Liz Robbins of the New York Times reports that the Pacers and the Nets re-opened some old wounds last night. In the first rematch since the Nets eliminated the Pacers from last season?s playoffs in a hard-fought 5-game series, the Nets were able to gut out a 102-91 victory.

Here are the important stats:

There was a total of 59 personal fouls, and 9 individual technical fouls (5 for the Pacers).  4 flagrant fouls were whistled and 3 players were ejected (2 for the Nets but not Kenyon Martin). These numbers seem to indicate that the Nets-Pacers rivalry will lead to some bitter games.

"It was a crazy game, it got out of hand early on; the referees let some things get by, and it escalated," Martin said. He said he thought the Pacers' attitude brought it on. "They might have had a chip on their shoulder. I didn't think it would get that bad. It started from the playoffs last year; they thought they were better than we are."

"They're a young team and very physical, and we knew that was the type of game we'd have," Coach Byron Scott said. "When you're getting beat up and knocked around, you got to react some type of way, and our guys are not going to just take it. It got out of hand, and I knew it was going to get out of hand the first quarter."

With the Nets comfortable in the lead in the 4th quarter, Jason Kidd and Jamaal Tinsley scuffled. Tinsley appeared to push Kidd down in one possession without a call from the referrees. Kidd retaliated by flinging an albor toward Tinsley while trying to post up in the next possession. Kidd was ejected for an "open hand foul" and Tinsley was assessed a technical foul.

Kidd said he did not hit Tinsley with an open hand. "I'm not a thug," he said. "I think in the heat of battle, you're trying to get away from all the contact. The referee made a judgment call. It was the wrong call."

Kidds? backup was ejected after just 31 seconds on the floor. After missing two free throws, Anthony Johnson got thrown out of the game for pointing a finger in Tinsley's eye, almost as if he were defending Kidd's honor.