As Kidd Hits Stride, Nets Keep Improving by Nipping Sixers
Nets Coach Jason Kidd walked into a pregame news conference at Barclays Center on Dec. 3 with a sobering bit of information: He was relieving his top assistant, Lawrence Frank, of the majority of his coaching duties.
The Nets were 5-12, and a 24-point trouncing by the Denver Nuggets later that night did little to ease the angst. Frank was thought to be Kidd's ballast.
How much further could things sail adrift without that stabilizing force on the bench?
As it turned out, things did change, just not in the way some expected. The Nets' season began trending in the opposite direction. On Monday, Kidd was named the Eastern Conference's coach of the month for January. With Frank still out of the picture, the Nets have won six of their last nine games, including Monday's 108-102 defeat of the Philadelphia 76ers.
Before the game, Kidd, at least outwardly, hardly conveyed surprise or amusement with the honor, which tends to be his status quo. His even-keeled nature, antithetical to most N.B.A. coaches, now appeared almost Zen-like after a month in which the Nets went 10-3, turned around a disastrous start and zoomed up the conference standings.
It marked a fine turnabout for Kidd, too. He seemed to steady his coaching grasp, his confidence, his lineups, his voice. The result was a relaxing of some of the criticism of his performance early on in the season.
'I'm still feeling my way,' Kidd said before the game. 'But I've seen a lot in the first couple months. The biggest thing is being able to communicate with those guys in that locker room and making sure that we're all on the same page.'
Certainly, the Nets are not out of the woods yet. Injuries remain a key factor, brought into sharp relief yet again Monday. The All-Star guard Joe Johnson sat out with tendinitis in his right knee, acknowledging that it had been bothering him for several days. Forwards Andray Blatche (bruised left hip) and Andrei Kirilenko (sore right ankle) were also inactive and considered day to day.
The Nets were left with only two guards (Jason Terry and Marquis Teague) on their five-man bench, and keeping up with Philadelphia's buoyant stable of guards like Michael Carter-Williams, Evan Turner, James Anderson and Elliot Williams was a challenge. But Shaun Livingston put together one of his most complete games of the season - 13 points, 6 rebounds, 8 assists, and a career-high 7 steals - and Paul Pierce added 25 points to pace the Nets.
'His fingerprints were all over this game,' Kidd said of Livingston.
Deron Williams, starting for a second consecutive game after coming off the bench for six games in a row, rounded from a rough shooting game at Indiana to finish with 21 points, his highest output since Jan. 4.
The Nets opened up a 19-4 lead to begin the game, while Philadelphia missed seven of its first eight shots. But the Nets got in foul trouble early, and the lack of depth did not help matters. The 76ers began pushing the pace, accelerating the ball movement and increasing the defensive pressure all the way to full court.
Philadelphia took a lead midway through the second quarter, but the Nets ended the half on a 17-5 run, making four consecutive stops on the defensive end in the final minute, to take a 54-49 lead into the break. They kept up the pace in the third quarter, pushing the lead to 19 while hitting nine of their first 14 shots from the floor.
The 76ers committed nine turnovers in the third quarter, leading to 15 of the Nets' 30 points. But the 76ers started the fourth by hitting their first eight shots from the field to trim their deficit to 5.
A long jumper by Lavoy Allen trimmed the lead to 2 with 3 minutes 30 seconds remaining, but Williams answered with a pull-up jumper. The Nets needed a defensive stop, and Garnett supplied it - blocking a floater by Carter-Williams that led to a 3-point play by Mirza Teletovic. (Garnett finished with a season-high five blocks).
The 5-point swing gave the Nets a 102-95 lead with a little less than three minutes remaining. But the 76ers kept at it. With 30 seconds left, Williams ran off a screen and appeared to bang knees with a defender, hobbling him momentarily. The 76ers promptly ran Williams off another screen he could not get through, and his man, James Anderson, made a wide-open 3-pointer to cut the lead back to 2.
Philadelphia's last key opportunity was stolen away by Livingston, who deftly swiped the ball from Turner dribbling up the court to seal the win.
REBOUNDS
The Nets finished with a season-high 26 forced turnovers and 15 steals Monday. They became the first team in the N.B.A. this season to record more than 13 steals in three consecutive games. ... Seattle quarterback Russell Wilson, a day after the Seahawks defeated the Denver Broncos in the Super Bowl, attended the game.
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