One might want to ask thyself what exactly the New Jersey Nets and the Boston Celtics are trying to achieve.  In the last three games it has been the Nets who have jumped out to the lead only to have the Celtics mount a strong comeback before we get into the real game; can the Nets hold on?  With the teams following such a common theme it almost feels scripted to the point where we expect the Nets to create a lead and for the Celtics to come back.

New Jersey could not in Game 2 when Boston stole the win, coming back from 21 down at the third quarter break to create history, but in the last two games ? last night included ? it was the Nets who were able to hold on to create a three games to two buffer and more importantly move within one game of a trip to the NBA Finals.

"One win from going to the finals is a heck of an achievement," Nets Coach Byron Scott said. "But we still haven't achieved anything yet. Our objective is to get there. Not get one game away from there."

"It ain't over," responded Celtics guard Kenny Anderson. "It definitely ain't over. We've got Friday. We've got to come at it real hard Friday."

"We didn't lose the game because of (the start)," Antoine Walker said. "We lost the game because they switched to a zone, threw our rhythm off a little bit. We were prepared for it, but not as much as they played it."

Out West there is another interesting battle in progress, the Sacramento Kings overcoming their own woes to, like the Nets in the East, hold a three games to two advantage over their opponent.  The Lakers are lucky to even remain in the contest, a little luck and a twist of fate allowing Robert Horry to hit the game winning three pointer to sink the Kings by one solitary point in Game 4.  Horry, camped outside the arc, barely moving to catching the ball slapped by the Kings Vlade Divac under the basket off a Shaquille O?Neal lay up, caught and shot the ball in one motion as time expired to bail out the Lakers after both Kobe and Shaq had missed their chances to send the game into overtime.

Despite lucky breaks and being facing elimination in Game 6 Friday Los Angeles, in many people?s eyes, still remain the favorites.  Each game thus far has been relatively close and each game could have went either way.  The total margin from the last two games is only two points, the lowest margin possible, which shows how close this series has been, but despite having to win the next two games in order to keep their season alive the Lakers still believe they will overcome the odds.

"They've been better in three games," Rick Fox said. "We've been better in two. So we plan to be better on Friday and have it all wash out on Sunday."

"The TV doesn't lie," Robert Horry said. "Video doesn't lie. You can see certain things that should have been our way. Same way (the Kings) felt about my shot (in Game 4). They snuck one, we snuck one. So we're even."

It has been an entertaining third round of the playoffs, that is for certain.  But can both the Lakers and the Celtics back up their talk and take the next two games, including the seventh game on the road?  For now the ball is on their own courts, and only they can stop the 2002 NBA Finals from being a Kings-Nets affair.

It is common practice in each NBA arena for the supporters of the home team to ?heckle? with players from the opposition, in most occasions the star player.  Players accept this as part of the job, a part of being thrust into the limelight.  Just as the ability of each player can vary the aggressiveness of each fan cannot be grouped together either, but a case could be made in both instances that if one person leads others will follow.  It might be a part of the game, but when does it get too much?

Jason Kidd and the New Jersey Nets believe that the fans at the Fleet Center in Boston did cross that invisible line two nights ago after supporters taunted the New Jersey star as a ?wife beater?.  Kidd said he can take the abuse reports Fred Kerber of the New York Post, but the fact that his wife and three year old child were seated near the hecklers was the part that worried Kidd.

The comments did have some truth to them, stemming from an incident from 2001 where Kidd, then with the Phoenix Suns, was arrested on domestic abuse charges for allegedly striking wife Joumana in the mouth after an argument.

"It bothers me because I can't protect them in the sense of me playing," Kidd said. "I'm worried about them, but at the same time, I'm trying to win a ball game. They should enjoy it as much as the people in Boston should."

Kidd was not the only one out of the Nets camp disappointed with the chants.

"Obviously, there are people who are idiots," said Net coach Byron Scott. "That's hitting below the belt."

"Ignorance. A- -hole people, man. This is a man's personal life," said Kenyon Martin.  "I heard Joumana was sitting by one guy, and he had that [stuff] painted on him. You don't need [stuff] like that, man.  If you saw him on the street, he probably wouldn't say nothing to nobody . . . He probably ain't got no friends."

Kidd realizes that right now these are only words coming out of the stands, but still has a fear that something even worse could be on the horizon.

