A Dissapointing Series: How the NJ Nets Choked Against the Miami Heat

The Eastern conference playoff game of the Miami Heat versus the New Jersey Nets was supposed to be a close series. The Nets were supposed to get revenge from last season after they got swept by the Heat. It never happened. I thought that this was going to be a close series. And it was. For one game. The New Jersey Nets came out charging in Game 1 in Miami and I thought that this was going to be a good series.

However the Heat then proceeded to win 4 straight games including two backbreaking games on the road in New Jersey which really destroyed the Nets. The Nets should’ve taken control of this series with a win in game 1. Instead they fell apart. The Nets Big Trio played poorly in this series as Vince Carter tried to do too much in this series and take over. In the end in a couple of games, he had the ball in his hands with the game on the line and he tried to drive between two defenders and turned the ball over in the process.

In this series, the ball should have been in the hands of point guard Jason Kidd who is a great player and play maker. Instead Carter took too many shots and missed many of them instead of spreading the ball among his teammates. Jason Kidd did not have the ball in his hands and could not set his teammates up for open shots. Carter did have a couple of games with 30 points but he had poor field goal percentages to get to 30 points in those games.

Nets coach Lawrance Frank whom I consider to be one of the bright young minds in the game choked badly in the series and did not make the neccessary adjustments in the series to beat the Heat. Instead he was greatly outcoached by Pat Riley who is a Hall of Fame coach.

Shaquille O’Neil was unstoppable as was Dwayne Wade who seemed to get better as the playoffs continued. He got his teammates involved. The Nets got barely any production out of their bench and Nenad Kristic who looked like a young stud in the making did poorly in the series as he struggled to guard Shaq and score points in the series. Jason Collins did nothing in this series and Richard Jefferson who shot well from the field barely touched the ball in this series. Whenever Jefferson had the ball he used his quickness and agilty to get past his defender, usually James Posey or Walker who were no match for Jefferson.

The Nets had no answers for Shaq and Wade and once the two superstars on the Heat turned up the pressure, the series was all but over. Once again the Nets fell to the Heat in the playoffs, this time in 5 games instead of 4 games like last year.