Heat103
Nets85
Darn, just when Orlando looks vulnerable.
What everyone has known was coming seemingly for eons arrived in humiliating fashion last night as the Nets, undermanned and overwhelmed, were officially eliminated from playoff contention, 103-85, by the Heat, who simply toyed with them for 48 agonizing minutes.
The defeat, the Nets’ fifth straight and eighth in 10 games, made Orlando’s loss against the Knicks moot. The Nets had made a belated run at the Magic but kept sliding in recent weeks. The plunge officially ended at the Meadowlands last night when the Nets gave towels to their fans. White towels. Insert your own sarcastic remark here.
“It’s just been very difficult,” sighed makeshift point guard Kendall Gill (18 points, seven assists). “We had something so good (in preseason). Then the injuries and bad luck we had destroyed everything we built.”
The Nets (31-45), out of the playoffs for the fifth time in six years, began the game with just two regular starters — Gill and Keith Van Horn, as guards Stephon Marbury and Kerry Kittles sat with knee injuries. Rarely have players been more thankful for joint pain. Jamie Feick (15 rebounds) started for Jim McIlvaine, who eventually played following a seven-game, back-related absence.
The game was at 18-18 once upon a time. Then the Heat (49-26) rattled off a 17-1 run that featured a trio of 3-point shots, one by Jamal Mashburn (21 points) and two by Tim Hardaway (15 points). Later in the second quarter, the Heat mounted an 11- 0 spree that ended with a three-point play by Alonzo Mourning (15 points, 11 rebounds).
“We ran into a strong defensive team and it was tough to get anything going. When we did, it wasn’t anything of substance,” said Don Casey.
Over the final two quarters, the Heat simply staged a practice. They worked on their press. They worked on outlets and the running game. Occasionally, the Nets even put up some opposition. But not much. And the Heat never relented. With 2:22 remaining and Miami up 22 points, Anthony Carter, the same guy who ambushed Marbury in February with a flagrant foul, was slapped with a Flagrant 2 and ejected for leveling Elliot Perry, who scored a season high 18 points.
“I didn’t appreciate the flagrant. It was very uncalled for,” Casey said.
“There’s a line and he crossed it,” Perry said.
The Heat, who stayed two games ahead of the Knicks, didn’t care.
“We had to go out and do what we had to do. Every team wants to play us undermanned and when they beat us, they celebrate,” said Hardaway. “(Bleep) ’em. We have to come out and beat them. Kick them when they’re down.”
Late in the fourth quarter, the Nets inserted Mark Hendrickson, whom they signed earlier in the day to a 10-day contract. He took the roster spot of Evan Eschmeyer, who was placed on the injury list with the severely sprained left ankle that will keep him out the rest of the way. Another fortunate soul.
The Nets, who trailed by as many as 31 points and who play in Milwaukee tonight, were forced into their makeshift lineup through the injury situation. They knew about Marbury, who is going to rest his patella tendinitis-stricken left knee for a week, but they had thought Kittles might play after an MRI on his right knee showed no structural damage. But Kittles worries doctors will eventually find reason to operate.