NETS at BLAZERS Tonight 10:00 – YES; WFAN (660)
PORTLAND – In each of the Nets’ past two games, they failed to score 80 points, failed to shoot as rotten as 40 percent.
In each of the Nets’ past two games, Vince Carter was hobbled by lower-back pain. Suffice to say there is a connection, although the Nets have done little to compensate.
“It doesn’t help that Vince isn’t healthy, but I don’t think we’re doing what we were doing before to make us successful,” said guard Jacque Vaughn, stressing that the Nets have stopped running, loosened up defensively, and gone comatose rebounding. “And when teams get a chance to load up on us [in the half-court] it makes it difficult. If we don’t make the right plays, our offense looks bad.”
Carter underwent an MRI exam yesterday, and the Nets were relieved that results were negative. He is listed as day-to-day with a lower-back contusion, and a determination will be made prior to game time for tonight’s meeting against the Blazers here.
He hurt his back Monday taking a charge in Utah, later aggravating it in the same game (the ailment was unrelated to a back injury sustained in November). Rest and treatment brought some fool’s-gold relief and he thought he could go Wednesday in L.A. against the Clippers. Twenty-seven game minutes later, Carter was in the locker room stiff and tight.
Came back too soon?
“It’s not that. You never know until you try,” Carter said. “I could sit here and play the guessing game of, could I have played or not? I thought I’d give it a shot and see how it felt and if I could play, I’d play, and if not it would be best for me to sit down rather than go out there and hurt myself or hurt the team.”
Carter, after scoring his Nets’ low of points in Utah (five), managed three while in pain in L.A. He called it a night after 1-of-9 shooting, making him 3-of-23 in his past two games. And you wonder why the Nets lost both?
“They have the best 1-2-3 combo in the league,” Boston coach Doc Rivers said of the Nets’ Carter-Jason Kidd-Richard Jefferson trio. “But if one of them misses a game, it really upsets who they are.”
Yup, the Nets have been upset. Just like they were upset when Jefferson injured his back on the previous extended road trip. Jefferson missed three games; the Nets lost them all. But there is caution being exercised, and the Nets, like they did with Jefferson, won’t rush Carter.
“Just get healthy,” Jefferson said in advice to Carter. “It’s tough. I got hurt, we had a tough stretch of road games. He gets hurt, we have another tough stretch of road games. You would like to see what you are capable of doing with this team healthy.
“When I hurt my back, I wouldn’t have been able to do half the stuff he was doing,” Jefferson said. “I know he couldn’t hit some shots and stuff, and his back was stiff and tight, but I wasn’t able to move. I had trouble walking a couple of times.”
As Carter suffered, so suffered the Nets. In the 89-78 defeat to Utah and the 90-77 loss to the Clippers, the Nets averaged 77.5 points, shooting .358 (54-of-151). When Jefferson was out, they averaged 79.0 points, shot .406 (91-of-224), and went 0-3 against the Spurs, Grizzlies and Mavericks.
“We’ll take it day-by-day and go from there,” Carter said. “[Trainer Tim Walsh] said it’s going to be all right; it’s just with lower-back problems you gotta be patient.”