Nets Have Another Disastrous Game
By Michael Williams (3/8/2007)
Even before they could forget their loss to the Pistons, New Jersey Nets have suffered another major defeat, this time in the hands of Orlando Magic. The Nets, who were beaten convincingly by the Pistons by a margin of 20 points, had again a similar experience when playing against Orlando Magic, a game they managed to lose 119-86.
The Nets’ are suffering because of injury to number of players. Besides that, they have still not recovered from their long trip to west and were looking out of sorts for the second consecutive game. Nets were unable to keep pace with Orlando and as a result Orlando dominated Nets throughout the game. At halftime, Orlando were leading by 20 points and they extended this lead to 30 by the third quarter.
Even the ever-inspirational Jason Kidd could not break the jinx. In fact he did not score any points during the game and ended up with just 5 assists and 3 rebounds. The only player who tried to put up a spirited fight was Vince Carter. He scored 25 points. In comparison, Magic were a different team altogether. Every player contributed equally towards the win and they were led by Hedo Turkoglu with 22 points, Dwight Howard and Darko Milicic with 14 points. Orlando scored 62 percent of the shots.
Nets’ coach Frank was not able to digest the defeat. At the end of the match, he described the performance of the team as unacceptable. He further said that if the team puts on such a display, there was no way it could win any games. He demanded a better and passionate performance from his team. The Nets have to put up a brilliant display in order to preserve their eighth spot in the East. Other teams including the Raptors and the Miami Heat, however, are quickly catching with them. |