New Jersey Nets media after the game

http://www.nj.com/sports/ledger/index.ssf?/base/sports-0/1047194457290440.xml

Nets trounced by Rockets

Sunday, March 09, 2003

BY BRAD PARKS
Star-Ledger Staff

HOUSTON -- They could have just lost their fourth straight game for the first time this season, and that would have been bad enough. But, no, there had to be more.

The Nets didn't just lose last night. They lost big. They didn't just play a lousy second quarter. They played a history-making lousy second quarter.

They didn't just stink offensively. They absolutely reeked.

The Nets lost to the Rockets, 83-71 -- no, it wasn't really that close -- and the only positive thing could you could say about it was summed up by the words of franchise player Jason Kidd, who after the game said:

Nothing.

It was the first time in anyone's memory Kidd -- usually Mr. Accountable, whether in victory or loss -- had ducked out of a postgame locker room without saying a word.

"It was a bad game," said Nets coach Byron Scott, finding the words for his mum point guard. "Especially in the first half, we didn't have the energy, we didn't have the type of effort we needed. We're walking around like the season is over. I don't know what it was."

Well, here's a start: It was the first time the Nets had lost four straight games since the NBA Finals, the first time they lost their fourth straight in the regular season since last March 9. It was the Nets' seventh loss in eight games. It makes their record 4-10 since the All-Star break, 12-16 since Jan. 9, and 0-and-everything when it comes to finding answers.

"I don't have an answer. I wish I did," guard Kerry Kittles said. "Everyone is searching, trying to figure out what is going on. It's frustrating. It's frustrating for everyone."

Because just when you think the Nets can't play any worse, they surprise you with a game like this. Don't be fooled by all the hype about Yao Ming: The Rockets are not a great team. They're a fine team, but they're not Dallas or San Antonio, the two powerhouses the Nets lost to on the first two legs of this Texas Triangle.

Houston (32-30) is a team struggling to stay above .500, a team desperately trying to climb into the Western Conference playoffs, a team that should have given the Nets an opportunity to get well.

Instead, the Nets (38-25) are officially the sick man of the Eastern Conference.

"I recognize them, but it's not the same guys I saw a couple months ago," Scott said. "We're not playing with that passion or with that energy. We don't have that same fire right now for whatever reason. We've got to play harder. We've got to play smarter. There's got to be a sense of urgency. I thought in the first half that's what I was going to see and I didn't see it."

What he saw, instead, was a team that can't shoot. And if you can't shoot you can't score. And if you can't score you can't win. It's really that simple.

Last night the Nets made franchise history with their lowest-scoring second quarter ever (eight points total), which set the tone for their lowest-scoring first half ever (24 points). They trailed 44-24 at halftime, 62-44 by the end of the third.

Through the first three quarters the Nets were shooting 28.6 percent. They were led in shooting futility by Jason Kidd (3-of-12 one game after he was 4-of-19) and Rodney Rogers (1-of-8). They had gotten exactly four points from the bench -- two each from Lucious Harris and Rodney Rogers.

A hot-shooting fourth quarter brought the Nets' shooting for the game up to 36.0 percent and also spared them the embarrassment of challenging the all-time single-game franchise scoring low (62 points) and a host of other ignominious records. Instead, they matched the seventh-lowest point total in team history.

But basically, a gruesome first half was followed by a grisly second half, and it added up to a game that could was Carnival-Freak-Show ugly for the Nets.

Even Yao -- who had never seen the Nets in person but didn't let that stop him from scoring 12 points, grabbing 10 rebounds and blocking four shots -- knew all was not right with the Nets.

"The Nets weren't themselves," Yao said through his translator. "Their shooting percentage was a lot lower than normal and we played very well, so this created a big difference in the score."

Copyright 2003 The Star-Ledger. Used by NJ.com with permission.

 

http://www.nypost.com/sports/nets/55652.htm

GROAN-STAR STATE

By FRED KERBER

March 9, 2003 -- HOUSTON - Look at the positive. The Nets made history last night. Because if you look at their disgraceful 83-71 loss to the Rockets any other way - like in the gaze of reality - you come to a rather negative conclusion.

