By D. Chip James

The game of the week will be played Thursday night in New Jersey when the Atlantic Division leading Nets, owners of a 10-game win streak, take on the Pacific Division leading Sacramento Kings.

December’s Western Conference player of the month, Chris Webber, has been out of the lineup recently due to a left knee bone bruise but expect the power forward to return for this colossal meeting between NBA Final hopefuls. New Jersey’s own player of the month for December, Jason Kidd, will lead the Nets as he matches up against recently-activated Mike Bibby.

Bibby has started all seven games since returning to the Kings’ lineup, logging 32 minutes per game, scoring 18.7 points per game and handing out 4.6 assists. He’s come back from injury on fire, shooting 48.5 percent from the floor and a blistering 52.4 percent from behind the arc.

Kidd has upped his scoring this year (20.5 ppg) and is again a leading candidate for the league’s Most Valuable Player award. He leads the Nets in minutes, points, assists and steals. If Kidd shoots well and can get his explosive tandem of Kenyon Martin and Richard Jefferson involved early, the Kings may become the 11th straight victim to New Jersey’s attacking offense.

Webber and Keon Clark will have the job of trying to slow down the surging Kenyon Martin who has averaged 20 points and 11.2 boards in the last five Net wins. On the wing, either Doug Christie or Peja Stojakovic will have the task of keeping Richard Jefferson and his ridiculous hops away from the hoop. Jefferson has shot close to 53 percent from the floor this season while scoring 15.1 ppg and grabbing 6.7 boards.

The matchup between Martin and Webber could be more decisive than the point guard battle between Kidd and Bibby. Webber has averaged 22.9 points per game this year but Martin has thrived defensively holding a slew of offensive forwards well below their averages, keying the Nets success.

With Bobby Jackson and his 19.5 ppg average stuck on the bench after breaking his hand against the Lakers on Christmas day, Sacramento will need it’s role players to step up and score some points in they want to earn this tough road win. Vlade Divac will have to exploit New Jersey’s lack of size in the middle and improve upon his season average of 9.8 points per clip. With his three point shooting percentage and scoring down from last season, Stojakovic could use this game to get back on track if he can successfully shoot over the smaller wing players that the Nets may have to use on him.

Any time two of the league’s top five scoring teams go head to head, you can expect an exciting game, which explains why TNT will be airing the showdown. Sacramento is third in the league, scoring 99.1 points per contest and NJ isn’t far behind at 98.5. Whichever team can find a way to stop the other’s high-powered offense will have a great deal of momentum to propel them into the final month of play leading to the all-star break.

Notes:

With Kerry Kittles back from injury and his replacement and recent Eastern conference player of the week Lucious Harris still playing well, the Kings may have a tough time keeping up with the deeper (and healthier) Nets.

Defense wins championships? New Jersey is third in the league giving up just 88.8 points per game while Sacramento allows 92.

Only Atlanta, Cleveland and Houston have worse home game attendance this season than the Nets as they’re drawing under 14,000 fans per game in the swamp. In contrast, on average, Sacramento draws over 16,000 fans in each of their road games.

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