NET NOTES
Yes, they run when they can. They excite and entertain. They have a balanced offense that again produced seven double-figure scorers yesterday.
But when it gets right down to it, the Nets pride themselves most on defense, an area where they were fifth in the league
And that, as much as anything not named Jason Kidd, saved the Nets in their 99-93 victory over Charlotte in Game 1 of the Eastern semis at the Meadowlands.
Consider: In the last 4:25 after a Stacey Augmon drive, the Hornets went 0-of-5 with one turnover. Back it up to a Campbell dunk at 7:29 and Charlotte bricked 8-of-10 with three turnovers.
“When we needed stops, we got stops. When we needed big rebounds, we got big rebounds,” said Keith Van Horn, who scored 11 points.
“We’ve always relied on our defense to win or save ball games. Sometimes teams and people really talk about the way we get out and run, but we take pride in playing defense. Down the stretch we knew we had to get stops if we wanted to win,” Kidd said.
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Game 2 is tomorrow at 8 at the Meadowlands. . . . Nets shot their playoff high .514 (36-of-70) and got 19 fastbreak points (Hornets had 22, though).
“I’ve been saying this all season long, if we defend and rebound, how are you going to stop us from running? We’re going to try to run at every opportunity,” said Byron Scott.
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Baron Davis wasn’t quite Jermaine O’Neal, but just as confident: “Overall, we feel we can beat this team in a seven-game series.”
Davis’ seven steals were Hornets’ playoff record.
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Kenyon Martin on the Nets’ shoddy first half: “This game was at 12:30. That’s people’s napping time.” . . . Todd MacCulloch on same: “That was a first half that we’re not very proud of.”
Reserve point guard Anthony Johnson sprained his right thumb before the game.
“I was shooting around and came down on someone,” he said. He was 2-of-4 in 10 minutes.
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Hornet P.J. Brown “tweaked” his left ankle and left in final minute of the third quarter. Brown injured the ankle in the regular season and again against Orlando. “It was getting back to full strength,” said Brown.