Wednesday, June 12, 2002
Martin vows Nets won't quit
The Associated Press
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — There were no team dinners or movies or get-togethers. Or at least none that anyone would talk about. After losing the first three games of the NBA Finals to the Los Angeles Lakers, the New Jersey Nets know they don't need to bond. They just need to play better basketball.
Their next chance against the two-time defending champions comes tonight in Game 4 at Continental Airlines Arena.
“We're not going to quit and we're not going to lay down,” forward Kenyon Martin said. “We have pride. We want to win. We don't want to get swept. So we're going to come out and give the same effort we have.”
The Nets know the odds aren't with them. No team has come back from a 3-0 deficit in any round of the NBA playoffs.
But the Nets are used to being written off.
They had a deciding Game 5 in the first round against Indiana. Few gave them a chance after blowing a 21-point fourth-quarter lead in losing Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Finals to Boston.
Funny thing happened in both cases.
The Nets won Game 5 against Indiana despite a miracle shot by Reggie Miller at the end of regulation. They won Game 4 against the Celtics and knocked off Boston in six games.
“I know the character of this team,” Nets coach Byron Scott said Tuesday. “I know the makeup of this team. I know that history is against us doing this. It's almost written down as being impossible.
“But I also know if we go out there and compete and we don't let our guards down and they let their guards down, you know, we win a game and then we win the next game, then it's a series again,” Scott said.
While the Nets haven't beaten Los Angeles, they have learned much about Shaquille O'Neal, Kobe Bryant and the rest of the Lakers.
They have learned in the same way that Michael Jordan did with Chicago before the Bulls became a dynasty. They have learned as O'Neal did in being swept in the Finals in 1994 with Orlando.
For Martin, the key is to go to the basket more. He did that in Game 3 and scored 26 points.
“We have to be aggressive and throw the ball in the blocks and see what happens from there,” he said. “We have to go inside-out, instead of outside-in and see how they play it.”
Forward Keith Van Horn insists New Jersey would be in a much better position to win a championship if the series started over on Wednesday, instead of picking up with Game 4.
“In that first game we didn't even play 50 percent of the way we are capable of,” Van Horn said. “We've slowly climbed the ladder, but we still haven't been able to put together that game we are capable of. I think we are finally at the point where we know what we are capable of, and we now can do that against this team.”
The key is doing it.
“We feel, sitting in the locker room, that we should be sitting 2-1 instead of 3-0,” Jason Kidd said. “So you just got to play it out. But we're not intimidated or scared of the guys. It's just you got to be playing your best basketball at the right time of the year.
The Lakers are doing it now. The Nets aren't, although they improved in some areas in Game 3.
They shot better than 50 percent and they succeeded in getting a couple of easy baskets with backdoor layups. They even had a fourth-quarter lead with less than seven minutes to play.
“We know how difficult it is, but we still want to make it a series,” rookie Richard Jefferson said. “We still want to compete and do the best thing that we can.”
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Martin vows Nets won't quit 
