Road to Glory - A New Jersey Nets Association

too bad.. no cleveland cavaliers in the playoffs. BTW good luck to your Nets!

good luck man..
im hope miami will get to the final aginst you

Only if i can get past the first round against the Wizards
Thanks anyways

too bad.. no cleveland cavaliers in the playoffs. BTW good luck to your Nets!

They are stacked but still struggled through the season..Mike Brown needs to be fired asap

Nets turn up defense, takes game 1


East Rutherford, NJ - The old saying "Offense wins games, defense wins championships" was certainly true tonight.

With their floor general playing hurt and not looking like the Mr Big Shot that he is. The Nets were far from perfect offensively. Fortunately for them, a team with two-top five DPOY vote-getters can never be too bad on defense; and the Nets used that to their advantage, hustling on defense and making the right plays, they managed to force 16 Washington turnovers and eliminate any second chance buckets.

Most importantly, they held on in the fourth quarter, after a ferocious 31-17 Wizards 3rd quarter, to take the 104-99 game 1 victory.

Leo Lai led the way for the Nets, and despite his less the stellar 9-21 performance, dropped 25 points alongside 4 rebounds, 4 assists, a game high 4 steals as well as a block in 31 minutes. Yao Ming had 18 points, 11 rebounds and 3 blocks while Sean Williams added in 8 points, 8 rebounds, and surprisingly, 4 steals while holding Antawn Jamison to just 4 points and 9 rebounds on 1 for 6 shooting.

Trevor Ariza chipped in 18 points of his own, grabbed 6 boards, and played excellent defense on Wizards star Gilbert Arenas, holding him to 8 for 18 shooting for a 23 point, 7 assist performance, while having 4 turnovers.

Caron Butler led the way for the Wizards with a game high 28 points behind 12-16 shooting while James Harden and former Net Anthony Parker dropped in 10 and 11 points respectively.

The Wizards attacked the inside and had a 56 to 36 advantage in PIP, thanks also in part to their 28 fast break points (New Jersey only had 4). They also got good bench production, as their backups outscored the Nets bench 30-26. Washington shot the ball well (38/77) and was on 55% shooting in the first half, but their turnovers costed them the game.

"We need to take care of the ball more" said Wizards head coach Jackson Farley "We shot a better percentage but they had way more shot attempts then us, thanks to our turnovers."

It was also thanks to the Nets' 15-3 offensive rebounding advantage.

"It was a good effort tonight, but we need to run our offense better next game" said Scott Skiles "We only shot 15/23 from the line. That's not acceptable. Also, our miss shots and turnovers led to their 28 fast break points, we need to have better shot selection if we want to win the series"

Game 2 will be in 2 days time, back here in the Izod center, New Jersey.

Notes: DeShawn Stevenson posted a trillion.....Chauncey Billups suffered a strained knee in addition to his strained MCL in tonight's game, but said he will be fine for game 2.....Chris Andersen and Javale McGee had a scuffle after Andersen denied McGee's dunk attempt, double technicals were handed out.....






Highlights



Jordan Player of the Game Highlights
Flash

Great win dude, love seeing defensive performances like that!

Good win. Waiting for Game 2...

Great win, Lai is a beast

Great Lai-Yao-Ariza trio. Huge performances = huge win!

Good balanced scoring to win the first game against the Wizs despite Butler shooting 12-16.

Great win! Lai and Yao are doing really well.

Nice win! Leo Lai is awesome (Kaede Rukawa look alike)

Nice win! Leo Lai is awesome (Kaede Rukawa look alike)

it's because his really Kaede look at the stats (9-21)

yea i know

Great win dude, love seeing defensive performances like that!

Cheers Mark, Defense is the only thing my team could really do consistently

Good win. Waiting for Game 2...

Sorry, Updates will be slow as i have a ton of work at school and exams coming up, i'll write the recaps when i have time though

Great win, Lai is a beast

Thanks

Great Lai-Yao-Ariza trio. Huge performances = huge win!

They had huge defensive performances, offensively i wouldn't say so, it was horrific man, even Yao was missing shots about 3 foot from the basket

Good balanced scoring to win the first game against the Wizs despite Butler shooting 12-16.

I had to put Ariza on Arenas cause he'd burn me otherwise, the flip side to that is Butler shooting the lights out

Great win! Lai and Yao are doing really well.

No they are not (I am harsh on my players ) 65% from the Free Throw line is far from well

Nice win! Leo Lai is awesome (Kaede Rukawa look alike)

Nice win! Leo Lai is awesome (Kaede Rukawa look alike)

it's because his really Kaede look at the stats (9-21)

You could say that (really horrible shooting night...) but it's mainly cause there isn't many asian cyberfaces out there that i could use, and i look nothing like Yao, Yi or Sun Yue, so i had to go with a fictional Slam Dunk character CF

Wanna know if my Wolves won.

arghh 9-21 that sucks... but still he scored 25pts

Lai scores 45 as Nets escape with Game 2 victory


East Rutherford, NJ - Nets sophomore Leo Lai always saves his biggest performances against the Wizards.

Back in February 7th, 2010. Lai had a career high 48 points in the Nets' 161-153 double overtime victory in this building against his rival James Harden (who had 46 himself) and the Wizards. Tonight, he produced another spectacular individual performance as he dropped in a career playoff high of 45 points, alongside 6 rebounds and 5 assists, to help the Nets hold off a second half comeback attempt by Washington and take home the 109-105 game 2 victory.

