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Sunday, Dec. 19 6:00pm ET
Nets earn fifth straight home victory | |||||
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BOX SCORE
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 GAME FLOW
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) -- Rebounding specialist Jamie Feick turned into quite a jump shooter Sunday night. Feick scored a season-high 16 points, making seven jumpers from 16 to 21 feet away, as the New Jersey Nets beat the Atlanta Hawks 96-88 for their fifth straight home victory. "I didn't know he was capable of making shots from out there. I take my hat off to him," said Dikembe Mutombo, who was hesitant all night to go out and defend Feick on the perimeter. "I didn't plan to chase him. I was trying to help on Stephon (Marbury) penetrating all the time, and my man was spotting way out there by the 3-point line. That really surprised me the way he hit a couple of those shots." Feick finished 8-for-13 from the field with 13 rebounds, while Keith Van Horn led New Jersey with 20 points, Kendall Gill had 15, Kerry Kittles had 14 and Marbury added 12 points and 11 assists. The Nets (8-17) improved to 6-4 in the month of December. Isaiah Rider had 20 points for Atlanta, which lost its third straight. Rookie Jason Terry added 14 and Jim Jackson, Alan Henderson and Chris Crawford had 13. Feick, who joined the Nets on a 10-day contract last season and signed a six-year, $15 million deal in the offseason, scored the Nets' final field goal on a corner jumper with 12 seconds left, surpassing his previous season-high of 15. "I've got it. I just haven't used it much," Feick said of his jumper. "Mutombo was laying off me and I wanted to try to pull him out away from the basket. (Coach Don) Casey told me before the game if I had the 15-18 footer to go ahead and take it." Mutombo wasn't the only one surprised by Feick's shooting prowess. Power forward Alan Henderson, who guarded Feick when Mutombo was on the bench, was similarly impressed. "We used to play year-in and year-out in college when I was at Indiana and he was at Michigan State, and he had about 8-10 foot range then," Henderson said. "Now he's shooting 18-19 feet and shooting it well. He got into a groove tonight and really was the key for them. " After blowing an early 14-point lead and falling behind by as many as eight, the Nets went ahead for good early in the fourth quarter. A jumper by Feick from the corner put New Jersey up 83-79, and a driving layup by Gill upped the lead to six with 4:57 left. After a four-minute rest, Rider checked back in with 4:36 left but couldn't rally the Hawks. A steal by Marbury led to a fast-break layup by Kittles with 3:19 left for an 89-80 lead that all but sealed it. "We got off on the wrong foot, but I think we've righted ourselves," Casey said. "Every week we're inching back a little more, but we've only got eight wins. We've still got a long way to go." The Nets opened a 28-14 lead on a 3-pointer by Van Horn less than 10 minutes into the opening period, but Atlanta had caught up by the latter part of the second quarter en route to a 56-54 halftime lead. Chris Crawford, Jackson and Rider all had 11 points in the first half for Atlanta, while New Jersey -- despite shooting 53 percent -- was hurt by its inability to draw fouls. The Nets were just 0-for-2 from the line, with Marbury missing both. Van Horn got to the line for the Nets early in the third and also missed both, leaving the Hawks ahead 61-57, and the lead soon grew to eight as Henderson scored on a putback to make it 65-57, but the Nets surged back to send the game into the fourth period tied at 73-all.
Game notes | ALSO SEE NBA Scoreboard Atlanta Clubhouse New Jersey Clubhouse RECAPS LA Lakers 94 Toronto 88
New Jersey 96
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