81.   Edgar Martinez missed three of six Seattle road games last week, played first base twice and pinch-hit once.

82.   Efforts to un-slip the slippage begin with two days of practice, today and Tuesday, before another road game, Wednesday at Denver.

83.   Each team will lose two home games and two road games.

84.   English, a senior, might as well make the most of his second road game this season.

85.   Even better, they won this big road game despite receiving a minimal offensive contribution from Reggie Miller and a negligible all-around contribution from Rik Smits.

86.   Even though they lost all three road games in the Indiana series, they are road-tested.

87.   Except for a second-period lapse Thursday night, the New Jersey Devils might have had themselves their fifth victory in their last six road games.

88.   Five of those contests will be road games.

89.   For road games they travel by air, except for the bus trip to Brisbane.

90.   For the second consecutive round, they will play road games that require only short trips by bus instead of long ones by airplane.