Hey guys,

Now that baseball season is over, Jerseyankee's Journal will now shift to my favorite sport: basketball. Unlike during baseball season, I won't focus on any one team- whatever games I watch have a chance to end up being analyzed on the Journal. I am partial to my teams (the Nets, who are featured here in this post, and the Seton Hall Pirates) only in that I will probably end up watching more of their games, so they'll have more of a chance to be blogged about. I'll also focus on the baseball offseason and the New Jersey Devils' hockey season, but as minor parts compared to basketball.

-Jerseyankee

Oh man- so close and yet so far.

The New Jersey Nets are officially off to their worst start in franchise history courtesy of the Boston Celtics, as they suffered an 86-76 defeat to drop to 0-7 on the year.

The Nets were severely shorthanded in this game, as they played without the services of Devin Harris, Yi Jianlian, Chris Douglas-Roberts, Courtney Lee, Jarvis Hayes, Tony Battie, and Keyon Dooling. Considering that, the Nets played well, as they actually had a 3-point lead heading into the 4th quarter. But the Celtics, who had shot only 40% in the game up to that point, hit 7-13 in the quarter, led by Ray Allen's 6 on 3-5 shooting. The Nets, meanwhile, shot 5-12 and committed 4 of their abominable 23 turnovers down the stretch to give Boston the win.

The Nets could not take care of the ball whatsoever, as the Celtics picked their pockets to the tune of TWENTY steals, an NBA season-high. It put a sour touch on what was otherwise one of the Nets' better games this year. They had one of the best teams in the NBA in a dogfight, but just couldn't take care of the ball or their business. The Nets host the 76ers on Wednesday, so they have a few days to think as they try to get their first win of the 2009-10 season.

A few bright spots for the Nets were Brook Lopez (10-16, 23 pts, 7 reb, 2 blk) and Josh Boone (8 pts, 12 reb). Rafer Alston paced the Nets offense with 7 assists to go along with his 20 pts, although he had a team-high 6 turnovers.

Paul Pierce had 16 points and 7 assists while Rajon Rondo also had 16 points along with 4 rebounds, 3 assists, and a team-high 5 steals for Boston.