TORONTO — Maybe it would’ve taken something this ridiculous, this crazy, this zany to redeem Deron Williams. But there he was, ball in his hands, less than a second left in the game, and here came a Meadowlark Lemon half-court heave and … and … and …
And holy hell, did Jonas Valanciunas just GOALTEND that 60-foot prayer?!?!?!?
Yes. Maybe that would’ve been enough to make everyone forget what had happened across the previous 47 minutes and 59 seconds. Maybe a Flutie Play would make it all right, would camouflage the way Williams had been taken to the cleaners by Kyle Lowry.
Or maybe the Raptors, who were in a more giving mood in the game’s final moment than CCNY ever was, would give him another chance to use an eraser. Valanciunas’ brain-lock was offset by an over-and-back call, and all the Raptors had to do was inbound the ball with one second left … and … and …
And holy hell, did Patrick Patterson REALLY just throw the ball TOWARD his own basket, RIGHT TOWARD WILLIAMS??!?!?!?
Sure. Maybe this would rescue Williams, maybe the Raptors, in full fledged Forrest Gump mode now — “We are not a smart team, Jen-naaay” — would give him a chance to take a Zippo lighter to this stat sheet, this game film, this memory …
No. As it turns out, not even the Raptors — squanderers of a 26-point lead, stranglers of the game’s final half-minute — could bail out Williams. And that’s right. That’s proper.
If the Nets lose this series, they may look at this 115-113 loss as their Endy Chavez Game — beneficiaries of an impossible turn of events, bunglers of a proper final chapter.
But they certainly will look at their $98 million point guard and wonder, as Peggy Lee once did: Is that all there is?
Is this all their franchise cornerstone can ever be?
As crazy as the end of the fourth quarter was, it was the end of the second that served as the perfect Cliffs Notes version of Games 4 and 5, the games where the Raptors seized control of the series and put themselves 48 minutes from ousting the Nets.
On one end of the floor, an out-of-control Williams was whistled for a charge. On the other, a slithering Lowry managed to rattle home an off-balanced 3 at the buzzer.
The best player on the floor to the right, and the worst player on the floor to the left. And who had that one in the pool?
“He’s hitting some tough shots,” Williams said of Lowry when the torch was finally extinguished. “He definitely carried them in the first half, he got hot. He’s just tough to guard when he gets like that. He’s playing with a lot of confidence right now, and so we have to try to slow him down as much as possible.”
It makes sense Williams would want to spin it that way — his success more than his failure — because you would, too, if you had been bludgeoned as badly as he has been bludgeoned. The final numbers were staggering: 36 points and six assists for Lowry, 6-for-9 from 3; 13 points for Williams, nine assists, most of those accrued while the Nets were trying to pistol-whip their way back into the game.
It was Williams’ max-out running mate, Joe Johnson, who made that possible, fueling the furious 44-point fourth quarter that brought the Nets all the way back (though never to the lead).
It was Lowry who made the 3 that gave the Raptors the lead back for good, who made a running hook shot that gave them the razor-thin cushion that would pull them through, that would allow the 20,393 inside Air Canada Centre (and the couple thousand others screaming themselves hoarse in Maple Leaf Square) to exhale at last.
And it was Williams, the face of the Nets, forced to wait, forced to hope, forced to wish upon a star the unwillingness of the Raptors to close the game out. It was the only way you even knew he was there Wednesday night. At least Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett had an excuse for their invisibility — Jason Kidd kept them tied to the bench when the Nets made their comeback without them.
Williams? There was no such excuse, not a good one, anyway. Two games running, the Nets’ franchise foundation foundered and flubbed his way through 36 mostly listless minutes. The Nets, and their season, never will survive a third such absence Friday.