Half a chance? The Nets are racking up wins in the regular season, but their playoff success will depend on an untested halfcourt game. (Insider: NBA).

Jason Kidd knows the naysayers are out there. He can hear the whispers. After five months of offensive highlights helped propel New Jersey to a likely No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs, plenty of experts think the Nets will make an early exit when their running game is confined to the halfcourt in the postseason.

"There's always going to be criticism, and we can't do anything about that because everyone has a right to their opinion," says Kidd, who came to New Jersey in an offseason trade with Phoenix after the Nets won only 26 games last season. "Teams are going to try to be physical and take us out of our routes and what we're comfortable doing. We've had a lot of experience with that from teams like Detroit and Philadelphia, and we just have to continue to execute and go through our second and third options."

In a conference full of flotsam and jetsam, those options are pretty decent. Shooting guard Kerry Kittles, small forward Kenyon Martin and power forward Keith Van Horn are solid scorers, and New Jersey's motion offense features plenty of cutting and ball movement to get them good shots. The Nets should have a talent edge over their first-round opponent, and they've finally established a genuine home-court advantage at the once-lifeless Continental Airlines Arena, where they are 30-6 this season.

But the road from Exit 16W to the conference finals is strewn with potential potholes. Kidd is a streak shooter who tends to go cold when the Nets get bogged down in a halfcourt game, and his 1-4 record in first-round playoff series with the Suns is hardly a source of comfort. Sure, Kidd has help, but most of it is on the perimeter.

In the low post, New Jersey's scorers range from solid (Martin) to suspect (Van Horn and center Todd MacCulloch), and the Nets might be forced to rely on the inside game when defenses clamp down in the postseason. That's why the Nets aren't getting the respect usually given a likely No. 1 seed.

"New Jersey's a running team," says Dikembe Mutombo, the center on a 76ers team that could end up facing the Nets in the first round. "If you let them control the pace of the game, they're going to blow you out. So you have to come out focused and try to make them play a halfcourt game.

"You slow them down by slowing Jason Kidd down. During the season, we played a sort of a zone, a 1-2-2 where we used the guard to put pressure on Jason so that he can't get the ball to the shooters. They live for the open (jump) shot."