Now New Jersey heads to the Nation's capital with a two to nothing series lead.

Yao Ming of the Nets wasn't too shabby himself, as he almost recorded a 20-20, with 21 points, 18 rebounds and 3 blocks while other members of the starting five also did their part. Trevor Ariza had 16 points, 7 rebounds and 3 steals, Chauncey Billups, finally healthy, turned in a 14 point, 9 assists night while Sean Williams played big defense once again with 6 points, 11 rebounds, 3 steals and 3 blocks.

The same play though, cannot be said about New Jersey's bench.

The Nets got off to a quick start with a 33-18 first quarter, but after the starters took a seat in the second quarter, the Wizards were able to take advantage and from that point on, outscored and outplayed the Nets in all the other quarters. It was only in the fourth, when the starting unit got back together again, did they put a stop to the Wizards' runs.

By they, I meant Lai. The Sophomore guard scored 18 of his 45 in the fourth quarter, going head to head with James Harden and Gilbert Arenas on both ends of the floor, and as the Wizards stuck to their plan of double-teaming and triple-teaming Yao Ming, Lai went on a tear and burnt Washington defenders.

"He was unbelievable" said Yao "He had a bad start to the game but came alive down the stretch, amazing performance"

The Wizards were led by James Harden and Gilbert Arenas. Harden had a team high 23 points on a near perfect 10 for 11 shooting while Arenas dropped in 22 points and had 7 dimes himself.

Caron Butler added 19 points, 5 rebounds and 5 assists. But like game 1, it simply wasn't enough as they came up short in the final seconds.

"We'll get them back in D.C." said Arenas "There is no way we'll lose to them back home"

"Refs helped them out over here" added Harden "Notice how i didn't even get one Free Throw while Lai got 13 attempts? Clearly there are problems"






Highlights



Jordan Player of the Game Highlights
Flash

mmm, Lai looking like an All-Star. Good work.

Turnovers really killed Washington there. Lai had a Kobe-esque 43 shot attempts.

LOL 45 points in 43 attempts your really looking like Kaede

mmm, Lai looking like an All-Star. Good work.

Actually, the team looked like an All-Star team 103 FG attempted!

Lai sure likes to shoot.

mmm, Lai looking like an All-Star. Good work.

If he hit more then 16 out of 45 i'd say he looks like an All-Star

Turnovers really killed Washington there. Lai had a Kobe-esque 43 shot attempts.

Yeah thank god for me, cause they are killing me on offense...really hard to stop Arenas, Butler and Harden from scoring.
As for the Shot attempts, you can see my bench wasn't getting it done, Chauncey was hot early but cooled down in the second half, same goes for Ariza. Yao was triple teamed....so i had to shoot with Lai, who was ice-cold in the first half. He caught fire and just kept hitting, so there you go, 43 on 45

LOL 45 points in 43 attempts your really looking like Kaede

I'll take that as a compliment

mmm, Lai looking like an All-Star. Good work.

Actually, the team looked like an All-Star team 103 FG attempted!

Curtosey of Wizards turnovers as well as my offensive rebounds off the bricks from my team

Lai sure likes to shoot.

Who doesn't?
It's just one of those games where i was forced to be a volume (big volume) shooter, I don't do that often

Leo Lai just exploded..

Harden explodes as Wizards top Nets for Game 3 victory


Washington, DC - Following a 45 point performance from his rival Leo Lai that came with a loss, James Harden wasn't about to be shown up again as he responded with a game 3 explosion.

Harden scored a career playoff high 33 points alongside 7 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 rejections in this game, lifting the Wizards to a 96-87 game 3 victory over the visiting New Jersey Nets to avoid going down 0-3.

Gilbert Arenas was the second highest scorer for the Wizards with just 12 points, but he did have 9 dimes and 6 boards in the win. Backup Rafer Alston rounded up the double digit scorers for Washington with 10 points off the bench.

"Told you we'll win back at home" boasted Arenas "I am never wrong, we're taking the next game also."

Washington looked re-energized at their return to the Verizon Center and had a 57-38 advantage going into the second half, but a comeback led by Nets Yao Ming, Chauncey Billups and Leo Lai brought New Jersey right into things in the third quarter, before Washington managed to pull away for the victory late in the fourth.

Yao had 21 points, 13 rebounds and 3 blocks in the loss while Leo Lai scored a team-high 22 points. Billups, on the other-hand, had 18 points and 8 assists in his 30 minutes of play. They were the only Nets in double figures as the other members of New Jersey played terribly, the bench had a combined 12 points, shooting a shocking 5 for 23 from the field.

The other two starters, Trevor Ariza and Sean Williams wasn't that good themselves. Ariza had just 9 points on 3 for 9 shooting and did not get a single steal or block while Sean Williams had just 5 points, going 2-7. They did however, managed to grab 7 and 13 rebounds respectively.

Once again, the Wizards ran on the break and held a 22-3 fast break points advantage over New Jersey, which was more then the difference in the game. They managed to keep their turnovers and fouls down and thus, reduced the Nets' free throw attempts and points in the paint, forcing them to take jump shots.

New Jersey made just 34 of their 104 attempts (thanks to 18 offensive rebounds, largely in part thanks to Yao) and shot just 7 for 18 from trey.

"Our shots were not falling and they did a good job on us inside" said Scott Skiles "Just one of those nights"






Highlights



Jordan Player of the Game Highlights
Flash

Yay! Go Earl Boyk- I mean James Harden!