EL SEGUNDO, Calif. -- The New Jersey Nets can't yield a 23-point deficit like they did in Game 1. You're always fighting up hill after that. If you don't get over the top once, you obviously can't win. I think they were a little nervous, and it took them too long to get their game going and never to its best efficiency.

Even against the Nets' halfcourt offense, the Los Angeles Lakers anticipated all those cuts and backdoor passes. The Nets never really got their game going. The Lakers are a good defensive team when they focus in on your game.

The Nets can't count on the Lakers to give up easy baskets in transition, and they've got to rebound better. They were outrebounded by five (50-45), but New Jersey's 21 offensive rebounds was kind of a bogus number. You like to get them and score off them, but it's the defensive rebounds that get you out in the open court for fastbreaks.

When Shaquille O'Neal gets the ball as readily as he did, he's going to finish in the basket area. You don't get many fastbreak opportunities by hanging around the net. To slow down Shaq, the Nets not only have to do a good job inside against O'Neal but also pressure the passer. It was easy for the passers to pick Shaq out of the pack.

O'Neal is such a physical force that it's so hard to keep him from getting position. If the passers can wait and pass when they want without pressure, it makes it very difficult for Shaq's defender. They've got to do a better job from keeping him getting that good position near the basket.

Maybe they need to get a second defender in there to front him. All these are hard things to do, of course. When O'Neal is contained in any way, that's what teams are doing. They're making it hard for him to get the ball.

Are the Lakers going to be favored to win on their home floor again? Probably. The chances are high that the series will go back to New Jersey with Los Angeles leading 2-0. But the Nets have to feel they are in this thing. Even though they didn't play especially well, the Nets found themselves in a five-point game in the end.

A lot will depend on how the game starts Friday and how the tempo of the game is played. Still, with all of those other factors the Nets need to do, like the defensive rebounding, they need to do a better job on Shaq.

Dr. Jack Ramsay, a Hall of Fame coach who won an NBA title with Portland in 1977, is an NBA analyst for ESPN.