The least of which are finals-bound: whether or not the conference has closed the gap on the boys out West, repeat offender the New Jersey Nets will duplicate last year's results in June - Eastern Conference: postseason preview

Basketball Digest, May, 2003 by Tom Kertes

LEADING THE BREAK Kidd and the Nets are in front of the pack that's racing toward an Eastern Conference title.

AH, THE PESKY LEASE. The three top teams have been playing like stiffs since the All-Star. break. A couple of pursuers are gaining ground, in a kind of stiffleggedly Leastern manner. Another quasi-contender exchanges a 27-year-old superstar for a 35-year-old superstar--on the last year of the oldster's contract, no less--only to remain, basically, the same team Gust eight years older). And on still another in-the-mix team, a glorious geezer of 40 is abusing his body to squeeze the last remnants of his supertalent just to get into postseason one mo' time. He may drop before the playoffs. Where, should he still be vertical, his team will drop in the first round anyhow.

What is this, a particularly gruesome episode of "Six Feet Under?" Actually, it's more like an old "Saturday Night Live" with John Belushi and Bill Murray doing pliets in tutus. "Bad Bulgarian Ballet" had nothing on "Bad Leastern Ball," ladies and germs.

But before you make like Dan Ackroyd and drop your playoff program into the garbage can--"Excruciatingly, exquisitely, exemplarily b-a-a-a-a-a-a-d"--remember, things weren't this awful all season long. And, a few faint signs of life in the patients tell us, they may not be totally hopeless at playoff time.

The defending Leastern champ New Jersey Nets, looking much improved on paper before the season began, were playing excellent ball before the break--and did so without injured center-piece Dikembe Mutombo. Then they lost something--but who says they can't gain it back? Ditto the Indiana Pacers. Ditto the Detroit Pistons. "Every good team, even great teams, goes through lulls during a very long regular season," Pistons president of basketball operations John Hammond says. "It's inevitable. It's just the nature of the beast. The trick is to get out of it in time. And then not to hit a second lull."

That would be an exceedingly worthwhile endeavor because the West--in spite of still beating up on the Least at a near-60% rate--is not as impossible as it used to be back in the days when Shaq was Shaq. For one thing, the Los Angeles Lakers--thumping nearly everyone again--are still only 80-85% of their old selves. (Because the Big You-know-who is only 80-85%.)

For another, the Sacramento Kings can go cuddly-soft at the worst of times and is still a team that basically just tries to outscore you. When it comes to man-to-man combat, there's still no D in the allas Mavericks, especially in irk Nowitzki. And the improved San Antonio Spurs lack a reliable second scorer and carry psychological playoff scars the size of Rhode Island from all those Laker beatings.

Sill, make no mistake, whoever comes of out of the Wild, Wild West has to be favored to take the entire enchilada. "The talent's simply better out there, especially when it comes to big men," NBA scout Walter Szczerbiak says, "And, in the playoffs, you win close to the basket."

Still, don't look for a repeat of last year's shutout-joke that passed for the NBA Finals. At least not if the Most of the Least can somehow come up with its best.

THE FAVORITE

NEW JERSEY NETS

WHY THEY ARE THE TEAM TO BEAT: You have to get inside to win a championship. In Jason Kidd, the Nets have a one-man fast break--and the most creative man in basketball to get the ball inside for good shots. They also may have the best insider in the entire Least to go with him, once Dikembe Mutombo returns to the floor--and to his old form.

"He'll lower the other team's shooting percentage, block the lane with his presence, and keep teams from going to the foul line," Nets executive VP Willis Reed says. "People say, `The Nets are better without Deke.' They don't know what they're talking about. They don't know basketball. And they especially don't know playoff basketball."

But is he his old self? "He doesn't have to be," Reed says. "What he does, the intimidating defensive stuff, is not all that skill-based. For what he has to do, he has plenty in the tank."

The Nets' other offseason acquisitions--Rodney Rogers, Chris Childs--have been busts, turning Jersey's bench strength sour. "We're still plenty good there with Lucious [Harris] and Aaron [Williams]," Reed says. "And, don't forget, once Deke returns, Twin [Jason Collins] will go back to the second unit as well. Our entire rotation should get a lot stronger."

WHY THEY MIGHT SUP UP: The Nets have been winning the right way: teamwork, togetherness and defense. But, lately, there have been cracks in the Wall of Goodness. Namely, "[Coach] Byron [Scott] has been opening his big mouth other teams' stuff that's none of his business. And Jason [Kidd], who often feels all alone out there, is wondering why, instead of getting into useless tiffs with Latrell Sprewell and others, Byron is not focusing on getting him more help," a team source says.

Ouch. With Kidd the league's Most Indispensable Player, if something's indeed broken in that relationship, it had better be fixed it by playoff time. Or else.