Knicks like chances

Eye division after Nets' subtraction

BY MITCH LAWRENCE
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER

With loss of players like Kenyon Martin, Nets' dominance of Knicks may be over.
Bruce Ratner didn't score any points with Jason Kidd when he took a wrecking ball to the Nets this past off-season, but New Jersey's new owner has gained some rabid fans across the Hudson.

After being owned by the Nets the last two seasons and humiliated by their cross-river rivals in the playoffs last spring, the Knicks think they've got a shot to win the Atlantic Division this season, as much because of Ratner's controversial decision to break up his Eastern Conference power as anything else. The way things are going in Jersey, with Kidd dreaming of being traded to a contender, who knows? The Knicks might have seen the last of the great New Jersey team back in April.

"They still have Jason Kidd and Richard Jefferson, but they lost a lot of the nucleus that helped them get to the Finals two years in a row," Penny Hardaway said yesterday after practice. "When you lose guys like Kenyon Martin, Kerry Kittles, Lucious Harris and Rodney Rogers, you're going to fall backwards. They just don't have the same personnel. And we've gained in personnel, by bringing in Jamal (Crawford) and Jerome (Williams). So we think we can definitely win the Atlantic now."

The Knicks will get a look at the Nets' new personnel tomorrow night in the preseason opener for both teams, in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Just how far Jersey has come back to the Atlantic pack can best be exemplified by their power-forward position.

"Eric Williams is playing the 'four' for them?" asked Nazr Mohammed, incredulously.

Lawrence Frank hasn't made anything official, but Williams is expected to beat out Brian Scalabrine. Either way, it's a major comedown from Martin, who manhandled the Knicks' frontcourt during the Nets' first-round sweep.

"That's definitely a big loss for them," Mohammed said. "Eric has a good back-to-the-basket game, but I always considered him a "three" (small forward). Trying to replace Martin, that's hard. He brought them a lot of athleticism, energy. He was a good rebounder and he scored a lot of big buckets for them. When you lose a player like that it, it hurts your team."

The Knicks didn't get any bigger this past offseason. But because of Martin's departure, they think that the Nets have come down in size. How much so?

"The gap is closed," Mohammed said. "Last year, I have to give them credit. They won the series. But they won it more because of their experience of being together. I thought we had just as much talent and firepower. But they were together for two years, with that team. We were together for, what, 20 games? Now that we have more experience together, the gap between us and them is closed."

i wish they would just stop talking before the games are played...this type of stuff only serves to motivate a team like the Nets to try & prove everyone wrong...what they're saying is all true & obvious to everyone...what's the point in being quoted in the papers by saying it?

Posted by TMS:

i wish they would just stop talking before the games are played...this type of stuff only serves to motivate a team like the Nets to try & prove everyone wrong...what they're saying is all true & obvious to everyone...what's the point in being quoted in the papers by saying it?

Well said. But... The journalists are probably the ones asking the questions. IT probably set a policy on leaving no question unanswered by the rate of these stories that are coming out... Probably a way to generate interest in the team for revenue.