Jason Kidd is quiet, and this is a good thing from the perspective of his coaches and teammates.
New Jersey’s point guard has been anything but quiet on the floor, where the All-Star has averaged a triple-double in these Eastern Conference finals.
But off the floor the Nets’ heart and soul has chosen to say little to his teammates in the form of leadership and instead doing a slow burn that has translated to a steady sizzle once the game starts.
“When Jason’s real quiet, there’s something going on inside him that you just want to leave alone and let explode when the game starts,” Nets coach Byron Scott said. “He’s coming at games with a vengeance.”
Wednesday night proved no exception.
Riding the intensity of Kidd, the big game of Kenyon Martin and the sweet shooting of Kerry Kittles, the Nets defeated Boston 103-92 before a sellout crowd of 19,850 at Continental Airlines Arena. New Jersey took a 3-2 lead in the series and is one victory away from the franchise’s first appearance in the NBA Finals.
Game 6 is Friday night in Boston.
Kidd finished with 18 points, 12 rebounds and seven assists. Kittles had 21 points while Martin and Keith Van Horn each had 19.
Boston must win two games with the daunting knowledge that New Jersey has controlled this series. The Nets have led for all but 84 seconds of the last three games combined, including all but 25 Wednesday night.
Mindful of the slow starts that forced his team to claw back from large deficits the last two games–once successfully, once not–Celtics coach Jim O’Brien implored his team to begin better.
It didn’t happen.
Boston missed its first seven shots and trailed 31-16 after the opening quarter. In the last three games, the Celtics have trailed by an average of 14.3 points after the first 12 minutes.
The Celtics again opted for the defensive strategy of packing the paint and focusing their attention on Kidd. Kittles made them pay early.
He shot 41 percent from three-point range during the regular season but missed his first 17 attempts in this series before breaking out of his slump with a 4-for-7 performance in Game 4.
Kittles hit two three pointers early Wednesday and scored 12 points in the first quarter.
“I’ve made this statement in the past and I’ll live with this statement,” O’Brien said. “If they’re going to continue to make long shots, they’ll probably win the series. We’re so concerned about Kidd that we’re not going to push all the way out there and be denying Van Horn and Kittles out on the perimeter.”
Boston, so reliant on the three-point shot, also missed its first seven attempts from that distance.
But the patented Celtics run occurred. Trailing by as many as 20 and by 17 at halftime, Boston outscored New Jersey 31-17 in the third quarter as little-used Erick Strickland scored his first nine points of the series.
The Celtics pulled within 74-73 with 10 minutes, 50 seconds remaining on two Strickland free throws. But Kidd scored six points and Van Horn hit back-to-back three-pointers in a 20-1 run that put the game away.
Pierce led the Celtics with 24 points.
Pierce entered Game 5 averaging 26 points in the series, but his performances have not featured the smooth flow or deceptive dominance of so many of his regular-season efforts.
