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NOTEBOOK

It didn't take Player of the Week honors or an 80-foot by 60-foot billboard in Times Square for the Wizards to figure out how well Devin Harris has been playing lately.

That's what game tapes are for, and last night the Wizards gave the rest of the NBA a primer on how to slow down Harris and Vince Carter -- at least until their teammates hit their outside shots.

Continue reading "Wizards' zone does the trick against New Jersey Nets" »

Box score

From The Star-Ledger:

Nets humbled by Wizards

Wizards' zone does the trick

Harris credits team play

Nets aim to thrive at home

Images from Tuesday's 108-88 Nets loss to the Washington Wizards

A year ago, when the Nets came strutting back to town after a surprising 3-1 West Coast trip, they promptly lost a desultory game to the lowly Grizzlies, marking the beginning of a 3-8 stretch that seemed to affirm Jason Kidd's self-fulfilling prophecy that there was no light at the end of the tunnel.

This year, with the Nets once again returning home after a successful 3-1 trek out west only to lose another dispiriting game to another weak opponent, Vince Carter defiantly rejected the notion that all they had worked for had been washed away in 48 minutes of slop.

"It was just one of those nights," Carter declared after the Nets lost, 108-88, to the Wizards Tuesday night. "I refuse to believe that we took a step back."

Box score

Continue reading "New Jersey Nets humbled by Wizards, 108-88" »

NOTEBOOK

Devin Harris seemed rather unimpressed with himself for winning much-deserved NBA Eastern Conference Player of the Week honors. He did note, however, that the award reflected the success of the team as a whole.

"It just means that we had a good road trip," he said before Tuesday night's game against Washington. "If we don't win those games, then we're not looking at any awards or anything like that. It was a good weekend for us. We didn't start the trip out really well, but we ended on a good note."

Continue reading "New Jersey Nets' Harris credits team play" »

Lawrence Frank doesn't mean to be a downer; it's just his job. As coach of a team that is defying expectations and surpassing preset standards, it is Frank's duty to splash a little icy water on all the euphoria.

Of course he's proud of what his team accomplished out west, and told them so at yesterday's shoot-around. He's also happy the team took a 9-7 record into Tuesday night's game because, well, it's better than 7-9.

Continue reading "New Jersey Nets aim to thrive at home" »

DD: How big a stink are the Chinese going to make if Yi doesn't play for them this summer? He can hide out in my house if he wants.
JD

John: He's going to play for them, the question is how long he'll be obligated to stay. Keep this in mind: Brian James told me a few months ago that the Chinese "were relieved that he got hurt" in Milwaukee late last year. "Not that they wanted him hurt," he added, "but because it would give him more rest before the Olympics." So it's pretty clear what the Chinese priorities are, and it hardly matters that it's a non-Olympic year. And the Nets will be as cooperative as is practical, because they don't want to be party in another dilemma like the one facing Wang ZhiZhi, who was left without a country after breaking his commitment to rejoin the national team after '01-02. The poor guy couldn't go back after that - couldn't even see his family, because he essentially was AWOL from army duty - and no team wants to be the cause of that. That doesn't mean Yi can't "rehab" over here a little while longer if some injury pops up, wink-wink.

Continue reading "Mail's In (Dynamic Duo Edition)" »

Devin Harris returned home Monday to find his image on a Times Square billboard (selling, what else, Nets tickets) and his name at the top of a league release announcing that he had won Eastern Conference Player of the Week honors.

That's what you call a pretty good day -- two symbolic proclamations that Harris has arrived as an elite NBA player, even though that was fairly well-established after he had destroyed two of the game's greatest point guards for 81 points on back-to-back nights.

It was the method that was perhaps most impressive: One night after using a hobbled Deron Williams like a turnstile in Salt Lake City, where Harris got to the rim at will, he mostly dropped jumpers on a helpless Steve Nash in Phoenix when he recognized how much air space he was getting.

Continue reading "Recent play lands New Jersey Nets' Harris among best" »

Rod Thorn called back from a tire place this evening. A blowout on the way home, he explained.

The good news is the dang thing (that's our guess about how he described it to guy behind the counter) was still under warranty.

