SEATTLE – Byron Scott was asked, if he could be assured of any one thing for last night, what would he take?
“Make shots in the fourth quarter,” the Nets coach proclaimed.
He should have asked for free throws, too. Heck, he might as well thrown in world peace, winning lottery tickets and a mansion in the country.
See, he could have asked for anything and everything because in the fourth quarter, he essentially got nothing.
The Nets mercifully brought their dreary road trip to an 0-4 completion with dismal fourth-quarter shooting and even worse free-throw accuracy throughout the game. The Nets missed 19 of 27 fourth-quarter shots and were a paltry 9 of 16 from the line overall as the Sonics endured for a 96-90 victory here, sending New Jersey to a season-high fourth straight defeat and sixth in seven games.
“Bad trip,” said Scott, sounding like a ’60s hallucinogen freak but merely speaking the blunt truth after the Nets lost here for the 12th time in 13 tries. “It was more 56 percent from the free-throw line. That was a bad sign. Obviously, we didn’t make free throws. And one of our last eight [from the floor]? We had wide-open shots and just didn’t knock them down.”
This game followed a pattern that became all too familiar on the trip from Hell. The Nets (39-23) fought hard and long and stayed in it until the fourth quarter, when they ran into one of their trademark droughts.
After the third quarter ended at 70-70 – and the Nets bricked 5 of 9 free throws in the final 4:42 (Seattle was 22-of-25 at the line overall, by the way) – Scott’s gang started the fourth missing shots. Seven straight, to be precise. They would miss 19 of 27 in the period.
“For some odd reason, the ball isn’t going in,” said Jason Kidd (8 points, 10 assists – just two in the second half).
The Nets took their final lead, 90-89, at 1:09 when Keith Van Horn (21 points) dunked. Van Horn had been criticized by teammate Kenyon Martin for not dunking in Portland, a move that brought Martin into Scott’s office for a sit-down. So Van Horn dunked. And the Nets led.
“Even though we went up, 1:09 is a long time in this league,” said Van Horn.
The Nets found that out. After a blocking foul on Jason Collins – a call that brought harsh criticism from Scott and will no doubt result in a fine – Rashard Lewis (20 points) hit two free throws for a 91-90 Sonic lead. Then Gary Payton (21 points) drove by Kidd for a 93-90 bulge as the Sonics moved closer to their 11th win in 13 games. The Nets fired threes in the final half minute and, of course, missed.
“I thought the referees were awful, put bluntly,” said Scott. “I thought that call [on Collins] was totally crazy. I thought the call on Keith that they made when we had a rebound secure was totally crazy. I don’t know if they were afraid because they were in a hostile environment or what but they were two phantom calls.”
Collins called it a “terrible mistake … I was out there waiting for him to come into the paint and I took it right in the chest.”
Make the checks payable to …
And after this trip, a fine might not seem so bad at all.