Game 4

Unfortunately, part of making bold statements is being able to admit when you were wrong. Case in point tonight. On further review, the Nets did show incredible resiliance and confidence tonight and tied up the series. On a night when they all should have been wearing dog collars, they played harder, smarter, and more energetic than the Celtics. That's all there is to it.

The game started off (yes, I was there for tipoff this time, thanks) much like Game 3 -- the Nets were hitting 3's and holding court on defense. The Celtics were stagnant on offense and not scoring, except for Paul and Antoine. The second half also looked like Game 3 -- the Celtics were playing good defense, getting the crowd fired up, hitting key shots, and tied it with a minute or so to go. And now most (including me) were ready to call Doctor Heimlich and have him on standby behind Jersey's bench.

But then events deviated from the Game 3 pattern. Jason Kidd got the benefit of some, shall we say, questionable charging calls. A Net (Lucious Harris) actually hit clutch free throws and a Celtic (Paul Pierce) didn't. I guess the Nets really did come to play. And now it's a 3 game series. And now Jersey has home-court advantage back. And now I think if the C's don't win Wednesday, we're in trouble.