But your 1/4 of the way there now. But does the tightening of the score worry you? I didn't(and won't) watch, so don't know what the feel and flow was like, but the thread sounds like the Lakers blew a big lead.
1. After every missed shot, instead of yelling or whining at the referees (like the Kings did), the Nets got back on defense. Wow!
2. New Jersey's defense actually played defense instead of falling down every time Shaq looked at them (like Vlade "no-talent" Divac does). This shows a team that actually cares about the game instead of trying to make a mockery of it.
3. After the game, Jason Kidd accepted the loss. He didn't blame the refs, David Stern, the Laker Girls, or anything else for the loss. Unlike the Kings, who whined, cried, and blamed their loss on everything from the hardness of the floor to Jupiter not aligning with Saturn properly.
New Jersey is a classy team. On several occasions when players on either team were fouled, the fouler would try to grab a hold of the foulee to prevent them from falling down. Think we would have seen that in the Kings series? Ha.
Yes, you are correct. I wasn't really pleased with that. The Lakers had a 23 point lead, and then let the Gnats back in it. I think Jackson made a mistake in clearing his bench too early and too Shaq out of the game. If Jackson had allowed the game to go on the way it was for probably 5 more minutes, I think the Lakers would have had a lead of 30. There were several wild missed shots by both teams when Shaq went out, and the game got very sloppy. The Lakers got out of the rhythm of their offense, and struggled thereafter. However, I don't believe the Gnats really solved Shaq. I also don't believe the game was really seriously in doubt. I'm sure the Lakers gave the Gnats confidence, but I don't know if that's going to translate to more than one win.