"Some people might be impaired, so their judgment could be altered a little bit. In that case, you never know what can happen."
What is happening, according to Gerry Callahan of the Boston Herald, is that Kidd is getting what he deserves.

?There was one thing the hecklers who went after Kidd most definitely were not: Wrong. If you want to sympathize with a victim of cruel, vicious hecklers, save it for Mike Piazza. Jason Kidd is guilty as charged,? writes Callahan.

?Kidd is a wife-beater, confessed and convicted, and it's hard to imagine that anything a heckler shouts could be more evil than what the man did to his family a year and a half ago.?

So did the Boston fans really go too far with their debacle in front of Kidd?s wife and child, including the person who went as far as to paint ?wife-beater? on his back, or is Kidd and the Nets just being thin-skinned?  There is a fine line between acceptable and unacceptable, and in this case only you can decide.

Apparently Jason Kidd has more to hate about Boston than the cockiness of the Celtic players.

According to Chris Sheridan of the Associated Press, Kidd felt that his wife Joumana and three year old son, T. J.,  were 'in jeopardy' from the Boston crowd on Monday.

"It bothers me. I can't protect them. I'm worried about them at the same time I'm worried about trying to win a ballgame," Kidd said. "You can't do that to somebody's family, put them in jeopardy for their safety. They came there to enjoy the game just like (Celtics fans) did."

I personally did see the fans with "wife-beater" written across their backs.  The men sat in front of Kidd's family and would stand up to incite the crowd in taunts.  While I feel this is a classless move on the fans part, Boston has always competed with the animals of Philly and New York for having the most viscious fans.

As for Kidd's comments that he felt worried about the safety of his wife and child, I feel he has little to worry about.  Boston crowds are pretty peaceful in the stands when it comes to women and children, and there hasn't been major violence in the stands since the Patriots played on MNF in the '80s.

While I can't say what Kidd is feeling, I can go to that old refrain of "the media is to blame."  Kidd's domestic abuse charges were well documented (as should be), but NBC is constantly showing Joumana in the crowd, mainly because she is hotter than most of the cheerleaders.  TJ has also been thrust into the public eye as a local Jersey paper runs a "TJ Watch" and Kidd himself has brought his son to the podium for a post-game press conference.

Kidd, who paid a fine and attended anger management classes for striking his wife in January of 2001, said that he could personally deal with the chant of "wife-beater," but felt that his wife should be left alone.

Despite letting another 15 point third quarter lead evaporate with 17.6 seconds left in the game the New Jersey Nets were never going to lose this game.  The game certainly had it?s moments, from Jason Kidd taking three charges late in the game to Paul Pierce of the Celtics missing two free throws with 1.1 seconds remaining in the game and his team down by 2, in their minds the game was never going to be lost.

"He's going to miss the first one," Lucious Harris said he thought at the time. "That's the first thing came in my mind. You talk about the ghosts in the building. Hey, is the ghost still here?"

The Nets played with confidence early on, never looking back at the historic 21 point comeback loss only 48 hours earlier.  And when the final buzzer sounded after a Tony Battie miss after Pierce deliberately missed the second of his free throws Kidd yelled back at the raucous Celtics fans who had ruthlessly taunted him, and he reminded them that the Nets had evened the Eastern Conference finals at two games apiece.

"I was tired of being humble," Kidd said.  "You get tired of these guys' chitchat," Kidd said. "As a veteran of the team, sometimes you have to speak out and let it go because you'll feel better. Now this is serious. We did what we had to and that was win one of two games on the road.?

"This is a heck of a win after the way we lost Game 3," Nets Coach Byron Scott said. "Game 5 is very, very important for us to protect our homecourt, and now that we got it back, I do not think anybody on this team wants to relinquish it."

As the Boston Celtics tried desperately to make history repeat last night in their comeback against the New Jersey Nets, Shira Spinger of the Boston Globe reports three guys wearing black and white striped shirts stood in their path.

Making a run to take the lead down the stretch Celtics leader Paul Pierce was accessed with two offensive fouls as he tried to emulate the moves which so easily got him to the basket in the fourth quarter of Game 3, then proceeding his second foul teammate Rodney Rogers was also accessed with an offensive foul on a layup attempt which would have tied the game.