They stink.

And they could be in serious trouble.

The stink part may have been the conclusion reached by Jason Kidd, who on a night where several landmarks - such as the lowest-scoring half in Net team history - were achieved, left quickly. And silently. That by far was the most disturbing development. Kidd bolting the locker room without speaking to the media was a first for him as a Net.

"Everybody's frustrated - I know he's frustrated. Jason has a sense of when to speak," said Net coach Byron Scott, who saw a team walking around "like the season is over.

New Jersey fell to 38-25, and 4-10 since the All-Star break, with its fourth straight loss (three of them in Texas). It also was the first time the Nets have dropped four in a row since March last season.

Kidd didn't played the fourth quarter, which the Nets entered trailing by 18. The sense was that he spoke volumes by his Mr. Mum routine.

Usually among the last players to leave the locker on a nightly basis, Kidd (3-of-12, 6 points, 4 assists) was first out this time after the Nets shot a wretched .360. That included .268 in the first half, including a silly .158 (3-of-19) in the second quarter, when Houston for all intents put it away and left Net President Rod Thorn fuming outside the locker room at the half.

"We came out flat," said an admittedly "frustrated" Kenyon Martin (16 points). "They came out and jumped on us like they're supposed to do when you come out flat. We're not getting stops and that compounds it."

Let's see, no offense. Shaky defense. A frustrated, maybe ticked-off, superstar. That's trouble.

Forget all the talk of being the best in the East. Right now, the Nets are probably not the best team in East Rutherford.

They entered worried about Yao Ming (12 points, 10 rebounds, one of the remarkable variety when he palmed the rebound of a Kidd missed three). A flu-plagued Jason Collins (10 points) did a respectable job against the 7-foot-6 Yao, but the Chinese giant was the least of the worries for the Nets, who now are even with Philly in the loss column and just one game up in the Atlantic. A crisis?

"Call it what you want. I'm tired of losing," said Lucious Harris. "We're coming out and we don't have any fire. We're just going through the motions. It's hard to come off the bench and pick everything up. We're all frustrated, from the starters down to the bench, all 12, all coaches."

The Rockets (32-30), getting 18 points from Cuttino Mobley and 17 from Steve Francis, led 23-16 after the first quarter and then giggled at the ineptitude of the Nets in quarter two. At halftime, it was 44-24, after the Nets scored eight measly points in the second quarter. That was their lowest second quarter ever.

Before the game, the Nets had used words such as "urgent" and "desperate" to describe themselves and their situation. Observers quickly changed those terms to "lousy" and "putrid."

"The first half we didn't have the energy, we didn't have the type of effort we needed. We walked around like the season is over almost," said Scott.

How - or if - the Nets get out of this after going 0-of-3 in their "Texas Triangle" trip is guesswork. They play in New Orleans against the surging Hornets tonight.

"At some point effort is not enough," said Richard Jefferson. "We're definitely playing different. I've just never seen it as a whole, guys missing shots and not doing what they need to do. It's nobody's fault but ours."

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/03/09/s...00&en=3c3a073fe7c2b93c&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE

March 9, 2003
Nets Scrape Bottom With Record-Low Half
By LIZ ROBBINS

HOUSTON, March 8 — The Nets hit the nadir in Jason Kidd's two seasons with the team tonight.

It was obvious not only because of the franchise-low 24 points they scored in the first half, or their 3-of-19 shooting in the second quarter while scoring a franchise-low 8 points, nor the 36 percent they shot for the second straight game.

It was recognizable not only from the subtle signs: how Kidd sat far down on the bench for the entire fourth quarter wearing a look of faint disgust, how Coach Byron Scott stood on the sideline, his arms crossed, staring into the distance.

What was most telling followed the Houston Rockets' 83-71 victory in the Compaq Center. For the first time since he arrived in New Jersey in July 2001, Kidd did not talk after a game, the silence indicating his frustration with how the Nets are losing.

One day after Scott had the Nets play shooting games in practice, his team was trounced by the Rockets in the first half, falling behind by 20 points, missing shots and playing carelessly.

