INDIANAPOLIS — With Deron Williams in New York getting platelet rich plasma treatment on his ailing ankles, rookie Tyshawn Taylor thought he might get a chance to play against the Pacers last night.
“I felt like [Nets interim coach P.J. Carlesimo] was gonna put me out there and see how it went,” Taylor said. “If I played good, keep him in, and if he doesn’t take him out.”
It turned out Taylor was right. Carlesimo put him in and left him in for all of the fourth quarter and overtime, and was rewarded when Taylor made a pair of crucial plays as the Nets (30-22) picked up a desperately needed 89-84 win in front of 11,672 at Bankers Life Fieldhouse.
Playing a career-high 34 minutes, Taylor finished the game with 12 points and two assists on 5-for-9 shooting after Carlesimo chose to ride him down the stretch instead of going back to starter C.J. Watson, who went 0-for-7 from the field.
“I thought C.J., coming off being sick, there was a lid on the basket for him, and Tyshawn was just doing good things,” Carlesimo said. “Tyshawn was breaking down the defense, and if he looked shaky or didn’t look good, I wouldn’t have gone to him.
“That’s what it takes some nights. Some nights it’s somebody else playing better and you bite the bullet and say, ‘Hey, we’re going with him.’ He was playing better tonight.”
After Joe Johnson tied the game at 76 with a jumper from the right side of the lane with 13 seconds left in regulation, Pacers forward David West missed a runner at the buzzer over Brook Lopez (who led the Nets with 25 points) that would have won the game for Indiana (31-21).
Instead, the game went to overtime, where Taylor became the unlikely hero. After Indiana’s Roy Hibbert opened the scoring with a free throw to put Indiana up 80-79, the precocious rookie scored the next four points for the Nets to give them the lead for good.
The first two points came on a circus shot from the wing. Taylor lost track of the shot clock, then turned and fired a shot up that somehow went in — despite the fact Taylor barely looked at the rim before letting it go — after Johnson yelled at him to shoot.
“I wasn’t paying attention to the shot clock, which is rule No. 1,” Taylor said. “You have to do that as a point guard. … I heard Joe Johnson say, ‘Shoot it!’ So I turned around and shot it.”
Taylor followed with a driving layup on the next possession to put the Nets up 80-77 and they stretched the lead to six after a Gerald Wallace 3-pointer and a tip-in by Reggie Evans, who finished with eight points and 22 rebounds.
Johnson hit four free throws in the final seconds to give the Nets a win after they entered last night’s game having lost three out of four and six out of nine.
“I’m happy for [Taylor],” Johnson said. “He’s a guy that comes in and works hard and to get an opportunity to play, and not only play but play in a clutch and crucial situation, that was big for us tonight.”