''Come on - [three] in a row? Come on,'' said Kenny Anderson. ''They are judgment calls. It's not like someone spiking your hand as you go up.

''Different crews of refs, different personalities, different agendas. What are you going to do? Dick Bavetta, I don't know what his agenda was. Didn't look too Celtics-oriented. But like I said, I don't want to say we lost because of the referees because we didn't. Those are the breaks.''

Teammate Eric Williams, while also touching on the foul calls, was a little more timid in his approach.

'' Jason Kidd got a lot of offensive charges,'' said Williams. ''It was kind of tough trying to get into the flow of this game because there was a lot of offensive fouls called.
''I wasn't surprised about the whistles. They're calling the game like they see it. I know it is the playoffs and it's one of those situations where you don't think that certain calls are going to be in certain situations. That's pretty much it. You can't question their calls. They are the best referees the NBA offers, especially at this magnitude of game.''

Nets coach Byron Scott, however, believes the calls were accurate.

''As great as he is, once he is driving, sometimes he's out of control, and if we can get our weak-side guys to help, we can pick up some charges on him,'' said Scott. ''Jason did a great job picking up the charge on him and picking up the one on Rodney Rogers. That was big, but that is just Jason. He is going to do whatever it takes.?

Celtics legend Red Auerbach is not surprised that the New Jersey Nets choked two nights ago, and credits their shortcomings to one thing; cockiness.

"It's very difficult," Auerbach said about the Nets chances of full recovery. "Not only did they have the big lead, they were playing much better than we were. They were moving the ball, they were confident but they made one mistake. They acted cocky and they were gloating a little bit. Invariably - not all the time - it bounces back on you and comes back to haunt you."

Despire the failure in Game 3 Auerbach does not believe the Nets are done.  "You think they're going to lie down and die? You're crazy. They're going to come out smoking."

Richard Jefferson believes it is natural for Boston folk to believe that his Nets are doomed with all the failure they have had to endure during the past, but it is not time for the Nets to pack up their things and head home just yet.

"Boston has seen failure before. With the Red Sox, they've seen failure. They've seen things happen and seen teams crumble," said Jefferson. "But we've been in tough spots before. When we lost four in a row in the middle of the year, everyone said we were done. 'Oh, here they go. They're done.' But we didn't crumble."

There are four teams remaining in the race for the 2002 NBA Championship, and while most believe the victor is bound to come out of the West if the last two days of NBA action have showed us anything it is that anything is possible.  Two games, four halves, but only two winners.  Who would take the games?

Two nights ago we had the Boston Celtics, led by forward Paul Pierce, making history by coming back to win after being down 21 points at three quarter time.  No team in 171 attempts prior to that game had been able to come back from 19 or more points in a playoff game.  If that wasn?t exciting enough for you last night it was the Los Angeles Lakers turn, coming back from being down by 24 points in the first half to again steal victory from the jaws of defeat.

It wasn?t quite as emphatic as the Celtics win, the Lakers getting the lead down to seven points at the end of the third quarter, but as they say luck is a fortune.  

To close out the first half forward Samaki Walker had his prayers answered when he hit a 34 foot heave as the buzzer sounded, marking his second career three pointer in his six seasons.  He has only attempted seven including this one, the score cut to 65-51 at the half.

As the Lakers slowly wore down the Kings, the solid defensive efforts of Kobe Bryant on dynamic guard Mike Bibby leading the way, Los Angeles could get close to the Kings but couldn?t quite take the lead.  As the game was coming to a close Kings center Vlade Divac was put on the line with the Kings nursing a one point lead, but all the 7 foot Serbian could do was come up with a split which set the scene for a heroic conclusion.

Kobe Bryan drove the ball from the right side of the court, hung but missed his leaning floater.  Shaquille O?Neal rose for the rebound, his put-back layup also missing.  In an act of desperation Divac slapped the ball out of the key way to try to put the result to rest but there alone at the top of the key was Robert Horry, swooping on the ball then casually stroking the put-back three pointer to perfection, the sound of the buzzer sparking a Lakers commotion as Horry stood emotionless.  It was the Lakers first lead of the game, and it happened as time expired.

The Lakers looked at the Celtics for inspiration, never giving up regardless of how the scoreboard read.