The defeat never seemed in doubt, but the Nets' season is.

"In the beginning of the game, in the first half, we were walking around like the season is over, almost," Scott said. "I don't know what it was."

With 19 games remaining in a regular season that is slipping away daily, the Nets have lost four straight games for the first time this season. They have lost seven of their last eight.

Kidd, their star who will be a free agent after the season, is so frustrated that he could not find anything positive to say. Scott, when asked later if he thought it was strange that Kidd did not speak to reporters and if he said anything to him, said, "I don't know; you'd have to ask him."

Kidd's teammates were left to make sense of the disaster. Lucious Harris said he could sense that the team had bottomed out. "Yeah, it's close, as close as we can get," he said. "It's been a terrible month."

Over the last two weeks, especially, the players have been so concerned about the direction of the team that some players have had discussions with Rod Thorn, the team president, according to several people within the team. The Nets have also had full team meetings, and they have had talks among themselves.

"We've had meetings; obviously they're not working," Harris said. "We got to stop it somewhere down the line. Hopefully we'll still be in some type of shape after we stop it."

The players admitted that they needed to make shots before they do anything else; they are shooting 39.2 percent in the last seven losses.

Richard Jefferson, who shot 3 for 11, said: "We couldn't hit shots. It was nobody else's fault but ours."

Kerry Kittles just shook his head. "Everyone is searching, trying to figure out what's going on, how they can turn it around and put it together," he said. "We're going to hang in there."

This used to be a team with swaggering confidence. Now the Nets' lead in the Atlantic Division is one game over the Philadelphia 76ers, winners of 10 of their last 11 games. The Nets (38-25) cannot grasp such success. In their 14 games since the break for the All-Star Game, the Nets have lost 10 times.

Asked if he had any answers, Scott said: "The same answer as always. You got to just keep working yourself out of it. But you got to play harder, got to play smarter, and you have to play with a sense of urgency, it has to matter."

This one was decided by the end of the first quarter, when the Nets allowed Eddie Griffin to sink a 3-pointer at the buzzer to extend a 20-16 lead to 7 points.

The Nets never got closer than 5 points in the second quarter. Kidd, trying to make shots his teammates could not, hit only 3 of 12 through three quarters, scoring 6 points. With the Nets trailing by 62-44 entering the final quarter, they sent up the white flag. There was no reason for Kidd to play anymore.

Never mind that 7-foot-6 Yao Ming scored 12 points and drew the Nets' defense off all night. Never mind that Cuttino Mobley led the Rockets with 18 points. The Nets far bigger problems.

Scott rationalized his short practice Friday as a way of saving energy, especially since some players are nursing injuries. But the Nets not only lacked energy, they also lacked focus from the start, breaking down in key moments.

The Nets unraveled in the second quarter. Trailing by 25-18, the Nets missed five shots and turned the ball over twice. When Rodney Rogers — who shot 1 for 8 — grabbed a Houston turnover, he promptly turned it over when he telegraphed a fast-break pass. In the resulting scuffle for the loose ball, Jefferson committed an unnecessary foul.

The Nets were trailing, 27-18, when the Rockets felled them with a stunning possession. Houston got four offensive rebounds until Mobley converted a layup off the fifth shot and induced the Nets to foul. He made the shot for a 12-point lead.

After Kenyon Martin's jumper cut the deficit to 10, Scott called a timeout. After the timeout, Kidd was conversing with the assistant Lawrence Frank while Scott was eight feet away on the sideline.

Immediately out of the timeout, the Nets allowed Glen Rice to hit a 3-pointer. When the Rockets increased their lead to 15 points, Scott again called timeout. Kidd shot an air ball and Martin was called for an offensive foul.

The Nets finished the first half shooting 26.8 percent. They started the third quarter on a 6-0 run but never got any closer than 14 points. Mobley hit a 3-pointer and Yao hit a turnaround jumper, bringing the lead to 17 points.

"We don't have any fire, we're just going through the motions," Harris said. "We're all frustrated, from the starters down to the bench, all coaches, too."

The Nets' first goal of winning the Atlantic Division is fading. "Right now, step one is in jeopardy," Scott said.