Fooled by the New Jersey Nets Winning Streaks?  

Do you think it is possible that the New Jersey Nets fooled a lot of people with their late season run? I have been able to watch the first 3 games between the Indiana Pacers and the New Jersey Nets and even getting past the horrible 3-point shooting the Nets do not look good. The Nets entered this series Vs the Pacers as 3 – 1 favorites and at that time 3 – 1 seemed a reasonable line. It was also a reasonable expectation that the Nets would take of Indiana.  In trying to figure out the Nets issues I went back and looked at their regular season and as they say hind sight is 20 – 20 and I believe we were all fooled by the New Jersey Nets.

Overall the Nets finished the regular season 49 – 33 but a more detailed review of their season could have told us that trouble was brewing in New Jersey and in this opening playoff series with the Pacers. The New Jersey Nets burst onto the radar screen this season with a 10 game winning streak that started on 12/16/05 and lasted until 1/8/06. When the 10 game streak was done the Nets had moved their record to 19 – 12 (7 games above 500) in their last 31 games which also means they were a poor 9 – 12 in the 21 previous games. In fact the Nets had not won more then 2 games in a row before putting the 10 game win streak together.

In March the Nets went on a 14 game winning streak and once again dominated the headlines and news coverage of the NBA as not only did they win 14 straight games but beat the likes of Phoenix, Dallas, Miami, and Detroit. Using our hind sight is 20 – 20 approach the red flag was staring us right in the face. Leading up to that 14 game winning streak (immediately following the 10 game win streak) the Nets were just 13 – 16. Doing the math is simple as the Nets ran their record to 38 – 28 (10 games above .500) with the help of two big runs of 10 and 14 game win streaks.

Now I am not jumping on the Indiana band wagon but after spending some time looking at the season’s history for the New Jersey Nets what are we left with? If we take away the two big win streaks we are left with a team that did not play over .500 and struggled to win more then two games in a row. On the other hand Indiana finished the season as strong as any of the second tear eastern conference teams winning 6 of their last 9 games. With Jermaine O’Neal returning healthy, playing well down the stretch, and seemly having his way down low against the Nets I don’t think NJ will survive the first round and very well could be one and done.

I think we were fooled.