CHICAGO – The smart money said Vince Carter would respond from his 0-of-13 water torture shooting nightmare.
He did.
But it didn’t help the Nets snap out of their latest losing funk.
Carter bounced back from the worst shooting night of his career by matching his season high with 39 points, but it wasn’t enough to save the Nets, whose failure to execute and get stops in the endgame proved their undoing. So the Bulls pushed the Nets’ losing streak to three games with a 113-104 victory last night.
“I would have rather had 19 and won,” said Carter, who set the tone for his personal bounce-back by dunking just 16 seconds into the game en route to an 11-of-22 shooting performance. “I was trying to give ourselves a great start. It wasn’t about me. It was just about trying to get a win.”
And the Nets (11-11) got off to a good start. No, a great start. They were up 15 (23-8) in the first quarter. They led by 11 in the third. But it all came down to the final 3:35 after Carter staked the Nets to a 96-93 lead with a 3-pointer.
But it all collapsed.
“It came down to execution and getting key stops,” said Devin Harris (22 points), who had a damaging turnover and technical foul down the stretch. “They stopped us and scored. And we struggled down the stretch.”
No doubt.
The lead provided by Carter was wiped away by triples from rookie stud Derrick Rose (22 points) and Ben Gordon (29 points, 4-of-8 shooting on threes). Carter added two free throws, but the Bulls then got a Luol Deng dunk straight down the middle. Rose bagged an 8-footer and Chicago tacked on three free throw points – one of them off a technical foul at 1:10 on Harris, who tried to draw contact, failed and griped.
“I thought I got fouled. I tried to put the ref [Danny Crawford] in position to get the call and I pushed him too far,” Harris said.
The Nets’ late possessions after Carter’s free throws at 2:30 were a Carter miss, Harris miss (and technical), a Harris turnover and it was 106-98 at with 36.7 seconds left. Maybe if Carter had scored 49.
“Getting down to the moment of truth, Rose hits the three which you can live with, then Gordon. Two threes,” said coach Lawrence Frank “The left corner [Rose, which tied] was a back-breaker and then Gordon right in front of us was a big one. Offensively, we missed some big shots.”
And the Nets bigs missed shots. Lots of them. The power forwards, starter Yi Jianlian and Ryan Anderson, combined for a dreadful 2-of-17 shooting. Very Vince-like from Friday, not Vince-like from Saturday.
And while the Nets got 17 points from a solid Brook Lopez, there was little from the bench. The Bulls, on the other hand, got a huge lift, especially from Tyrus Thomas (16 points) who helped eradicate the early deficit.
“It was just one of those nights. Me and Yi weren’t really on,” said Anderson (1-of-9).
“If you’re open, you’ve got to shoot them. Sometimes you’re going to miss. They were good shots. But they just missed,” said Yi (1-of-8).
Carter wasted no time erasing some of the bitter stench lingering from his Friday oh-fer with that dunk just 16 seconds into the game. And then right before halftime, Carter took off from just beyond halfcourt and unleashed a 3-point swish as the buzzer sounded.
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Sean Williams was inactive for the first time this season. There were five previous games when he didn’t play but dressed. He said he knew what was coming. “Surprised. No. You see I’m wearing a suit. I don’t wear suits to games.” . . . Jarvis Hayes sat for a second straight game with a strained left hamstring. He said it is “not even close” to being as bad as the right hamstring that plagued him in preseason. Hayes said he hopes to play in Toronto.
Bulls 113 Nets 104