The Nets dominated the game yesterday with the Raptors.  The Nets raced out to a 86-56 lead after three quarters and they cruised to an easy victory.  Vince Carter was outstanding with 27 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists on 9 of 15 shooting from the floor.  Richard Jefferson also had a good game with 23 points, 3 rebounds and 2 assists.  Jason Kidd was outstanding despite playing with a sore knee.  Kidd shot 6 of 10 from the floor and he finished with 17 points, 8 rebounds and 13 assists.  Bostjan Nachbar had another solid game off of the bench with 11 points and 3 rebounds in only 20 minutes on the court.  The Nets are now up 3-1 in this series.

http://scores.espn.go.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=270429017

The Nets raced out to a 58-39 halftime lead and the Raptors never made a game of it.  The Nets shot 52.6% from the floor and that was a big reason for the win last night.  Vince Carter had an outstanding basketball game.  He shot 15 for 23 from the floor and he wound up with 37 points, 2 rebounds and 5 assists.  Richard Jefferson also had a solid game with 18 points, 6 rebounds and 3 assists.  Jason Kidd was awesome last night as he got himself another triple double.  Kidd scored 16 points, grabbed 16 rebounds, dished out 19 assists and stole the ball 3 times.  Bostjan Nachbar had another decent game off of the bench with 9 points, 3 rebounds and 2 steals.  The Nets big men also did a good job on defense as they held Chris Bosh to only 11 points.  The Nets are now up 2-1 in this series.

http://scores.espn.go.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=270427017

The Nets were winning this game 63-58 heading into the 4th quarter, but the Raptors outscored the Nets 31-20 in the 4th quarter to win the game.  It’s very hard for the Nets to win when Carter, Kidd and Jefferson combine to shoot 17 for 54 (31.5%) from the floor like they did tonight.  Vince Carter led the way for the Nets with 19 points, 11 rebounds, 5 assists and 3 steals.  Carter only shot 8 of 24 from the floor and he allowed Anthony Parker to role up 26 points tonight.  Bostjan Nachbar had a good game off of the bench with 17 points as he hit 4 of 7 three-point attempts.  Jason Kidd scored 14 points, grabbed 11 rebounds, dished out 7 assists and stole the ball twice.  He also had shooting problems as he only hit 5 of 14 from the floor.  Richard Jefferson was an awful 4 for 16 from the floor but he still wound up with 13 points, 7 rebounds and 3 assists.  The Nets also had big problems defending Chris Bosh tonight as he wound up with 25 points and 13 rebounds.  The Nets and Raptors are tied 1-1 in the series now as it heads to New Jersey.

http://scores.espn.go.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=270424028

It almost seemed like a home game for the Nets as the Raptors passed out red shirts even though they were wearing white and the Nets were wearing red.  The Nets raced out to a 78-65 lead after the first three quarters, but they had to hold off a furious 4th quarter rally to beat the Raptors.  Richard Jefferson had a fantastic game with 28 points and 5 rebounds to lead the way for the Nets yesterday.  Bostjan Nachbar was outstanding in his 29 minutes on the court as he scored 16 points, grabbed 5 rebounds and dished out 4 assists.  Vince Carter had a horrible shooting day (5 for 19) but he still wound up with 16 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 blocked shots.  Jason Kidd also had a poor shooting game (3 for 11) but he still scored 8 points, grabbed 10 rebounds, dished out 15 assists and stole the ball twice.  The Nets have a 1-0 lead in the series.

http://scores.espn.go.com/nba/boxscore?gameId=270421028

The experts seem to be in love with the thought that the New Jersey Nets will win this series with the Raptors and to that I think they are nuts and here’s why:  Chris Bosh is going to destroy the Nets super-soft interior defense and the Nets don’t have a bench, while the Raptors have a pretty good one.  Here’s a breakdown position by position for this series:

