Joe and the Nets kept their cool, while Jerry Stackhouse lost his
Nets 103, Wiz 99 OT
Game 74
File
Jerry Stackhouse is ejected with 3:16
left in the first quarter after two technicals for complaining about a
call. The Nets, minus Jason Kidd for a 7th game, turn the ball over and
go down by as much as 13 points. They climb back to tie the game with
a Kerry Kittles 3-pointer at the end of regulation, then outscore the
Wiz 10 - 6 in OT. Richard Jefferson was huge again, scoring 28 points
and grabbing 14 rebounds, and Lucious Harris scored his season-high, with
24.
• Box
Score
Nets Record: 43
- 31
Home Record: 24
- 12
Away Record: 19
- 19
Division Record: 15
- 6
Conf. Record: 30
- 16
Other
Game Reviews
Nets High Men:
• Points: Richard
Jefferson, 28.
• Assists: Lucious
Harris, 7.
• Rebounds: Richard
Jefferson, 14.
• Steals: Rodney
Rogers and Jason Collins each had
3.
• Turnovers: Richard
Jefferson, 7.
• Blocks: Rodney
Rogers and Aaron Williams each had
2.
• FG Percentage: Richard
Jefferson 55.6% (10 - 18).
Nets Team Stats:
• FG Percentage:
46.3%
• FT Percentage: 80%
• Rebounds: 52
• Rebound Differential: +4
• Turnovers: 24
• Opposing Team's Turnovers: 22
• Bench points:
17
•
Bench points Differential: -9
• Steals:
16
• Blocks:
6
•
Points in the Paint: 44
• Double-Doubles:
2 (Richard Jefferson: 28 points, 14 rebounds. Rodney Rogers: 13 points,
10 rebounds)
• Triple-Doubles:
0
Point Guard Power:
• Nets Players in Double Digit Scoring:
4
• Nets Fast Break Points: 20
• PG Scoring Differential Lucious Harris
at PG: +12
Anthony Goldwire at PG: -8
Zoran Planinic at PG: even
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Blowin' Their Stack
What the heck was Jerry Stackhouse thinking? In the 1st quarter, when the Wizards had already shot 11 free throws (and made them all) to the Nets' zero, Stack picked up his 3rd personal foul and proceeded to get bitchy. He slammed the ball down, and was whistled for a tech. A few minutes later, Stackhouse still hadn't cooled off. He was tagged with his second technical and automatically ejected for foul comments directed ref-ward from the Wiz bench. There was still 3:16 left in the quarter.
While the Nets were without Jason Kidd for the 7th game in a row, and could only get limited playing time from Kenyon Martin (12 minutes, all in the first half), the Wiz were missing Kwame Brown, Juan Dixon, Christian Laettner, and Chris Whitney – this is not a deep team, and it needed all the scoring options it could have mustered. Gilbert Arenas (29 points) and Larry Hughes (22 buckets, 12 rebounds) did their best, and Washington would have easily beat NJ had Stackhouse managed to stick around and contribute even 1 more basket. Washington led this game from a few minutes into the 1st, all the way until the last 40 seconds of regulation, when Kerry Kittles hit a three-pointer to tie. The Nets kept their cool and persisted throughout a miserable performance that had them coughing the ball up 16 times to the Wizards 8 in the first half, and that had them down by as many as 13 points. There was a remarkable 4th quarter push in which the Nets hit every free throw they attempted (10), and in which Lucious Harris, playing point, helped whittle down the Wizards' 8 point middle-of-the-quarter stack. And Kittles didn't just nail a three-pointer to tie this game with 38.9 seconds left, he rushed to the wing to block a subsequent 3-ball attempt by Mitchell Butler, taking this game to OT.
In OT is where Jason Collins (who had foul troubles) scored his first points of the game, all free-throws. In OT is where Richard Jefferson's great game hit a minor speed-bump – a blown reverse jam that would have given the Nets a 4-point lead. Jefferson recovered to hit a jumper, then made a drive and a short jump hook to put NJ up by 4 with 26.2 remaining. Mitchell Butler countered with a 3-pointer, and the Wiz send Kittles to the line. When Kerry missed his second free-throw, the ball got tapped out and was recovered by Lucious Harris. Harris, who scored a season-high 24, iced this contest with 2 foul-shot makes, and the Nets swept the season series against Eddie Jordan's Wiz 4 - 0.
Kiddless Comebackers
Out on a Goldwire - Very thin, the Nets are, at the point guard position. Without Kidd for the 7th game, the Nets still managed to dish it as a team, out-assisting Washington 27 to 12. Lucious Harris started at PG (obviously not his natural position) and had his best game of the season. Lucious shot 8 - 15 from the field, 9 for 9 from the line, scored a season-high 24 points, made a game-high 7 assists, and grabbed 6 rebounds. Anthony Goldwire, the Nets' 10-day contract PG, was pretty bad in the 9 first half minutes he got: shot 0 - 3 and the Nets went down by 8 points under his guidance (he didn't make an assist). Lawrence Frank went with Zoran Planinic in the second quarter to spell Loosh, and he did better, managing to score 3 points and make 2 assists in his 11 minutes. But it was all up to Harris tonight, and he delivered.
Kenyon Kreeps In - Martin was suited up, but did not start tonight. He was slipped in at the end of the 1st quarter and played most of the 2nd, and clearly needed to shake off a lot of rust. He committed offensive fouls, traveled, etc., but still managed to pull down 5 rebounds. Martin's shot was still there: he went 2 - 2 and scored 4 points.
Oop of the Evening - Filling in for Martin, Rodney Rogers did pretty well, double-doubling with 13 points and 10 rebounds. He hooked up Richard Jefferson with the alley-OOP toss of the night in the first quarter, which RJ converted one-handed.
Poker Face - Richard Jefferson was strong, steady, and aggressive again tonight, scoring 28 points and grabbing 14 rebounds, and shooting 10 - 18 from the field. Popping from the wing, or driving through double defenders, Jefferson has been the man when the Nets desperately needed a bucket. Was icy from the line tonight as well, going 8 for 9.
Kerry Kontrol - While Richard Jefferson has been strong throughout these games without Kidd and Kenyon, and was powerful again tonight, Kerry Kittles made his biggest contribution in the 4th quarter, where he scored 9 of his 18 points, including the tying 3-pointer. And that block on Mitchell Butler was phenomenal as well, a real game-saver. Kerry's touch even extended to his errors: somehow his missed OT free-throw got tapped into Nets hands (Lucious'), essentially securing this win. When the chips were down, Kittles was there with a huge play.
Shoot to Thrill - The Wiz got 11 more free-throws than the Nets, and it was looking like they were going to win by that disparity. The Wiz didn't miss a free throw until the second quarter, and from there on their foul shooting declined. Throughout this game, the Nets were shooting extremely well from the field, by as much as 70% in the 1st quarter, and then when it mattered most, they knocked down their foul shots. The Nets as a team hit 15 of their free-throws in a row, including all of their 4th quarter try, when their margin of error was zilch – by the end of the game they'd shoot 80% from the line to the Wiz' 78%, and Washington only managed to shoot 34.1% from the field.
Raking in a Win
Wins have been hard to come by in March, with the absence of Jason Kidd and Kenyon Martin for nearly half of NJ's games. Tonight Richard Jefferson's stellar performance paid off with an OT win, thanks to excellent guard work from Lucious Harris, clutch plays by Kerry Kittles, and hard work by Rodney Rogers. Let's hope the Nets can now put this dismal March behind them and make a big push through April – with a healthy Kidd and Martin – into the start of the playoffs on a winning high.
- Champagne
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