The better news, as The Boss explained, is that "This is just about the only bad thing to happen this week."

Continue reading "NJ Nets: The Boss, Bad Tires, and Great Expectations" »

The New Jersey Nets' Devin Harris was named the Eastern Conference Player of the Week, for games played Monday, Nov. 24, through Sunday, Nov. 30.

Harris averaged a league-best 30.0 points on .535 shooting and added 6.8 assists and 4.3 rebounds as New Jersey went 3-1 on its West Coast trip.

Continue reading "Devin Harris named Eastern Conference Player of the Week" »

Box score

Newspaper stories

Nets beat Suns as Harris has career-high 47 points

Notebook: Ex-Nets assistant Cartwright skeptical of Nets' game plan

Nets' white-hot Harris has NBA wondering how to stop him

Blog posts

Game 16 Recap

Brain-freezers, postulates, and assorted orts from Nets 117, Suns 109:

So now what do they do?

The Suns watched the Utah game, and figured they had a sound plan for Devin Harris tonight - play the drive, Stevie - and he shot them into a massive migraine. Fourteen field goals, and how many were jumpers? We counted seven, including a pair of 3-pointers.

Now we ask you, is this fair? Especially since he gets a whistle virtually every time his rim-runs don't fall?

Continue reading "NJ Nets: Game 16 Recap" »

PHOENIX -- They were down 11 entering the fourth quarter this time, when Devin Harris figured he might as well wreck somebody else's homecourt advantage before he heads home.

So with charity toward none, and malice toward all defenders wearing white with purple trim, the Nets' point guard destroyed the Phoenix Suns for 21 of his career-high 47 points in the final period, which merely raises more questions.

Such as: When is this all going to end?

The Nets put the finishing touches on a brilliant, coming-of-age road trip Sunday night, getting yet another career night (in a month filled with them) from their leader, and a strong defensive stand in the endgame that finally dropped the Suns, 117-109, at US Airways Center.

Continue reading "Harris has career-high 47 points as New Jersey Nets knock off Phoenix Suns, 117-109" »

NOTEBOOK

PHOENIX -- Bill Cartwright, who has never been surprised by anything in his life, raised an eyebrow.

For Mr. Bill -- former Nets assistant coach, and now Terry Porter's right hand with the Suns -- this is a veritable uproar.

"They're playing good. Give them credit," Cartwright said of the Nets, an hour before Sunday night's tipoff at US Airways Center. "And Devin (Harris) is obviously playing really well right now. This open action they're running allows him and Vince (Carter) to handle the ball a lot."

Continue reading "Former New Jersey Nets assistant Cartwright skeptical of team's game plan" »

PHOENIX -- How would you guard you?

Devin Harris laughed. He can expect a lot of these trite, existential questions from here on out. When you're the seventh-leading scorer in the league, and you're dropping in more than 27 points over your last nine games on only (this is the extraordinary part) 14.5 shots, inquiring minds want to know whether this is a permanent arrangement.

"I really can't answer that," Harris said.

Continue reading "New Jersey Nets' white-hot Harris has NBA wondering how to stop him" »

If you haven't just beamed in from Alpha Centauri, you may have noticed that Devin Harris is one of the hottest players in the league.

This hot, to be precise: In his past nine games, he has averaged 27.2 points and 6.4 assists -- so unguardable off the dribble that he has moved into second place in the NBA in free-throw attempts with 11.4 per game (a shade behind Dwight Howard's 12.1).

"It's not a secret anymore that Devin Harris is one of the better players in our league," Keyon Dooling said after Harris had what has become a typical night (34 points, six assists) against Utah. "With the ball in his hands he is pretty much indefensible."

Continue reading "Post-game Nets notes: Harris on a hot streak" »

Box score

Newspaper articles

Nets move above .500

Sweating Yi's summer plans in China

Notes: Ailing Boone sent home

Post-game notes: Harris on hot streak

SALT LAKE CITY -- By the nine-minute mark of the fourth quarter, Devin Harris was having recurring moments that players live for -- those in-the-zone moments of understanding and clarity, when they essentially walk onto an opponent's court and announce to 19,911 people that they now own the joint.

