Nets 82
Pacers 75
INDIANAPOLIS – The Nets are winning dirty.
No, not Bill Laimbeer or pro wrestling dirty. But get down and sweat and defend to the death dirty.
“Down in the trenches dirty,” Byron Scott says. And against the Pacers, who became the latest victims last night, the Nets did a lot of defending and sweating.
A seemingly safe 16-point lead midway through the fourth quarter became an inexplicably tight two-point affair in the final minute. But the Nets made all the necessary plays in the endgame – including huge baskets by Kenyon Martin and Richard Jefferson, an equally big steal from Jason Kidd and a comparably dumb technical foul by Indiana’s Reggie Miller – to complete impressive back-to-back wins with a 82-75 victory over the Pacers for their ninth triumph in 11 games.
“It might not be pretty, we might not score over 100 points, but the bottom line is winning and we did that again tonight,” said Kidd (16 points, 14 assists, 10 rebounds) who claimed his second triple double in as many nights (which he last did Jan 31-Feb. 2, 2002), his sixth of the season and the 56th of his career. He became the first player to do it on back to back nights since he did it Dec. 17-18, 1999.
So by outlasting the Pacers (21-10) who are tied with the Spurs for the NBA high in wins, the Nets (16-13) ended in winning fashion what Scott called the “two toughest tests we’ll have for awhile,” road games at Detroit and Indy. And the two victories reaffirmed to the Nets something they all believe to a man.
“Until somebody can prove me wrong, we’re still the best team in the East,” said Scott, whose two-time defending Eastern champs claimed a 1½ game lead in the Atlantic. “These two games proved we’re not going away.”
But this almost proved the Nets can blow big leads with alarmingly quickness.
The sellout crowd sat in silence as the Nets seemingly salted this one away midway through the fourth quarter. When Kidd backed in and nailed a turnaround jumper, the Nets were cruising, 75-59. With the way they were defending and working for good shots, no way this wouldn’t stand up, huh?
But led by Al Harrington (22 points), the Pacers – who lost back-to-back games for the first time this season and also lost coach Rick Carlisle to technicals in the third quarter – stormed back with 13 straight points as the Nets bricked six shots in a row. A Harrington fastbreak made it 75-72. The Nets were reeling until Martin (23 points, 13 rebounds for his 13th double-double and fifth in six games) restored order with a big jump hook.
“We had missed six straight jumpers so they called a play for me in the post,” said Martin who teamed with Jason Collins to keep All-Star Jermaine O’Neal (13 points, 11 rebounds) relatively under control.
Miller answered with a 3-pointer to make it 77-75 and then Jefferson (20 points) took a Kidd feed for an 18-footer at :40.0.
On the Pacers’ ensuing possession, Kidd stripped Miller who then fouled and then was called for a technical at :31.7. Kidd made 2-of-3. and that wasn’t the only steaming the Pacers did.
Carlisle, who benched Ron Artest at halftime and then was restrained from going after ref Scott Wall, afterwards said the Pacers are “young and immature as hell” and explained he sat Artest “for conduct that was detrimental to winning.”
See? Controversy hits other teams. The Nets feel they’re beyond that. They’re into winning. And winning dirty.