Point Guard:  Their is no doubt that Jason Kidd is a better basketball player than T.J. Ford, but the gap isn’t as big as most people think.  Kidd averaged 13.0 points, 8.2 rebounds and 9.2 assists per game while Ford averaged 14.0 points, 3.1 assists and 7.9 assists.  Kidd will likely try to sneak inside some and post up Ford on offense, while Ford will try to keep him outside.  Ford is very fast and that could pose problems for the Nets’ defense if he gets by Kidd on the drive.  EDGE:  NETS

Shooting Guard:  Vince Carter is one of the best players in the NBA and he will pose serious problems for the Raptors defense.  Anthony Parker of the Raptors is a solid player, but he will be really tested on defense.  Carter averaged 25.2 points, 6.0 rebounds and 4.8 assists per game this season while Parker averaged 12.4 points, 3.9 rebounds and 2.1 assists.  You just know that Vince Carter is going to try to destroy his old team and he’s sure to get abused by the Toronto crowd, but I think he will play well.  Parker needs to make Carter work on defense so he can’t be scared to put up a lot of shots.  EDGE:  NETS

SMALL FORWARD:  Richard Jefferson is an important part of the Nets “Triplets” and he’s really good at running the floor on the fastbreak.  Joey Graham will be starting against him and he didn’t play much during the season, but his most important job will be playing defense.  Jefferson has averaged 16.3 points, 4.4 rebounds and 2.7 assists per game this season.  If he’s not sharp, the Nets can’t win.  Graham averaged 6.4 points, 3.1 rebounds and 0.6 assists per game this season.  EDGE: NETS

POWER FORWARD:  Chris Bosh is a fantastic basketball player and he will do whatever he wants to against the soft defense of the Nets.  He averaged 22.6 points, 10.7 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game this season.  The NBA Playoffs is a place where stars shine and we haven’t seen the best of Chris Bosh yet and it’s coming in this series as he will average 25-30 points per game and 12-15 rebounds per game in this series.  Veteran Mikki Moore has been a nice story so far this season as he averaged 9.8 points, 5.1 rebounds and 0.9 assists per game.  He is a decent basketball player, but he doesn’t make anyone on the Raptors lose any sleep worrying about how to defend him.  EDGE:  GIGANTIC FOR THE RAPTORS

CENTER:  Rasho Nesterovic vs. Jason Collins.  Excuse me if I’m not getting very excited about this matchup.  Nesterovic has the edge size wise so he might be able to have some success against the Raptors.  He only averaged 6.2 points, 4.5 rebounds and 0.9 assists per game.  Those numbers look pretty poor until you look at what Jason Collins did this season.  Collins averaged 2.1 points, 4.0 rebounds and 0.6 assists per game.  EDGE:  RAPTORS

BENCH:  The Raptors bench was very productive this season and they will be against the Nets.  Jose Calderon (8.7 points, 1.7 rebounds, 5.0 assists) will team with T.J. Ford to run Jason Kidd into the ground unless Marcus Williams of the Nets can play good enough to give Kidd a break once in a while.  Williams averaged 6.8 points, 2.1 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game.  The Nets cut Williams’ minutes as the season went on because of his erratic play.  The Nets will likely let Bostjan Nachbar play alot in this series as they will go small a lot in this series.  He averaged 9.2 points, 3.3 rebounds and 0.8 assists per game this season.  He’s a really good shooter so the Raptors will need to be aware of where he is on the court at all times.  Rookie Andrea Bargnani (11.6 points, 3.9 rebounds, 0.8 assists) and Morris Peterson (8.9 points, 3.3 rebounds and 0.7 assists) will help the Raptors with their outside shooting in this series.  The Raptors’ Juan Dixon also could be a key as he’s played really well since coming over from the Trailblazers in a trade.  He averaged 11.1 points, 2.8 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game for the Raptors.  He’ll provide instant offense off of the bench.  The Nets must have Josh Boone (4.2 points, 2.9 rebounds and 0.2 assists) or Cliff Robinson (4.1 points, 2.4 rebounds and 1.0 assists) step up and give them good minutes off of the bench.  EDGE:  RAPTORS

PREDICTION:  The Nets will win a game early in this series and everyone will be talking upset, but, in the end the Raptors will win this series in 6 games because they have home court advantage and a much deeper basketball team.