While Jermaine O?Neal is talking about how no one on the Nets can stop him, in New Jersey the belief is, and as Steve Popper of the New York Times reports it is the more believable scenario right now, that Kenyon Martin can more than handle O?Neal without any assistance.

"I always feel like that," Martin said. "I've been talking like that for a while, before I got in the league. I've always felt like that. No matter who I'm on, I can ? I'm not going to shut guys out, this is the N.B.A. ? but I feel like I can do a pretty decent job of limiting what they do."

And after holding the All-Star to only 12 points in each of the past two games ? both losses to O?Neal?s Pacers, Martin has a reason to talk.

"We're not trying to get in his head," Martin said. "We're just playing him tough. We just played him different than we did in Game 1. He got the ball anywhere he wanted to in Game 1 and he made shots. He was 5 for 17 and 3 for 11 in the other games. We knew we had to play him different, whether he was talking or not."

"We won two games, man. Everybody's talking about Jermaine, Jermaine, Jermaine. Let them keep focusing on him. We're worried about winning."

While Pacers coach Isiah Thomas did not plan on playing guard Ron Mercer on MVP chance Jason Kidd, but his team?s hopes of surviving in this opening series against the New Jersey Nets might rest on it.

"I can see us doing that again," Pacers coach Isiah Thomas said on Sunday, referring to his Game 3 switch at point guard.

Mercer is four inches taller than usual point guard Jamaal Tinsley, and the Pacers game plan is to try to make the All-Star guard shoot over the defender.  Ron Artest has also spent some time on Kidd, who thus far has been virtually unstoppable, scoring and passing almost at will.

"He's hurt us every game," Mercer said of Kidd. "He's shorter and quicker. I try to use my height as an advantage and try to challenge the shots he takes, to make sure he shoots over a bigger guy.

As the old saying goes ?even if a shooter if off they still believe that their next shot is going in?.  If you are after a case study to see if this theory rings true then look no further than Kerry Kittles of the New Jersey Nets.  With his side down with 22.5 seconds left in Game 3 it was Kittles, 1-for-10 to that point and shooting 28% in the series against the Pacers, who found the ball in his hands.  Kittles rose and hit the shot for his team, setting up the win and now an opportunity to close out the series.  There is no doubt that it was a big shot, but exactly how big a shot was it?

"I've seen bigger shots and I've hit bigger shots," Byron Scott said yesterday, laughing. "For this franchise and for this season, the way we've been playing, that was the biggest shot that I've been associated with. Everybody in Indiana would probably be a little indifferent because of the shot against Orlando that I hit . . . but that was the biggest shot that I've seen in a long, long time."

"To make a shot like that on the road, in the playoffs in a crucial game for us, it's a big shot," Kittles said. "I know I was struggling, but there was no use in me sitting on the bench getting down about a bunch of missed shots. I gotta think, ?Hey, if I get an opportunity to get back in the game, I gotta go out there and make something happen.' "

Jermaine O?Neal vowed he would play better in Game 3 of the Indiana Pacers series with the Nets, but at the end of the day he had the same figure ?12? next to his name in the scoring column as he did in Game 2 with the result also being identical, an unwanted ?L?.

"There wasn't a whole lot of effort in that game," he said, pointing to the Game 2 box score. "I was very intense and very focused and very aggressive (Friday). I gave myself a chance to get going, but I just couldn't get going."

O?Neal had a chance to send the game to overtime but missed a free throw was 3.6 seconds left, sealing New Jersey?s 85-84 win.

"I wanted this game in a major way," he said. "We were the only game on TV tonight. The world was watching. The series was tied. We were on our home court. And I got an award (for Most Improved Player before the game). That was the perfect scenario for me."

While concerned about some political delays, NBA Commissioner David Stern is still optimistic that he will be able to move the Nets to Newark.

