Martin has the upper hand on O’Neal

While Jermaine O’Neal is talking about how no one on the Nets can stop him, in New Jersey the belief is, and as Steve Popper of the New York Times reports it is the more believable scenario right now, that Kenyon Martin can more than handle O’Neal without any assistance.

"I always feel like that," Martin said. "I've been talking like that for a while, before I got in the league. I've always felt like that. No matter who I'm on, I can — I'm not going to shut guys out, this is the N.B.A. — but I feel like I can do a pretty decent job of limiting what they do."

And after holding the All-Star to only 12 points in each of the past two games – both losses to O’Neal’s Pacers, Martin has a reason to talk.

"We're not trying to get in his head," Martin said. "We're just playing him tough. We just played him different than we did in Game 1. He got the ball anywhere he wanted to in Game 1 and he made shots. He was 5 for 17 and 3 for 11 in the other games. We knew we had to play him different, whether he was talking or not."

"We won two games, man. Everybody's talking about Jermaine, Jermaine, Jermaine. Let them keep focusing on him. We're worried about winning."

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New Jersey Nets, Indiana Pacers

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No ‘Kidd’ing, point to Mercer

While Pacers coach Isiah Thomas did not plan on playing guard Ron Mercer on MVP chance Jason Kidd, but his team’s hopes of surviving in this opening series against the New Jersey Nets might rest on it.

"I can see us doing that again," Pacers coach Isiah Thomas said on Sunday, referring to his Game 3 switch at point guard.

Mercer is four inches taller than usual point guard Jamaal Tinsley, and the Pacers game plan is to try to make the All-Star guard shoot over the defender. Ron Artest has also spent some time on Kidd, who thus far has been virtually unstoppable, scoring and passing almost at will.

"He's hurt us every game," Mercer said of Kidd. "He's shorter and quicker. I try to use my height as an advantage and try to challenge the shots he takes, to make sure he shoots over a bigger guy.

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Indiana Pacers, New Jersey Nets

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Scott: I’ve hit bigger

As the old saying goes ‘even if a shooter if off they still believe that their next shot is going in’. If you are after a case study to see if this theory rings true then look no further than Kerry Kittles of the New Jersey Nets. With his side down with 22.5 seconds left in Game 3 it was Kittles, 1-for-10 to that point and shooting 28% in the series against the Pacers, who found the ball in his hands. Kittles rose and hit the shot for his team, setting up the win and now an opportunity to close out the series. There is no doubt that it was a big shot, but exactly how big a shot was it?

"I've seen bigger shots and I've hit bigger shots," Byron Scott said yesterday, laughing. "For this franchise and for this season, the way we've been playing, that was the biggest shot that I've been associated with. Everybody in Indiana would probably be a little indifferent because of the shot against Orlando that I hit . . . but that was the biggest shot that I've seen in a long, long time."

"To make a shot like that on the road, in the playoffs in a crucial game for us, it's a big shot," Kittles said. "I know I was struggling, but there was no use in me sitting on the bench getting down about a bunch of missed shots. I gotta think, ‘Hey, if I get an opportunity to get back in the game, I gotta go out there and make something happen.' "

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