TORONTO — Johan Petro became part of Nets history Thursday night.
When he hit 20-foot, left-side jumper with 24.9 seconds left on the clock in the Nets’ 98-67 wipeout loss to the Raptors, Petro scored the final basket in the history of the New Jersey Nets. The team is making its long-awaited move to Brooklyn next season.
“Hey, that’s the way to keep my name in some book,” Petro said with a smile.
And he had no idea when he made the shot. Or even afterward.
“I was just trying to hit the shot, I wasn’t thinking about the whole history behind it,” the 7-foot center said. “But thanks to you guys, now I know. Got my name somewhere.
“Yeah, I mean when I was in Seattle I was the youngest to start. … and KD [Kevin Durant] came along and swept that from me. So I guess now I have one that nobody can take away from me.”
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Former Net Ben Uzoh finished with 12 points, 11 rebounds and 12 assists for the 10th triple-double in Raptors history. The last came by Alvin Williams on March 23, 2001 against Atlanta. Ironically, in the Raptors first-ever game, Nov. 3, 1995 against — yup — the Nets, Alvin Robertson posted a triple-double. The Nets lost that one, too.
“Ben was good. He’s a good kid,’’ coach Avery Johnson said. “He played hard, he played well. Hopefully he’ll be on an NBA roster next year because he’s such a great kids. He’s very coachable. He’s improved his game. He’s really good defensively; good size, and I’m glad things have worked out for him.”
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The Nets were without Deron Williams (calf), Gerald Wallace (hamstring), Kris Humphries (toe), Brook Lopez (foot), Damion James (foot), Shelden Williams (knee) and Jordan Farmar (groin). They finished missing 250 manpower games all season.
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Gerald Wallace wanted to play but was overruled. Johnson said jokingly that they hid his knee braces and sneakers. Wallace is a key piece to the future as he can opt out of his final year. Wallace said he has made no decision yet.
“I’ll sit down with my agent,” Wallace said. “We’re still talking about it. We haven’t come to any conclusion. Hopefully, we’ll figure it out in the next week or so.”
“We got a lot of guys that have some decisions to make this summer and we’ve given them all of the information to try to help them make the best decisions in the best interests of our families,” Johnson said. “We like a lot of our guys. We definitely need to upgrade in some areas, and that’s what we’re going to do.”
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Johnson said there was a sense of “relief” that the two-year stay in New Jersey under his reign is over. But there is a sense of loss at no postseason again.
“I’m glad it’s over,” he said. “I just think next year we won’t have to answer a lot of the questions that we’ve had to answer this year. So we are a bit relieved. But at the same time, I’m a little sad, because this is our second straight year of not being in the playoffs, and they’re so much fun.
“When you’re in the playoffs and you’re focusing on one team, even if you get down, 2-0, or you split, 1-1 in the first two games and everybody wants to fire all the players on the team, and the coach, and then you go back and win another game and then you’re good again — I just miss all of that.
“I miss it. So hopefully we’ll be in the situation where we can have an opportunity where we can make the playoffs next year and have a deep playoff run.”
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Deron Williams talked to good buddy Dwight Howard the day the center underwent back surgery.
“He’s doing good,” said Williams who claimed his pal will be out of the summer Olympics. “Sore, he’s in bed. He wants to get up out of bed, but back surgery, I think you got to stay in bed for a little bit,”
“Back surgery’s always tough, depending on what it is. I’m not too familiar with what he’s had. D-Steve [DeShawn Stevenson] had back surgery and he talked about it, you know he didn’t really jump the same after that. Dwight’s a little different specimen.”