By FRED KERBER
Jason Kidd red-eyed it back from San Fran Bay Area and arrived early today after tending to family matters. Was told to get some sleep at the hotel while team did shootaround for Heat.
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Bostjan Nachbar still is bothered by his sore ankle. Officially a game-time decision, Nachbar sounded doubtful in the A.M.
“It feels a little bit better every day but it’s not going back as fast as I was hoping for,” Nachbar said. “It’s taking a little more time than we first thought so it’s still kind of a day-to-day thing. I have to go through at least a shootaround and a practice without pain before I can get ready for a game…It’s like a 50-50 chance I’ll be playing tonight.”
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Be honest – and forget his numbers. Can you remember any starter being removed from the first five with less fanfare or fuss than Jason Collins? Before he sat on the bench for all of Tuesday’s loss to the Kings, Collins’ last Did Not Play, Coach’s Decision, came Dec. 7 – 2001, his rookie season. Since then, the only games he missed were through injury.
Collins accepted his fate and said simply he learned from a former teammate, Aaron Williams, who saw a lengthy streak (189 games, according to old Nets’ playoff guiders but it seemed longer) broken on Nov. 28, 2002 at the L.A. Clippers. Williams afterwards said only he would have liked to keep his streak intact but offered no muss, no fuss.
“I learned a lot from Aaron Williams, who was in a similar type situation where he didn’t play when he had a big long streak going,” Collins said. “And then he didn’t play, I think it was against the Clippers. Train didn’t say a word about it. He just went out there (next time). All of us have to stay ready for when our number is called. You just go out there and handle it like a professional.”
Figure Collins gets time against Shaq tonight. Coach Lawrence Frank insisted Collins being stapled to bench had more to do with Sean Williams playing well against Kings.
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Daily Vince update: ankle is fine, he’s playing.
“He just tweaked it. Not major. He’s going to play,” said Frank.
From Carter: “Just stiffness, soreness here and there, nothing to complain about.”
But he noted it does affect his lift “at times, some games are a little harder than others some times. It’s not an excuse. I’ve just got to find a way, but I’ll live.”
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Frank announced yesterday he would stay with his same lineup, starting Josh Boone and Sean Williams who combined outweigh Shaq by 150 pounds.
“Regardless of who we put in there, Shaq is a dominant player. Obviously, he’s going to be a huge problem. You just try to make it as tough as possible on him,” Frank said. “Early in the game, if they have 10 possessions, the first eight are going to him. Then it becomes a Wade pick and roll game. Miami, I mean we’re both in similar situations in that both of us are better than our records yet both of us for different reasons haven’t played as well as we think we can.”
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Richard Jefferson on Sean Williams: “He can not only block a shot, but he can run the floor…We haven’t seen that in three or four seasons.”
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It was suggested to Frank that his team lacks an identity (other than now being viewed as a patsy):
“Nah, I think the bottom line is we have stretches in the game where we play well and stretches where we play poorly. We’re a very, very inconsistent team. And there are many different reasons for it – lapses in execution and concentration, lapses in intensity. (We must) just hone in and dig in a little deeper. The only thing you can do is fight. The other alternative doesn’t work. The fortunate thing is we’ve been through this drill before.”
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Kidd’s first two points tonight will give him 14,000 for his career. His first 1,002 points tonight will give him 15,000.
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Are you a moron? If so, we feel compelled to share this. We’ve finally made it and are regularly receiving the e-mail scams from either Africa or Hong Kong where all I do is hand over all of my financial and personal info and some yutz will deposit millions in my account and then when he gets here, no doubt under cover of darkness, we’ll split it.
In a way I do feel bad because Mr. Patrick K.W. Chan, Executive Director & Chief financial Officer of like Sid’s Bank in Hong Kong is asking me to “please endeavour to observe utmost discretion in all matters concerning this issue” because “I am putting my career and the life of my family at stake with this venture.” But he assures me it’s legal. And I’m passing it up, even though of all the e-mail addresses in the world, he picked mine. I’m getting misty.
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In honor of the season:
Movie Quote of the Day — Chevy Chase (Clark Griswold to cousin Eddie): “Can I refill your eggnog for you? Get you something to eat? Drive you out to the middle of nowhere and leave you for dead?” – “Christmas Vacation”