So there they were in an isolation stare-down near the top of the key, out of the Nets' open set, which was textbook stuff all night: Harris looked at Deron Williams as if he felt sorry for him, took two hard dribbles to his right, and then made a hard, spin-back pivot and floated a shot over Mehmet Okur into the net.

It was the Nets point guard's third straight score against the helpless Williams, who was playing with a sore ankle -- and a reminder that when one elite point guard goes up against another with a bad wheel, this is the result:

Nets 105, Utah 88.

Continue reading "New Jersey Nets dominate Utah Jazz, 105-88" »

NOTEBOOK

SALT LAKE CITY -- Josh Boone's trip ended before it even started, as the slow healing rate of his right ankle contusion convinced the team to send him home Saturday morning.

The Nets center, who suffered the injury Nov. 12 against Indiana, had hoped to stay on this trip, which concludes Sunday night in Phoenix. Instead, his only reward for all the rehab he's done the past two weeks is a visit to the doctor Monday morning, when he'll get an MRI.

"Josh was kind of making progress, making progress ... and now he's kind of been in a holding pattern the last three days," coach Lawrence Frank said before Saturday night's meeting with Utah. "Obviously, we wouldn't have sent him home if we thought he was ready."

Continue reading "Ailing Boone is sent home" »

SALT LAKE CITY -- Fast forward six months: What happens if Yi Jianlian becomes a rising star among NBA power forwards, and embarks on the same career trajectory as, say, Dirk Nowitzki after his second season?

Easy answer: The Nets will do cartwheels, and Yi can do whatever he wants with his offseason, even if it involves riding the roller-coaster at Wildwood Crest for two months.

But what happens if Yi stays on his present path -- which is meandering at best -- and is still in glaring need of consistency and skill development?

Continue reading "New Jersey Nets might sweat Yi's summer plans in China" »

Don't worry, the shooting guard's name does not appear anywhere in this text.

But that doesn't mean there's good news:

Josh Boone was sent home this a.m., and he'll have an MRI on his ankle Monday. That's a bummer: He was trying to convince himself (or us) that he was making progress, but the contusion suffered 17 days ago has not healed nearly as quickly as expected.

Continue reading "NJ Nets: Health Issues, Again" »

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- Brook Lopez returned to his boyhood home in Fresno for a holiday meal Thursday, and if he was looking for people who might make a fuss over a stunningly dramatic career arc, he went to the wrong place.

Friends filed in all day and all night, but did they happen to mention anything NBA-related? Didn't come up. Maybe in passing, as in, "How about them Lakers?"

This is what happens when you hang around with other world-class athletes -- swimmers and water polo players, mostly -- who would just as soon talk about the old days.

Continue reading "Friends and family of New Jersey Nets' Lopez expected his success" »

Vince Carter walked into the Kings' practice gym with a smile and a promise: The hamstring won't bother him Saturday night in SLC.

"It's just sore," he said. "It tightened up so much from all the drama - trauma, not drama - it's just sore. You touch it, it's a little tender, that's all. It cramped so much and so hard and long."

But can he explode off it?

"Oh, yeah," he said "Everything will be normal. Once the blood gets flowing it will feel a lot better."

Continue reading "NJ Nets: VC? OK." »

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- It's hard to remember that there was a time -- as recently as two seasons back -- that Devin Harris would beat himself up after a bad quarter or two, incapable of doing anything but broadcasting his "introverted, poor-me attitude" to the world, as Avery Johnson used to describe it.

So he was given a choice Wednesday night against the Kings: He could either revisit those days, when mental toughness was his only barrier to stardom; or he could face the music and start dancing.

He chose the latter, after recognizing that he had no choice at all.

Continue reading "New Jersey Nets' Harris no longer gets down on self for poor play" »

Bouquets, bon mots, and fustigations from Nets 116, Kings 114:

We're still wondering where Devin Harris was for the first 47:44 of this nonsensical game - not only because this one should have been put away in the third period, but also because he was coming off a game at L.A. where he had exactly one good quarter.

