STUNNING RALLY LIFTS NETS
PHILADELPHIA – Take a seat, grab a cold one. You’re not going to believe this.
This was the stuff of Hollywood. The Nets were without two starters – including Vince Carter, who limped off for good with a sprained ankle early in the fourth quarter. Add in a 12-point deficit against the Sixers, who had won 10 of 12. Now put just under 9 minutes on the clock for a team that had lost eight of nine.
“Regardless if we were down 30 or 40 or four, we wanted to keep playing and chip it away, chip it away,” said Carter, who watched the last 10:52 in the locker room.
That’s a lot of chipping. Got all that? No Carter, who joined Bobby Simmons (abdominal strain) in the infirmary. Down a dozen. Not much time left. Essentially, they needed a miracle. Or five.
And they got them. Start – and end – with the Sixers missing their last 18 shots. Honest, 18 straight misses.
So, with the defense in overdrive – holding the Sixers to nine points in the final 16:04 – the offense carved out enough points behind a monster game from Brook Lopez and grit from everyone else as the Nets forged their most improbable comeback in ages, an 85-83 victory. It was only their second win in 10 games.
“The true lesson to this one is if you dig in, fight, grit your teeth and do whatever it takes, you give yourselves a chance,” said Lawrence Frank, whose Nets (21-27) ended a three-game losing streak with super efforts from All-Star Devin Harris, Lopez (24 points, career-high 17 rebounds), and reserves Trenton Hassell, Jarvis Hayes and Keyon Dooling. “That game could have gone south in a heartbeat.”
Actually, it seemed the heartbeat had stopped. Behind Andre Miller (19 points, 7 assists, 7 rebounds), Philly led by 17. When Andre Iguodala (18 points) hit two free throws at 4:16 of the third, it was 74-57 Sixers.
It was also the beginning of the end. The Nets outscored the Sixers, 28-9 in the last 16:16. Philly shot 2-of-22 in the fourth quarter.
“Offensively, when Vince went out, we had some guys who picked it up,” said Harris (17 points), who combined with Lopez for the game’s winning basket then blocked Royal Ivey with 0.9 seconds left to preserve the win. “Defensively, we guarded the paint, something we didn’t do the first three quarters.”
While the Sixers Keystone Kop-ed it against a ferocious Nets defense, 3-pointers by Hayes and Harris got the Nets within 82-80 after they trailed 81-69 at 8:43. One Thaddeus Young free throw made it 83-80 Philly before Harris drove at 1:21 – Nets down, 83-82. Philly missed. Harris tried a jumper. He missed. Philly turned it over and Harris tried again. No jumper. He drove. Everybody thought he shot and missed.
“That was a pass,” he insisted. “I saw Speights come over so I just tried to get it up on the backboard and let Brook go get it.”
Whatever it was, Lopez flushed home at :16.8 for an 84-83 lead.
“Devin got a great attack and drew my defender so no one’s there to help,” said Lopez. “It was a wide-open rebound dunk for me.”
But there was more drama. Philly missed and Hayes (11 points) made 1-of-2 free throws at :09.7 for an 85-83 lead. Timeout, Sixers. They got Miller inside, but Hassell got a terrific block.
“I saw Devin go for the pump fake, and I just wanted to contest the shot. Luckily I got a piece,” Hassell said.
But :01.6 remained. Iguodala inbounded to Ivey in the right corner. Harris came from nowhere and swatted the shot into the seats at :00.1. A lob to the rim went nowhere.
Nets 85 Sixers 83
