Clippers 90 – Nets 77
LOS ANGELES – The Nets didn’t score and they didn’t defend. So naturally they lost to the Clippers. But all of that was secondary.
Vince Carter, trying to return from a back injury suffered Monday in Utah, scored just three points and couldn’t even make it through the third quarter. The early diagnosis was a stiff back, limiting him to 27 laborious minutes.
Carter left for the locker room with 2:25 remaining in the third quarter of the Nets’ hideous 90-77 defeat to the Clippers here, their second loss in as many tries on their four-game road trip.
Carter, who early on did not outwardly show effects of the injury, clearly was not himself as he took only three shots before halftime, missed them all and had just one point.
“In the lay-up line, I felt it getting tight, but I thought it would loosen up as I played,” said Carter, whose status for tomorrow in Portland is uncertain. “But it got tight, and then it was downhill form there.”
“A couple times I landed [awkwardly] and it just started getting tighter and tighter. I thought it would loosen up and I could play through it, but it didn’t.”
Carter clanged his first four shots and didn’t hit a field goal until a fast-break score over Chris Kaman at 9:02 of the third quarter, his only basket of the night.
The All-Star guard finished 1-of-9 with three points – his lowest total as a Net. That stat was easy to figure – the previous low was the five he managed at Utah Monday when he shot 2-of-14. So, in two back injury-plagued games, Carter is 3-for-23 for nine points. Carter’s career low is zero – done twice, in games where he played three and four minutes.
“His back was stiff and it impacted the way he played,” said coach Lawrence Frank. “We had missed opportunites and it was compounded by defensive breakdowns, and we never got in a flow.”
Without Carter, the Nets (22-18) were overwhelmed by the Clippers (23-16). Jason Kidd scored 19, Richard Jefferson added 15 and Nenad Krstic had 12 points before fouling out.
For the Clippers, Elton Brand had 19 points, Sam Cassell and Chris Kaman scored 17 while Cuttino Mobley hit for 15 points and 13 rebounds to deal the Nets their sixth loss in seven road games.
The Nets, after a three-point play by Krstic and Kidd’s technical free Throw, were within 56-46 at 5:58 of the third. But the Clips went on a 14-5 rampage, going up 70-51 when Mobley hit a triple at 2:51, shortly before Carter’s exit. It wasn’t better before that.
The Nets shot 46.7 percent in the first half – from the line. And that was torrid compared to what they did from the floor (34.3). Yup, after their worst offensive half of basketball of the season in Utah (28 points in the first), the Nets unleashed another 24-minute stinker here. And they didn’t quite set the world ablaze defensively, either.
For the Clippers, one of the surprise teams in the league, Brand opened on fire, scoring 10 points in the first 4:50 as they broke out to a 14-11 lead. Brand only had two more by halftime as Cassell, averaging 24 points in his previous five games, took over the load, scoring 13 in the half as L.A. led 43-32 lead at the break.
