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Nets Show Their Toughness and Cool

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SEOOKE.com : NYT - BOSTON — The Nets have now accomplished something in the last 13 days that they had not done in more than half a decade: they have beaten the Boston Celtics twice in one season. Their win total from the month of November against the Celtics matches the number of wins they had against Boston in the last five seasons combined.

Nets Coach Avery Johnson is not about to declare a changing of the guard in the Atlantic Division, which the Celtics have ruled over the last five years. But after his team’s fourth straight victory and its first 10-victory month since 2006, Johnson said: “People are starting to take notice. We are a mentally and physically tough team.”

The Nets showed it Wednesday night in taking a 95-83 victory in a game that was marred by a fight late in the second quarter that resulted in the ejections of Rajon Rondo, Kris Humphries and Gerald Wallace. Even without two starters, and with Brook Lopez in foul trouble, the Nets kept their composure and relied on their bench, getting a season-high 17 points from Jerry Stackhouse and the first double-double of the season from Andray Blatche (17 points, 13 rebounds.)

If you’re in an alley fight, we’ve got guys you’d like to be in there with.”

Wallace and Rondo declined to comment.

The referee James Capers said, “Rondo initiated everything that proceeded after the foul.”

The ejection ended Rondo’s streak of having at least 10 assists in a game at 37, tying the Hall of Famer John Stockton for the second-longest such streak in N.B.A. history (Magic Johnson’s 46-game streak is at No. 1.). Rondo had three assists when he was ejected. He missed the Celtics’ first game against the Nets with a sprained right ankle.

While Johnson and Williams were celebrating the Nets’ resilience and toughness, Celtics Coach Doc Rivers was furious after yet another lackluster performance by his team. The Celtics are 4-4 at home and are in fourth place in the Atlantic, a division they won by an average of 17.5 games between 2007-8 and 2010-11.

“That was awful, basketball-wise,” Rivers said. “I thought, If I’m Brooklyn, and the league, you’ve got to think we’re pretty soft the way we’re playing. We’re a soft team right now.”

The Nets led by 16 when the fight began late in the first half. The victory put the Nets six games over .500 for the first time since the end of the 2005-6 season.

Joe Johnson led the Nets with 18 points. The Nets outrebounded the Celtics, 50-40, with Lopez (10), Reggie Evans (10) and Blatche (a season-high 13) all in double figures. The Nets also had a 23-11 advantage in second-chance points and connected on 10 3-pointers to one for the Celtics.

“If you want to do anything special in the Eastern Conference, the Boston Celtics are in the way.”

In the first four years of the Kevin Garnett era in Boston, the Celtics won the division title by an average of 17.5 games a season. The closest team to them in those four years were the 2010 Raptors, who finished 10 games behind the Celtics.

The Celtics have yet to play the Knicks this season, but in two games, but in two games against the Nets, they have seen that there is at least one more team ready to put up a fight. [NYT]
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