Of course, he arrived just in time at ARCO, where he made the game's two biggest shots and two biggest passes (the Keyon Dooling homers). Actually, if you want to break it down: The Nets scored 16 points in the last 5:16, and Harris accounted for every single one, save for a Carter technical free throw.

So where was he?

Continue reading "NJ Nets: Game 14 Recap" »

SACRAMENTO -- Devin Harris has a new technique, one that might be often imitated but never perfected on any level.

He can sleepwalk through the entire evening -- as if filled to the brim with tryptophan -- and then wake up just in time to be the hero.

Case in point: The jet-packed point guard made every play he had to make over the last minute of regulation and throughout the overtime, lifting the Nets back to .500 with a 116-114 triumph over the Kings at ARCO Arena Wednesday night.

And while he had plenty of help, Harris (18 points, seven assists) had to seal the deal without Vince Carter, who suffered a cramp in his right hamstring at the 2:18 mark of overtime to end his 25-point night.

Continue reading "New Jersey Nets beat Sacramento Kings, 116-114, in overtime" »

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- The essence of the NBA life didn't really dawn on Jason Thompson until Monday night, when the Kings were playing at Portland. He was minding his own business, jogging upcourt in a congested transition, when suddenly an elbow appeared out of nowhere and smashed him in the mouth.

Wait, don't say it: It had to be Joel Przybilla, notorious klutz of the Great Northwest. Or maybe one of the Spanish kids -- they all play that way over there.

"No, actually, it was the French kid, that scrawny (Nicolas) Batum," Thompson said, with both humor and embarrassment. "Out of nowhere, he nails me, and I'm like, 'What the heck. . . ?'"

And what did Thompson do about it?

Continue reading "Mt. Laurel native, Rider grad Thompson helping Kings rebuild" »

NOTEBOOK

SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- The Nets arrived here as the third-worst defensive team in the NBA, and the only teams worse are those who espouse the shoot-first-and-shoot-often school of thought, with coaches (Mike D'Antoni and Don Nelson) who don't emphasize defense all that much.

So with the Nets' average yield exploding (a whopping 104.5 points per game), their field-goal defense ranked 23rd (.459), and their 3-point defense ranked 29th (opponents tee off at a .415 clip), it raises a question:

Does Rod Thorn really have his heart set on having a good defensive team this season?

Continue reading "New Jersey Nets president Thorn expects better defense" »

By DAVE D'ALESSANDRO

LOS ANGELES - In the final analysis, the Nets got what they came for - if their primary goal was to measure just how far they are from the NBA summit.

Short answer: They're not sure, but the fall from about halfway up the mountain is murder.

They played with great vigor for nearly 2½ quarters against the league's best team last night, before the Lakers got nasty and tore them apart even without Kobe Bryant playing very well, 120-93, at Staples Center.

Call it a tough lesson learned, at the start of a road trip that may be filled with them.

Continue reading "New Jersey Nets can't keep pace with L.A. Lakers, fall 120-93" »

Box score

Newspaper Articles

Lakers put Nets in their place

Yi remains a puzzle for Nets

Notes: Carter recalls Kidd campaign

Blog

Chatting with Phil Jackson

We scaled the Jacksonian Plain in pregame, and not surprisingly, he said he doesn't care much for the Nets' offense. As a system, he meant. He likes the Harris/Carter tandem just fine.

And he apparently doesn't understand that the six to 10 chin sets they run every night for Harris and Carter are really Princeton-based.

But that's semantics, the way this guy talks offense.

Continue reading "New Jersey Nets: Zen Master talks dribble-drive" »

LOS ANGELES -- The vast majority of those in the NBA cognoscenti -- opponents, media and fans alike -- look at Yi Jianlian and wonder, "What is this guy, anyway?"

How can a starting NBA power forward participate in 12 games and play well in only four of them?

How can a guy with his stroke -- which, in a moment of high spirits, his teammates compare to Dirk Nowitzki's -- account for a .395 percentage?

How can someone so massive in every dimension come up so small so often, and continue to be trusted by his head coach?

Continue reading "Promising Yi remains a puzzle for New Jersey Nets" »