MIAMI — As LeBron James caught a picture-perfect pass from Rashard Lewis and began flying toward the rim as the final seconds ticked off the clock inside American Airlines Arena Tuesday night, it looked like the Heat finally would snap their season-long skid against the Nets.
But then, out of nowhere, James suddenly had company at the rim in the form of Nets rookie center Mason Plumlee, who managed to stuff the four-time league MVP’s two-handed dunk attempt at the rim and allow Brooklyn to emerge with an 88-87 victory that gave the Nets (43-34) a season sweep over the two-time defending champions.
“It’s winning time,” Plumlee said afterward in between playful taunts from his veteran teammates to get back to his rookie chores. “It doesn’t matter if it’s Dwight [Howard], LeBron, whoever … you just have to meet them at the rim.
“There will be times I get dunked on, but they’re going to have to go through me or over me.”
The frantic final few seconds of the game began with Joe Johnson, who led the Nets with 19 points, launched an errant 3-pointer as the shot clock was winding down and Nets clinging to that 88-87 lead with 10.5 seconds left. The shot missed badly, slamming off the backboard and straight into the hands of Ray Allen.
Allen immediately shoveled the ball to James, who took off up the floor like a freight train, only to have Johnson and Paul Pierce cut off what briefly appeared to be an open lane to the rim. In doing so, they left open Lewis, who was cutting in from the left wing, and whom James — who finished with 29 points, 10 rebounds and six assists — hit with a bounce pass.
But after Lewis dribbled along the baseline, both Pierce and Plumlee cut off what initially looked like an open opportunity for a reverse layup on the other side of the basket. That’s when Lewis threw the ball past both defenders to James on the left block, with what appeared to be an open lane to the rim. But as he went up, Plumlee managed to recover in time to meet him at the rim, getting his hand on the ball before clasping hands with James on the follow through.
As the ball bounced into the hands of Marcus Thornton, who dribbled out the clock, Plumlee let out a massive roar and stomped toward center court as the buzzer sounded, where he was soon mobbed by his teammates.
James, on the other hand, walked off the floor asking officials Scott Foster, Brent Barnaky and Sean Wright as to why they didn’t call a foul on the play.
“It was a foul,” James said afterward during a 45-second postgame interview in which he answered three questions.
“I saw it twice,” he said. “I didn’t need to watch it. He grabbed my right hand … he didn’t do it on purpose, but he got my right hand and the ball went off the rim and went back. If he got all ball, the ball would’ve gone straight down. But what are you going to do about it?”
Plumlee, of course, felt differently, and after finishing through contact to convert a layup with 41.1 seconds left that turned out to be the Nets’ final points of the game, said the officials handled the final minutes the right way.
“Honestly, I didn’t think there was a foul,” Plumlee said. “And I just feel, being a fan of the NBA, at the end of games you have to earn it. Nothing’s going to be handed to you and our guys play through things.
While James was stewing over not getting the call, the Nets celebrated a season sweep over the Heat that now includes three one-point victories — including two here within the last month — and a double-overtime win in Brooklyn in January.
But when asked if the Nets, who became the first team since the Big Three united in Miami to win four games in the regular season against the Heat, were now the biggest challengers to the Heat, James was having none of it.
“Get out of here,” he said, accompanied by a sarcastic laugh. “Next question.”
For their part, the Nets weren’t doing much gloating about the sweep, knowing how thin the margin was in their favor in all four encounters. But they did admit that if they see the Heat again in a few weeks in the playoffs — and currently the two teams are poised to potentially meet in the second round, assuming they both make it out of the first — they’ will be ready.
“We’ve got to see where the seedings are … it can change any given minute,” Pierce said. “But we know if we’re going to try to win the championship this year we’re probably going to have to go through Miami.”