Tiger Woods spent 13 minutes saying “I’m sorry” yesterday.
Big whoop. The Nets said “we’re sorry” — in the other sense of the word — for most of 48 minutes last night.
Though Tiger was apologetic, the Nets were pathetic, falling to 5-50 after a 106-89 defeat against the Raptors at the Meadowlands.
“They capitalized on any mistake we made, any double-team,” interim coach Kiki Vandeweghe said.
So that was the defense. What about the offense?
“Unfortunately, we had three or four guys who couldn’t throw it in the ocean,” Vandeweghe said.
Hence, 5-50.
OK, the Nets made a third quarter run and took a 20-point deficit all the way down to six. But let’s not overlook, they fell behind by 20 points to a Raptors team that had its finest weapon, Chris Bosh, sitting in Toronto with a sprained left ankle — and still shot .597. Maybe the Nets who went on a 30-16 run in that third quarter were the ones management saw when it idled at Thursday’s trade deadline. But then, what difference would a trade have made?
“Right now we’re so far gone, we could get the best player in the world and that wouldn’t get us in the playoff run,” Keyon Dooling said. “So it wouldn’t matter who we got. We might win a few more games, but overall it wouldn’t be beneficial to the future.”
That’s the key for the Nets. The future. Brooklyn after two years in Newark’s Prudential Center. Draft picks. Upcoming free agents. Who wants to even think about this shipwreck of a season?
Though the Nets slipped to second for most available cap space after the Knicks’ trade frenzy Thursday, they still are in great shape to shop with roughly $24 million. They have 10 picks — five firsts and five seconds — in the next three drafts. Their six fully guaranteed players (Yi Jianlian, Brook Lopez, Courtney Lee, Devin Harris, Kris Humphries and Terrence Williams) are all young.
“Obviously, we’re in a great position for next year as far as free agency and draft picks,” said Harris (19 points, 11 assists) who twisted his left knee but insisted, “it’s nothing to worry about.”
The present is a different picture. Rasho Nesterovic (season high 16 points), of all folks, set the tone last night and tore apart the Nets early, equaling his previous season best in the first half with 12. Outplaying Brook Lopez (22 points), Nesterovic was one of seven Raptors, including Jarrett Jack (18 points, 10 assists), in double figures. Lee (17 points) was the only other Net in double figures.
“They tried to be more up-tempo because they had to make up for [Bosh],” Lopez said.
The Nets got virtually nothing from starting forwards Jarvis Hayes (5 points, 2-of-10 shooting) and sore-back plagued Yi (5 points), who was particularly brutal, shooting 2-of-13.
So the expected pain building toward this summer continued.
“We’ve done a lot in a year-and-a-half,” Vandeweghe said. “We still have a lot of cap space. We have young players that play and right now the focus is that we’ve still got to develop those guys, get better internally and try to win some games.”