Devin Harris had it all lined up. He crossed over Joey Graham, who went slip sliding away and out of the picture. Harris had 16 unobstructed feet in front of him. He rose. So did the crowd at the Meadowlands. He released.
He missed.
“That’s my go-to move. I couldn’t ask for anything more. I just missed it,” Harris said.
So Harris’ attempt to win and complete a furious Nets’ comeback from 12 points down in the final 4:35 – necessitated by shoddy third-quarter defense – found only the right side of the rim and bounded away as the Nets suffered a stinging 107-106 defeat to Toronto last night to fall into 10th place in the East.
Harris (25 points, 10 assists) bent down, hands to the court in dejection after Anthony Parker secured the rebound when the horn sounded. The first player at his side was Vince Carter (27 points, 10 rebounds, five assists, 5 of 10 on 3-pointers) who had been roaming the 3-point line, pretty much open.
“I just told him, ‘Great shot. That’s your move, that’s your shot. Shoot it again the same way,’ ” said Carter, who was part of a dizzying 3-point shootout all night. “It was a great look.”
The Nets, who trailed 102-90 before a 3-pointer by Bobby Simmons (16 points) at 4:34 ignited the final rush, had stopped Jose Calderon (17 points) from 21 feet with 21.9 seconds left. Harris rebounded. The Nets had already talked about going in transition. They went. They came up empty.
“Out of the timeout, we said if we get a stop, we get the ball, we get down the court and we’ll just make a play from there,” Carter said.
Got stop. Got ball. Got down court. Made play. Got great look. Missed shot.
“I hit that shot like 98.6 percent,” Harris said.
Heckuva time for the 1.4 percent to show up.
Graham (15 points – seven from the line) thought only of not fouling to preserve the one-point lead.
“I was like, ‘Don’t foul him, just stay in front and try and contest,’ ” Graham said.
And so the Nets, who had no trouble with effort like they did in the stinker Monday at Oklahoma City, fell to 20-26, a season-worst six games under .500. They also dropped a half-game behind both the Knicks and Milwaukee, who are fighting for eighth.
And that was despite 15 3-pointers (five by Keyon Dooling). Of course, much of the benefit of those triples evaporated when the Raptors made 11 of their own.
The Nets led by 13 early, four at the half, then had their third-quarter meltdown. Toronto hit five 3-pointers in the third quarter – and then got to the line repeatedly in the last two minutes. So the Raptors took an 84-77 lead into the fourth quarter. And it quickly became 10.
“Defensively we didn’t lock in until that fourth quarter,” said coach Lawrence Frank. “The third quarter defensively, collectively we just didn’t do a good job. And then the silly stuff the last 2 1/2 minutes of the third quarter really didn’t help us.”
*
Harris has at least two votes for the All-Star team. Like Jim O’Brien of Indiana, Raptors coach Jay Triano said he voted for Harris, admitting it was a no-brainer. “To me it was,” Triano said. . . Calderon’s streak of 86 straight free throws was unaffected. He did not go to the line.
Raptors 107 Nets 106
