Blazers 97
Nets 93
PORTLAND – Byron Scott looks over at the Blazers and sees a vastly talented team. But he also see – as does anyone who cares to look – one of the most dysfunctional groups since the Osbornes. So he finds comfort when he looks at his team.
“I’m very blessed. Very blessed,” Scott said. “It makes me appreciate it when I know what other coaches sometimes go through.”
But Scott likely felt cursed, very cursed, in the fourth quarter last night. Up six points with just over 7:00 to go, the Nets collapsed on both ends.
They couldn’t get stops. They couldn’t hit shots. They rallied but still could not avert their first defeat on their road trip. So the Blazers overcame another controversy – Rasheed Wallace missing a morning shootaround – and then overcame the Nets, 97-93, here at the Rose Garden.
“The last four, five minutes of the game, we just didn’t get stops. We didn’t come up with the big rebound, we didn’t come up with loose balls,” said Scott. “The game was there for us we just didn’t get it done.”
The Nets (7-8) had just three field goals through the first 10-plus minutes of the fourth quarter before Jason Kidd (27 points, 7 assists, 12-of-18 shooting) rallied the troops.
Bagging back-to-back 3-pointers, Kidd had the Nets, who had fallen down eight, within 93-91 at :58.8. But Damon Stoudamire (28 points) hit a big trey at :40.7. After Kidd drove, Stoudamire made 1-of-2 at the line and the Nets, again beaten off the glass (42-33) had the ball with :12.6, but they were down four.
“We couldn’t get any stops and any time you can’t get stops it puts too much pressure on our offense,” said Kidd. “And once it got to 83-83, the momentum went their way.”
Along with the bounces. Take Jeff McInnis’ jumper at 1:50 for example. The ball was deflected right to McInnis, who heaved as the clock wound down. Good, 93-85, Blazers.
“Unbelievable,” said Lucious Harris (15 points).
Zach Randolph scored 26 for Portland while Jason Collins added 15 for the Nets, who for a second straight night got little offensively from forwards Kenyon Martin (6-of-17, 12 points) and Richard Jefferson (1-of-7, 8 points).
“I missed easy shots, that’s all,” Martin said.
“The ball’s not bouncing my way,” said Jefferson.
Wallace (11 points) was benched for the start of the game and the second half by coach Maurice Cheeks after he “overslept” and missed the morning session.
“He’s going to be fined accordingly. We’re going to fine him ($5,000) and then we’ll go from there. It’s disturbing. I’d like to have him there at shootaround, absolutely, because he’s a captain of our team. We’d like to have him there getting prepared to play basketball,” Cheeks said.
Wallace got socked with a $5,000 fine. According to one league executive, he could wind up in Dallas (in a deal involving Antawn Jamison and Michael Finley) or San Antonio (in a deal involving Rasho Nesterovic). There had been trade talks with the Nets over the summer.
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Nets team president Rod Thorn categorically denied an Internet report that claimed the Nets were interested in Laker Devean George for Richard Jefferson.
Jefferson was flattened at :45.9 before the half by Qyntel Woods, who picked up a flagrant foul.
Nets in Sacramento tomorrow.