LITTLE ‘MISS’ SUNSHINE
ATLANTA – The Nets’ latest adventure came down to a final shot. Again. Hey, when doesn’t it? So coach Lawrence Frank proposed a measure that makes sense.
“Every game, whether we win or lose, they might as well just fast-forward it and bring us down to the last 15 seconds and go, ‘Let’s go, let’s play,’ ” Frank said.
This one was set up to break the Nets’ hearts, spirits and backs one more time, as if they haven’t been broken and shattered already. Having blown a six-point lead in the final 2:56, the Nets went up by one when Vince Carter drove hard and scored. But 7.6 ticks remained. The Nets needed a stop.
Could it be? Could the Nets actually execute on both ends in the closing ticks of a game? Believe it or not, they did.
The Nets blanketed Atlanta go-to guy Joe Johnson, so the Hawks wound up with Jeremy Richardson shooting from the right corner. Jason Kidd contested as hard as Carter drove. The shot missed and the Nets, beaten by Atlanta at the overtime buzzer four days before, hung on for an 87-85 victory to end a four-game losing streak.
“We’re ecstatic. It’s not like we haven’t been in this position,” said Kidd, who had nine points – all in the second half – nine assists and seven rebounds. “I’ve never been a part of a team that plays on a consistent basis one-point games or three or less. … The percentages were in our favor of us getting a stop or them missing a shot and us making a shot. That’s what it came down to. The funny thing is we don’t panic.”
Usually, you only panic at the unfamiliar. A game decided by a one-possession spread is now as familiar to the Nets as their last names. This was the seventh time in 10 games that it all came down to the final possession.
“It didn’t matter who we’re playing against, it was just get a win more than anything. We weren’t into redemption,” said Carter (22 points, nine rebounds). “We’re into trying to get wins.”
It looked like fate was going to be unkind to the Nets (23-27) once again. Kidd inadvertently tapped in a Johnson miss with 15.9 seconds left, putting the Hawks up one, Johnson (10 points) getting credit.
“I thought this is not going to be our time again,” Kidd said.
But Carter made sure it was. He took the ball hard right at Johnson, who played him straight up.
“Attack. Just trying to be patient, yet be brief,” Carter said of his mindset on the play.
But it might have been too brief. The Hawks, who used Johnson to get the ball to Tyronn Lue for the OT winner Sunday, never got the ball into Johnson’s hands, thanks to the work of Antoine Wright. Richardson tried, missed. And the Nets averted more heartbreak, despite 20 points by fouled-out Josh Smith and 19 by Marvin Williams.
The win had its warts, like a sloooooow start. The Nets were down 20-12 and trailed by 11. There was more trouble at the foul line, 10-of-20. But there was more than enough to make up for it. Eddie House (16 points) led a second-unit charge, along with Marcus Williams, in the second quarter, when the Nets got back in the game. In the third quarter, the Nets took command with Kidd playing with superb energy and Mikki Moore putting in 10 of his 19 points. Boki Nachbar (eight points) hit a pair of huge third-quarter treys.
And still, nothing was decided until the very end. Carter made. Richardson missed, Carter rebounded and added one free throw.
“As long as we win,” Frank said. “If the NBA came down with a new rule you can win by half a point, we’d take it. The silver lining? By being in this many late-game situations, it should be commonplace.”
