Nets Lose Kittles, Seikaly

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

January 29, 1999 / 10:48 PM EST / CBS Sportsline

A season of lofty expectations for the New Jersey Nets will begin without two key performers, starting shooting guard Kerry Kittles and center Rony Seikaly, who are both sidelined indefinitely with leg injuries.

Kittles has partially torn cartilage in his right knee and has decided against surgery. He will rest the injury with the hopes of speeding up his return. Kittles, whose 17.4 points per game last season ranked third on the team, is expected to miss at least four weeks.

The team said Seikaly is out indefinitely, although the New York Daily News is reporting he will be sidelined for about a month with ligament damage in his left ankle. Seikaly suffered the injury during a practice Monday.

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Kittles also missed the first five games last season with a groin injury. The former Villanova standout contributed 4.7 rebounds and 2.3 assists per contest during the 1997-98 campaign, helping New Jersey earn a playoff spot for the first time in four years with a 43-39 record.

The 6-foot-10 Seikaly was shipped to the Nets along with Brian Evans for a trio of players and a 1998 first-round pick shortly before last season's deadline after refusing to report to the Utah Jazz. He had been traded from the Orlando Magic to the Jazz on Feb. 16 but the deal was voided after Seikaly failed to show in Utah.

Seikaly averaged 13.3 points and 7.0 rebounds in 56 games last season, his 10th in the NBA after playing collegially at Syracuse.

The Nets clinched a playoff berth on the final day of the regular season as Kendall Gill scored 27 points in a 114-101 victory over the Detroit Pistons. Expected to start at small forward this season, Gill now might move back to his original shooting guard spot to fill in for Kittles.

Gill's possible departure to the starting backcourt should not povide much of a problem for New Jersey, which has a plethora of talented big men despite the injury to Seikaly. That group includes All-Star Jayson Williams, former All-Star Chris Gatling and last season's rookie standout, Keith Van Horn.

Van Horn, who sat out Wednesday's preseason opener at New York because of food poisoning, is expected to return to the lineup for tonight's home preseason contest against the Knicks.

The Nets open the abbreviated regular season next Saturday at Atlanta.