"I get a sense that it makes too much sense for the Nets, for Newark, for the state, for something not to be worked out," Stern said. "Unfortunately, I have a lot of experience in these matters, more than I'd like to have. Sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. But I'm hopeful that all the signs are here that it's going to work out."

"I think that it's in agreement that a new building is necessary. But I think that this year we've seen 18,000-plus people here on Saturday and there are going to be more than that here tonight. I think that the attendance during the regular season was much ballyhooed as not being a sellout, and I think that was reflecting the restoration of the value of the ticket. I think if I was a fan I'd get on line right away for next year's tickets before they're all gone."

New Jersey say they can shut down rising star Jermaine O?Neal, but the problem player for them in this series seems to be Ron Artest.  The reason, writes William Rhoden of the New York Times, is because what Artest brings to the table cannot be practiced against.  He brings crazed emotion, defensive intensity.

"Most players play not to get hurt," his coach, Isiah Thomas, said yesterday. "They never put themselves out there physically or emotionally. Everybody plays safe. He plays from a place of pure, raw passion, and it's an angry place. It's a place of defiance.?

"For most players in this league, when a guy scores, they run downcourt. You score on Ron, he's really angry, to the point where he's beating himself up. You want that kind of guy. Those are the kind of guys you win with."

But Artest disagreed with Thomas? assessment of him, emphasizing that he does not come from a dark, angry place.  This is how he grew up playing.

"You can't play with anger. When I was at St. John's, I was so demanding at practice, but my team knew all I wanted to do was win; they knew I wasn't just being stupid. They knew I wanted the best for everybody."

Reggie Miller enjoys playing with his new team mate Ron Artest, who his Pacers acquired from a mid season trade with the Bulls for Jalen Rose.  While he admits that Artest can sometimes be out of control he likes Artest?s desire, a factor in Indiana?s big win over the first seeded New Jersey Nets.

"I kind of like when he goes crazy. He has passion," Miller said. "He wants to win. Being stuck in Chicago for a few years will do that to you. Now he has a chance to show the world."

Artest finished the game with 12 points, 6 rebounds, four assists and four steals, picking up three of those steals in a 1:29 span late in the fourth quarter when the game was on the line.

"The ball was right there and I just went after all of them," said Artest, who had the job on MVP candidate Jason Kidd in the fourth.

What is the common denominator linking the success of the Nets, Pistons, and Celtics?  Peter May of ESPN.com has an answer that might surprise you: the Phoenix Suns.

The three lottery teams from a year ago all made trades with Phoenix that helped turn their teams around.  The Nets doubled their win total with Jason Kidd, the Pistons turned their record from 32-50 to 50-32 (largely thanks to the addition of Cliff Robinson), and the Celtics have a .642 winning percentage since trading for Rodney Rogers and Tony Delk in February.

So maybe Jerry Colangelo should be nominated for Executive of the Year.  After all, he did get three teams into the playoffs.  Unfortunately none of those teams played in Phoenix where the Suns were 15 games worse than a year ago.

The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel is reporting that a poll taken last week with 20 writers, 10 from the East and 10 from the West, had New Jersey?s Jason Kidd taking the MVP award on 10 ballots, Tim Duncan from San Antonio just behind him with 9 and Shaquille O?Neal registering one.

While hardly conclusive, it does show that this year?s MVP voting will be extremely close when 127 writers around the country cast their votes for real.  Each writer will be asked to give their preferences in a 5-4-3-2-1 format, 5 being the top score.  The results from the poll had Kidd finishing with 83 points, Duncan with 82, O'Neal with 66 and Orlando's Tracy McGrady fourth with 33 points.

"My case is, we're 24, 25 or 26 games better than last year," New Jersey coach Byron Scott said, naturally leading towards his star Jason Kidd.. "That's a big difference. We have a lot of the same players. The one major addition is Jason. I think that's argument enough. We weren't supposed to do anything. Going from 26-56 to 50-plus wins, I don't think there's a better argument."