"Yesterday, watching the Boston-New Jersey game, they were down more than us in the fourth quarter, and they weren't pressing the Nets," Brian Shaw said. "But they just came down and they made the most of their possessions, and they did a little bit at a time, and I think watching yesterday's game probably had a lot to do with us being as composed as we were coming down the stretch."

"It's hard to think about it now, with the shot going in," Rick Fox said about how close the Lakers came to being down 3-1, "but yeah, you find yourself 3-1, watching ESPN talk about all the percentages of all the people that haven't come back from that kind of deficit. Still may be a little bit in disbelief that it took that to win."

The last two days have been an NBA publicists dream.  Blowout or nail biter, never give up hope and never change the channel.

?I love this game??  How about ?expect the unexpected?.  NBA 2002.  Seeing is believing.

The scene was set for the New Jersey Nets last night, they had a big lead going into the fourth quarter and the team looked certain to take an all-important two games to one lead in Boston.  The Nets jumped out to a quick start to lead by 15 points after one quarter, 20 at the half, and 26 points with three minutes gone in the third quarter, and with Paul Pierce having an off night nothing could stop them winning.  Or so we thought.

Led by Pierce and inspired by the words of Antoine Walker between the third and fourth quarters the Celtics found their groove, Pierce scoring 19 points in the quarter while the Celtics as a team compiled 41 to steal victory from the jaws of defeat.  The defeat for the Nets, writes Liz Robbins of the New York Times, marked the worst fourth-quarter collapse in NBA playoff history.  Not once in 171 games has a team trailed by 19 or more points and three quarter time and had been able to come back and win.

"We blew the game," Nets coach Byron Scott said, almost emotionless. "That's all it is, it's one loss."

"Heck no," added Nets forward Kenyon Martin in disgust. "I don't care what they all say. It's worse than that. We blew an opportunity."

Through the first three quarters Kerry Kittles harassed Pierce into 2-of-14 shooting for only 9 points, New Jersey?s ploy to double team him frustrating him.  But the fourth quarter saw rookie Richard Jefferson guarding him and Pierce immediately went to work, scoring 7 points in the Celtics 9-0 run to open the term.  Jason Kidd then tried to guard Pierce over the final four minutes, but by that time the momentum was certainly with the Celtics.

"You kind of see it in their eyes," Pierce said. "It didn't seem like anybody wanted to shoot the ball for them. As we got closer to them, as we got more aggressive, as we started feeding off the crowd."

So what was it that Walker said during the break to spark the team in the way that he did?  According to Celtics coach Jim O?Brien Walker spoke emphatically to his teammates, challenging Pierce to take over and carry the Celtics, and for the team to attack, attack, attack.

According to Pierce Walker also said "that the New Jersey bench was laughing at us. He said no matter what happens in the fourth quarter, win or lose, we will go down fighting. We are not going to be embarrassed tonight."

"At the start of the fourth quarter, we just wanted to fight and make a statement for the next game that we were going to be a team to be reckoned with," said Pierce, who scored 19 of his 28 points in the fourth quarter. "And I think we made more than a statement.

"We feel like now we have control of the series. I think we can gain momentum from this."

"It wasn't anything he did," Martin said of Pierce,. "It was us. We knew he was going to be aggressive."

"Any time you lose a ballgame the way we did, it hurts. But we just have to go back over it and see what we can fix," said Kidd.

Greg Logan of Newsday reports that one of the worst people to give advice on trash talking is Kenny Anderson, yet it is Kenny who is yapping it up to rookie Richard Jefferson as the Celtics and Nets prepare for Game 3 Sunday.  After the Celtics won Game 2 Anderson was straight onto the case of Jefferson for only scoring two points after talking big during Game 1.

"The rookie over there, Jefferson, talking all that nonsense," Anderson said. "He was talking in the paper, saying he was going to do this and do that. Where was he [in Game 2]? Come on, man. Come with your game in Game 3. Stop talking and play ball."

"I wasn't really doing any talking," Jefferson said of his play in Game 1, when he had 10 points. "Paul Pierce and Antoine were running up and down the floor talking a lot. I've never guarded Kenny; he's never guarded me.?

"I've never said a word to Kenny. But apparently, if you say something back to Paul or Antoine, all of a sudden, you're running your mouth. I've never talked trash all year long. No one's ever said I have. I never talked trash in the papers, never said anything. I think that's people trying to look for something to get fired up on."