing more consistently. I look at our big win being in Orlando. We’ve lost to Detroit at home, lost to Boston at home, and had a disappointing loss to Charlotte. So, there’s still a lot of room for improvement.” Jefferson believes the Nets are building confidence – which is leading to better play - because they are finding this groups’ formula for winning. “Every year it seems like we have four or five new guys that we’re trying to integrate and it seems like we get off to a slow start because you’re trying to add different guys and trying to figure out what system works…Very rarely do you have a situation like Boston where you just throw everybody together and it works extremely well. That’s kind of similar to my rookie year where everyone was just thrown together and all of a sudden it meshed. With us here, every year it seems like it takes us 20 games to figure out how we’re going to play the team, the rotation, and that’s why we struggle early." While New Jersey’s next opponent, the Blazers, have not had the dominance right out of the gates as the Celtics have, Portland (22-14) has been just as good lately, winning 17 of their last 19 games after beginning the season 5-12. They are the youngest team in the league and have not even had the luxury of employing this year’s number 1 draft pick, in Greg Oden, who is out all season recovering from Knee Microfracture surgery. Seemingly everyone on the team is contributing and they are led by a bona fide superstar in second-year player and last season’s rookie of the year, Brandon Roy (18.7 points, 5.7 assists, and 4.6 rebounds per game). “Portland to me is built along the lines of how Chicago was built,” said Frank. “They built it through the draft. They’ve gotten lottery picks. They have high-character guys. Because they play in the Northwest maybe they don’t have the recognition out East. Anyone who’s watched them play the last month and a half should know they’ve won 17 of their last 18. Brandon Roy is a star. (Lamarcus) Aldridge is a budding star. Steve Blake is shooting the heck out of it; Martell Webster, who was a lottery pick, is shooting the heck out of it. They have the leading three-point shooter in James Jones. They have a lot of good parts. They’re playing very well. The mold of the organization – I look at them, I look at how Chicago was built, very similar.” The Blazers lost a Sunday matinee in double-overtime yesterday 116-109. The Nets beat the Blazers when the teams met in Portland on November 21st, 106-101. In that game, Vince Carter returned from his early season ankle sprain and New Jersey ended a six-game losing streak. Kidd notched his 90th career-triple double and secured the win down the stretch, highlighted by a “fake timeout play” which resulted in a three-point play, breaking a tie at 101, and a key offensive rebound with under 10 seconds to go and the Nets holding a three-point lead. |
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