Big Three Fail To Deliver When It Matters Most

Clang. Thud. Doink.The Nets did everything they had to in order to win Game 4 of the Eastern Conference semifinals yesterday, but their “Big Three” uncharacteristically fired up one brick after another, dooming them to an 87–85 defeat to the Cavaliers. The Nets now trail three games to one and are on the brink of elimination, with survival dependent on winning ‘s Game 5 in Cleveland tomorrow night.By all rights, the Nets should have won. They shut down Cleveland’s screen-and-roll attack for the fourth straight game, they sealed off the defensive boards for a second consecutive outing, and they got a career night from Mikki Moore to supplement their other offense.All they needed was some scoring from their big guns and they were home free. Unfortunately, the Nets’ most reliable weapons — Vince Carter, Jason Kidd, and Richard Jefferson — failed to deliver.The three stars, the triumvirate that was supposed to lift the Nets past the Eastern Conference’s elite this year, took 48 shots last night. They made 11. Leading the way was Vince Carter, who shot a miserable 6-for-23 from the floor and missed four foul shots too. He made a game-ending turnover with 1.9 seconds left to seal New Jersey’s fate, when a basket would have tied the game.At least he had an excuse — the Cavs were rotating extra defenders at him all night, one reason Moore was constantly wide open near the basket. As a result, Carter handed out a game-high nine assists, contributing to Moore’s career-high 25 points.Jefferson had no such excuse. His 3-for-12 effort included two missed dunks, one of which provided the turning point in the game. With the Nets up 50–42 in the third quarter and looking to extend an eight-point lead into double-digits, Jefferson raced out on the fast break, raised his right arm to throw down a mighty jam — and watched as it hit the back rim and caromed straight up in the air.That miss precipitated an 18–3 Cleveland that included the unlikely sight of the Cavs making 3-pointers on three straight possessions — they only had five all night. Two of them were by James, who was brilliant again with 30 points, nine rebounds and seven assists but kept New Jersey in the game in the fourth quarter by shooting 1-for-5 from the line.For good measure, Jason Kidd also struggled. While he gave his usual contribution in other categories (16 rebounds and 7 assists), Kidd shot 2-for-13 from the floor, including 1-of-7 on 3-pointers.Bokie Nachbar, New Jersey’s most reliable bench weapon, had a tough night too, continuing a recent trend. He had a 3-pointer at the one minute mark that could have tied the game (wait, where have I heard this before?) but it bounded off, part of a 1-for-7 shooting night.After Nachbar’s miss, the Nets wouldn’t score a basket the rest of the night, getting only two Carter foul shots. After a miss by James, the Nets rebounded and found themselves down 86–83 with 23.1 seconds left. Snow fouled a driving Carter with 11.4 seconds left and sent Carter to the line, who made both to cut the lead to one. When Jefferson fouled James with 10.4 second left, and he missed the first free throw before making the second, it left the door open for New Jersey. But Carter lost the ball out of bounds after struggling to get free from Snow, and the game was lost.The defeat wasted a near-perfect night from Moore, who capitalized on the extra attention given Carter and an unusually hot jumper to make 11-of-14 shots from the field. Things officially got into crazy territory early in the fourth quarter when he went under the basket to convert a one-handed flip and get the foul, but he soon hit foul trouble and didn’t score again.Moore was also part of a testy exchange at 8:48 of the third quarter, when he took a flagrant foul on Sasha Pavlovic — perhaps payback for a couple hard fouls Pavlovic took on Jefferson in Game. Pavlovic picked up a technical for screaming at Moore afterward (I didn’t catch the words but I’m guessing they weren’t printable anyway), and had another verbal exchange with Carter late in the fourth quarter.But ultimately, the Nets will remember their stars’ bricks a lot more than anything Pavlovic did. Jefferson accomplished the difficult feat of missing a dunk with each hand, while Carter’s late misses from the line were nearly as glaring as James’s.As a result, it neutralized a defensive effort that should have made Lawrence Frank proud. Though James was awesome, the other Cavs shot just 18-for-49. And offensive rebounds, a scourge in the first two games, were all but eliminated. Cleveland grabbed only five on the night, while the Nets snared 32 defensive boards — including an amazing 14 by Kidd.That, plus a 15-for-20 shooting effort by the “other” Nets — usually the ones that are firing up bricks — should have been more than enough to tie the series and put the heat on Cleveland heading into Game 5. Instead, a rare failure by New Jersey’s Big Three has the offseason looming closely on the horizon. It will take a much better effort than this for the Nets to leave Cleveland with a win — and in order to advance, it’s something they now have to do twice.jhollinger@nysun.com

Big Three Fail To Deliver When It Matters Most

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