NET NOTES
When he was introduced to the area and then again during his coming out party at the start of training camp, Kenyon Martin proclaimed one goal, beyond giving effort on a nightly basis.
“I just expect to go out every night and play. The only goal I set for myself is to make first team All-Defense which has never happened for a rookie,” Martin said at the time. “If I play hard, I’m happy. If my team is winning, I’m happy.”
Obviously, Martin hasn’t been happy all the time with the Nets who carried a .325 winning percentage with their 13-27 record into last night’s game at the Meadowlands against the Bulls. That game was the final of the first half and the last outing before a potentially brutal five-game Western Conference road trip that begins Tuesday in Sacramento.
While Byron Scott acknowledges that an All-Defense berth is decidedly far-fetched for Martin, he concedes that his young forward has played good, strong defense – rookie or not.
“Defensively, I think he’s been great,” Scott said. “He’s done a real good job defensively lately against some of the better players in the league. It’s something he has top continue to do.”
And on the offensive end, it is coming for Martin, especially since the return of Keith Van Horn. In the eight games since Van Horn’s return, Martin had made 38-of-84 shots (.452, way up from .407) while averaging 10.6 points (down slightly from 10.9) and 7.9 rebounds (up slightly from 7.1).
“The last three weeks he’s played extremely well. He’s had a bunch of double-doubles,” Scott said. “Since Keith’s return, it seems like he’s rejuvenated. It’s somebody he wanted to play with. Keith and Steph (Marbury) are taking a whole lot of pressure off Kenyon as far as trying to score a lot. He just plays the other end of the court more. He still gets his shots, but I think he’s more relaxed with those guys out there because I don’t think he feels now he has to score a bunch of points for us to be successful. They take a lot of pressure off him. It has allowed him to play the type of game that we want him to play and that’s to be aggressive on both ends of the court.”
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Kendall Gill is still expected a Tuesday return from his latest rest of his sore right knee. “For the first time, I practiced two days in a row without pain,” Gill said. … What may be the NBA’s most intriguing race of the season was at the core of last night’s game: The chase to be the league’s worst shooting team. The Nets and Bulls have flip-flopped between last and next to last all season and the Bulls had put some space between them before last night when the Nets were again dead last. So the Bulls entered at .41727 (1261-of-3022) while the Nets, last or next to last in seven of the last 11 seasons, were at .41133 (1292-of-3141).
Nets play five teams out West in cities where they have a combined 32-77 all-time record – including one where they have a winning mark. Okay, it’s Vancouver, 3-1. That ends the trip – but only after the Nets visit Sacramento (6-20, including Kansas City), Golden State (12-14), the Lakers (4-22) and Seattle (7-20).
