Boxscore P. 38Celtics100Nets95
BOSTON — The Celtics were making their charge in the fourth quarter, urged on by a tumultuous crowd, storming back from the grave. Boston guard Kenny Anderson looked at the enemy.
He saw panic. He saw fear. He saw the Nets.
Of all the times the Nets managed to relinquish leads, to surrender momentum, to lose their composure, to lose a game, this was the worst. Up 17 points with 15:47.8 left to play, the Nets collapsed like a drunk on roller blades and were outscored 35-13 in that span, as the Celtics claimed a 100-95 victory that extended New Jersey’s losing streak to six.
“It’s a shame to play so hard and so unintelligent,” offered Don Casey. “For some reason, this team just knots up when it gets success. We didn’t get big plays out of the big people.”
Unconscionable. Unforgivable. Unwatchable. The Nets, after losing a game decided in the final minute for the eighth time in their last 12 games, are 17-29. They keep this up and you watch, the Nets won’t get a home court edge in the playoffs. That happens when you get outrebounded, 21-6, in the fourth quarter.
“Yeah, I saw panic when our second unit was making a comeback,” said Anderson, who hit a baseline jumper at :47.8 following an absolutely huge save on a ball headed out of bounds by former Adrian Griffin to give the Celtics the lead for good, 96-95. “They put the ball in Stephon’s (Marbury) hands and in this league it’s difficult for a point guard to uphold the load. You need over guys to step up.
“You could see it (fear) on a couple shots. They had a different mentality. They started to lock-up,” continued Anderson (13 points), who added two free throws at :17.1 to set up another spiffy Nets inbound play.
Three timeouts later, the Nets settled for an off-balanced 3-pointer by Scott Burrell after taking a feed from Kendall Gill (12 points). It missed. Gill took the inbound from Burrell, put on a stutter step then yielded the ball back to Burrell (13 points), who had hit 3-of-5 on threes. After Paul Pierce took the rebound for Boston, Nets owner Lewis Katz hit the exit ramp.
“The last play? I penetrate and hand it off to Steph or Scottie. I went to Scottie because he was hot,” said Gill.
“Why Kendall did his little shuffle, I don’t know,” Casey said. “This team works very, very hard but it’s so fragile. It just splintered.”
Or choked.
“We are just not getting it done. Point blank,” fumed Johnny Newman (15 points), largely responsible for the early lead as he scored 12 straight points in the second quarter, lifting the Nets to a 57-48 halftime lead. “It isn’t everybody. Some guys aren’t getting it done in the crunch.”
The Celtics, who got 19 points from Pierce, 16 from Vitaly Potapenko plus 14 points and a hurricane of energy from Tony Battie (“We got outhustled by one guy, Battie,” Keith Van Horn said), began the comeback with the last five points of the third quarter. Still up 12, the Nets started being the Nets again. They missed their first seven shots and 11 of the first 13 to start the fourth quarter.
“They thought we would lay down and die. We didn’t,” Battie said.
Marbury, who led the Nets with 20 points, agreed this was the most painful loss (how can anyone keep track of them all?) and offered that, “We definitely played bad in the second half. It’s very frustrating.”
A 16-4 streak by the Celtics tied it at 86. Back and forth it went until a 3-pointer by Burrell at 1:18 made it 95-94, Nets. Then came the biggest hustle play of the night. Battie missed a wild jumper and Griffin tapped the ball away. Gill moved over to the right corner and tried to keep his body between the Celtics and the ball, which was headed out of bounds. Griffin came around him leaped and knocked the ball off Gill’s leg and out of bounds at 1:04. The next score was the Anderson jumper.
