Nets Make Finals Statement

So, enough with the Jersey jokes already, OK?

Sentenced to sit here for two days while being barbecued by their hosts, including an official welcome from Gov. Rick Perry, who declined to make the usual bet, noting New Jersey didn’t have “anything that anyone would want,” the Nets struck a blow for their underdog conference Friday night, upsetting the Spurs, 87-85.

This tied the NBA Finals, 1-1, which may not sound like much, but it’s only the second time the East team has done that well in the last five of these.

“This team has been through a lot, no matter if we play in the Eastern Conference,” said Jason Kidd, tacitly conceding the difference between East and West.

“The big thing, we stopped the streak. We knew we couldn’t lose eight in a row in the Finals so we finally won a game in the Finals.”

Well, maybe they wondered about it a little.

The Nets went 0-4 against the Lakers last spring and made their record in the finals 0-5 here, precipitating a lot of laughter locally and two days of internal finger-pointing, with Kidd suggesting Coach Byron Scott should start using Dikembe Mutombo and Kenyon Martin suggesting Scott should start double-teaming Tim Duncan.

Scott did use Mutombo more, giving him 20 minutes in which the center blocked three shots and did an impressive job of getting in Tim Duncan’s way.

Duncan, sensational in Game 1, was ordinary in Game 2, scoring 19 points, shooting eight for 19 and missing seven of 10 free throws.

“It’s easy to say that,” said Duncan, when asked if he should have been more aggressive. “It’s easy go out there and say be aggressive. But when they’re sagging in the lanes, forcing shots isn’t being aggressive.”

He’d better figure it out before Sunday’s Game 3, because the Nets will still be sagging and, as the Spurs showed again, where Duncan doesn’t take them, they aren’t likely to go.

It could have been a long two days off for the Nets, with all the dialogue going on among them, not to mention the heat Scott was taking in the New York press.

To his credit, it didn’t seem to bother Cool Hand Byron, who made their battle of wills look like a little discussion they were having about Game 2 ... just them and several hundred thousand fans reading the papers and watching TV.

“We wouldn’t have gotten to this point if we weren’t doing something right,” Scott said before the game.

Kidd, four for 17 from the floor in Game 1, bounced all the way back, scoring 30 points, shooting 11 for 24. He made five of six free throws in the final 20 seconds.

Meanwhile, the other franchise player, Duncan, was looking tentative. He had four turnovers to go with the rest of his grisly night.

The Nets led by the end of the first quarter, were up, 41-35, at the half, then went ahead by 15 in the third quarter when the Spurs started kicking the ball around as if they were playing soccer.

“I think that we showed a real lack of respect for the situation tonight for three quarters,” Coach Gregg Popovich said. “And then finally when it got critical, it looked like the basketball team that I’ve watched play all year long.”

That turned out to be just a tad too late for the Spurs.

Trailing, 86-82, the Spurs drew within 86-85 when Stephen Jackson made a three-point basket with nine seconds left.

The Spurs got the ball back with eight seconds left, now down, 87-85, after Kidd made one free throw, and got Jackson a wide-open look at a game-winning three-point shot. This time he missed.

This was the first victory in the Finals in Net history. Scott was asked how he felt about what they had done, but he doesn’t think like that.

“We haven’t accomplished anything, but now that we have home-court advantage, that’s it,” he said.

Now it’s back to their swamp to see how long they can keep it.