Liz Robbins of the New York Times reports that Dikembe Mutombo doesn?t like his stat line this season. He sees that his minutes and his production are way down from his career averages and he?s worried. "I realized I'm not where I should be," he said.

He?s averaging 24.9 minutes with the Nets this season compared to a career average of 36.3 minutes. "I don't know if I'm happy with it," he said. "Or if I'm just trying to accept it. It's becoming a situation where I'm trying to see my way through ? can I keep dealing with it or should I see it changing?"

Mutombo asked coach Byron Scott for more minutes on Monday. Scott told him the same thing he?s been saying all season. He wants to limit Mutombo?s minutes during the season and keep him fresh for the playoffs. The reason why his minutes are so low is because he still doesn?t know the offense.

"I told him exactly what I told him months ago, that it's going to be between 25 and 30," Scott said. "I told him that as the season goes along and he gets a little more familiarized with what he's doing on the offensive end, then his minutes go up.

"But he has to know what we're doing out there every single time. I can't have some of the breakdowns that we have sometimes on the offensive end. So once he gets it, the minutes will go up to 29, 30, 31 minutes. I've got to do what's best for the team."

Questioning Mutombo?s offense is one thing, but Scott also questions his rebounding ability. "I still think he could get more rebounds," Scott said. "Although he'll probably say it's because he hasn't played enough."

The Nets' president, Rod Thorn, supports Scott's allocation of minutes and credits Mutombo's aggressive tone-setting defense in the past three games. (He had three blocks in the last game, a victory, against Minnesota.) "If he plays like that, he'll probably get more playing time," Thorn said.