| Nothing But Rim For Nets Authored by Graham Flashner - April 29, 2005 - 12:40 pm
For the first time all season, the Nets had their big three of Jason Kidd, Vince Carter, and Richard Jefferson firing on all cylinders Thursday night. But in the end, each missed wide-open shots that might’ve kept the Nets from falling into an 0-3 hole against the Miami Heat… a hole that no NBA team has ever climbed out of.
This was a game in which the Heat proved their resiliency, and the Nets proved what a formidable team they might’ve been had their terrific trio been together since Carter came over in January. Kidd had a triple-double of 16 points, 16 rebounds, and 13 assists.
Carter had his first breakout game of the series, with 36/9/10/. And Jefferson scored 23 points off the bench.
But even on a night when the Heat were at their most vulnerable, shooting a miserable 22-38 from the foul line… when Shaquille O’Neal and Dwayne Wade combined, at one point, to miss 13 of their 15 shots in the fourth quarter and overtime… when Miami players looked afraid to shoot the ball in the game’s tightest moments… the Nets still couldn’t get it done.
Whatever happens to this team over the summer, if there’s one game that haunts them, it will be this one. Because there’s always the possibility that the Nets’ Big Three won’t be together next season, and if that’s the case, they will look back on Game Three and think, what if.
What if Kidd had made the shot?
Near the end of regulation, it was Nets ball, tied at 90. The Heat swarmed Carter, who kicked it out to Kidd, wide open some 23 feet out on the left side, seconds remaining. Suddenly, the underdog Nets had victory in their grasp. The ball was in the hands of the best point guard on the planet, and for once, there was no one to pass to. Kidd squared up and shot. The ball bounced long, off the outside of the rim.
What if Vince had made the 3-pointer in overtime?
The Nets trailed 99-97 in the first overtime when Carter missed two open threes on two consecutive possessions in the final 13 seconds. The second was particularly agonizing, a high arcing shot that bounced twice off the rim before falling away. Moments later, Eddie Jones’s two missed free throws set Carter up for redemption, as Kidd found him for a game-tying corner shot that rattled around the rim at least three times before dropping as the buzzer sounded. Ironically, Carter finally did hit a desperation 3-point heave with seconds remaining in the second overtime. Unfortunately, the Heat already led by six.
What if Jefferson had made the layup?
The Nets trailed 104-102 with 47 seconds left in the second overtime when Carter rebounded a Miami miss and hit Richard Jefferson in full stride across midcourt. Jefferson, perhaps fatigued from logging 45 minutes in only his third game back, missed a driving lay-up, shooting it too hard off the opposite side of the rim. The Nets never caught up.
The Nets certainly gave a superior Heat team all it could handle, and did everything they were supposed to do to win.
Everything, that is, except hit their open shots when it most counted. |
