Pacers Tame Shaky Nets in Playoff Opener

Okay, let’s cut to the chase – it was a shaky call. A very shaky call.But don’t blame referee Tom Washington for New Jersey’s 90-88 Game 1 defeat by Indiana yesterday. For that, the Nets can look right in the mirror. Because even if Washington hadn’t blown the whistle on Nenad Krstic to give Anthony Johnson the two game winning free-throw attempts, there was a good chance the Nets were going to fall in overtime anyway.The real problem wasn’t a bad call with 0.9 seconds left, but the 47 minutes and 59.1 seconds that preceded it. The Nets were unable to shut down a poor offensive team whose two biggest guns were misfiring, suffered terrible shooting nights from two of their own best players, and again got little in the way of bench production.Let’s start with the defense. The Pacers scored 90 points on New Jersey’s home court yesterday, even though Jermaine O’Neal only had four points in the first three quarters and Peja Stojakovic could only eke out 12 for the game. To his credit, O’Neal stepped it up in the fourth to rally the Pacers from a small deficit, but New Jersey can live with that.What was harder to stomach was all the shots they allowed to Indiana’s secondary players. Even though the Pacers routinely punted away the first 10 seconds of the shot clock with Johnson mercilessly pounding the ball near halfcourt, Indiana made enough plays in the half court to end up with 30 free-throw attempts. They did it by constantly going to the basket. The Pacers only tried 12 3-pointers on the night, even though many of their players preferred the longball in the regular season.Shockingly, they did it with Stojakovic on the bench in crunch time. Pacers coach Rick Carlisle opted to go with reserve guard Fred Jones, who scored 15 points off the bench despite nursing a sprained ligament in his left thumb and did a much better job defending Richard Jefferson than Stojakovic. But it was still jaw-dropping to see the Pacers emerge from a timeout with 33 seconds left in a tie game and find Peja yawning on the bench. Had it been Stojakovic instead of Austin Croshere taking a 3-pointer with nine seconds left (a miss that Croshere ultimately rebounded), we probably wouldn’t be mentioning Tom Washington this morning.Carlisle won’t face any second-guessing for his move, however, because he won the game. Instead, it will be the province of Nets’ coach Lawrence Frank. He’ll be asked what he could have done differently to get Jason Kidd and Vince Carter going offensively, because clearly what the Nets tried didn’t work. Kidd and Carter combined to shoot 14-for-44 from the floor, including a ghastly 1-of-11 on 3-pointers. Carter airmailed two of them, and probably should have dumped the 3-pointer from his afternoon’s reportoire after the second.Both Carter and Kidd also missed key free throws in the fourth quarter, shots that could have allowed the Nets to survive Washington’s call at the end.Perhaps there wasn’t much Frank could have done. Even on 2-point shots, Carter only made 11-of-25. It was just a rough night for Vince against a defense that was willing to concede openings to Nenad Krstic and Jason Collins if it meant keeping Carter under wraps.“I had a double negative tonight,” Carter said afterward. “I couldn’t hit a jump shot or make a layup.”In truth, defense is something the Pacers have always done well – even during their struggles this season, they were fourth in the league in Defensive Efficiency (my measure of a team’s points allowed per 100 possessions), just a hair behind New Jersey. So watching them knock a big-time scorer off his game shouldn’t be a great surprise.Carter’s impotence wouldn’t have been so devastating if Frank had gotten anything from the subs. It was humorous to hear Marv Albert talk about how New Jersey’s season turned around when Frank started trusting his bench more, because Frank clearly didn’t trust them yesterday. Only three players got off the pine, and one (Lamond Murray) made just a brief cameo. Zoran Planinic, who saw increased time in the Nets’ second half surge, didn’t play at all. The subs didn’t make a strong case for more action, either, contributing nine points and three rebounds in 43 minutes.Fortunately, Game 1 gives the Nets a few things to take away that they can use in what is now a must-win Game 2. For starters, they need to go to Jefferson early again. His ability to beat Stojakovic off the dribble was what kept Peja on the pine in crunch time. It didn’t pay dividends in Game 1, but it is hugely to the Nets’ long-term benefit because the Pacers have a hard enough time scoring even with Peja’s sweet stroke on the court.Second, and just as important, New Jersey shouldn’t panic. A glance at the tape reveals that the Nets dominated in many ways: they only had five turnovers to Indiana’s 17,played their bigger opponents to a draw on the boards, and got strong efforts from Jefferson and Krstic. Basically, they only lost because Kidd and Carter couldn’t buy a basket. That makes the result a little easier to swallow, because chances are those two will regain their touch.On the other hand, Carter had an awfully tough time scoring in last year’s playoffs as well, so one hopes this isn’t the start of a disturbing trend. If he’s off his game on Tuesday, New Jersey will need the other missing ingredients to come together. Kidd has to be a more active and accurate scorer, the defense needs to be better against Indiana’s drives, and somebody on the bench needs to give the team a lift in the second quarter.All those elements were missing yesterday, and Tom Washington had nothing to do with it.Mr. Hollinger is the author of the 2005-06 Pro Basketball Forecast.

Pacers Tame Shaky Nets in Playoff Opener

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