NET NOTES
The Nets advanced last night by ousting the Hornets 103-95 in Game 5 at the Meadowlands, and Boston awaits.
The Celtics, back in the playoffs after a six-year absence, advanced to the Eastern Conference finals for the first time since 1988 by disposing of the Pistons in five games following a first-round victory over the Sixers. The Celtics are one of only two teams – Detroit’s the other – which beat the Nets twice in the Meadowlands this season.
“My mind isn’t on the Celtics whatsoever. My mind is on the game at hand, the Hornets,” Keith Van Horn said yesterday morning, but when asked about Boston’s two-man show of Paul Pierce and Antoine Walker, he stressed, “it’s a misconception that it’s just Pierce and Walker.
“Obviously, they’re great talents and they’re their All-Stars, but Rodney Rogers is a very good player, Eric Williams has stepped up for them and Kenny Anderson had a great playoffs. They have some talent around them that can get the job done as well.”
Pierce has been a plague of Biblical proportions to the Nets. He averaged 37.0 points in the Celtics’ 3-1 season series victory, including a 48-point eruption on Dec. 1 in a 105-98 overtime conquest. Pierce scored 46 of his points after halftime in that one.
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Nets’ bench outscored the Hornets, 129-86, in the first four games.
With last night’s Nets’ win, all four semifinal-round series ended in five games.
“We don’t want everybody else to be waiting on us so we want to go out and take care of business,” saidKenyon Martin, who scored 14 points and pulled down eight rebounds.
Van Horn on why Nets had to beat Hornets on the glass: “Rebounding means so much to us because it allows us to get off to our running game and it allows them not to have second-chance points and if we do that, we’ll be in good shape.”
Van Horn was asked if he could put in perspective what a trip to the Conference Finals would mean:
“No, I can’t,” he replied.
At least he’s honest.
Jason Kidd on the incentive for Nets to close out last night: “I think we want to not give Boston too much rest. They’re a very talented team and we want to be ready to go.”
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As a player with the Lakers, Byron Scott expected a Conference finals trip every year. It became routine, a part of a Laker makeup. But all that is gone, he said. To advance as coach of the Nets is big.
“No, that is not in there right now. I’m not taking this for granted. I did that as a player because we expected to win every single year, but I’m not taking this for granted because this would be a heck of an achievement and we’d all be very proud of that,” Scott said.