VVVs Guide to the Raps first round series.

[Dr Positivity]

Needless to say I think Casey v Kidd will be a crucial part of this series, due to the Nets smallball thing. My feeling is JV will be the misplaced man in this series. What I'm scared of is Amir defending the perimeter 4 Pierce, and then JV being all along defending the interior and struggling on help D. Before considering the possibility of KG taking him to school. If I'm Casey I either start a Amir at C + Pat or Hansbrough, or only play the starting lineup for 4-5 minutes. I think our best chance is to go smaller defensively and also run a bit offensively on the Nets, neither of which fits JV. Don't be surprised if Salmons at the 4 happens a lot.

I also expect a lot of Lowry/Vasquez which is fine because I like that lineup. I think Ross may lose some minutes when we play Lowry, Vasquez, Derozan together and then the bigs. Overall I could see our 2 sophomores playing more limited minutes than people expect.

We need to put the best defensive lineup out there we can, that's what our identity has been this year. If we can force the Nets into taking a lot of contested long 2s we will win, I don't see them having the athleticism to defend us well enough to beat us if their offense struggles. The Nets played good D this year but I think it was in a way less translatable to the playoffs.