CLEVELAND — If it’s not Kevin Durant, it’s LeBron James.
The familiarity of the script has become senses-numbing for the Nets. So stop us when you think you’ve heard this before.
The Nets had the lead in the fourth quarter. The Nets had chances to close out the game and register an upset. The Nets …
Why haven’t you stopped us yet? You must know the Nets lost, this time done in by James, who hit a driving hook shot over 7-footer Brook Lopez with 1.9 seconds on the clock to hand the Cavaliers a 90-88 victory Saturday at Quicken Loans Arena. The Nets led by seven with 4:55 left but missed all six of their field goals and committed three turnovers from there.
“I thought tonight it was a little different,” said Joe Johnson (17 points), who hit three free throws to tie, 88-88, at :15.2 when he was fouled by J.R. Smith off an inbounds pass. “I thought we executed late, they just made a tough shot at the end. But I thought we were pretty decent.”
Pretty decent is like a prom date with your cousin, though. And actually, the Nets were not all that decent offensively down the stretch. After Johnson hit a 3-pointer at 4:55 for an 83-76 lead, the Nets’ offense disappeared — except for five free throws, all by Johnson. It had worked much of the night behind the likes of Jarrett Jack (12 points, 14 assists), Lopez (22 points), Johnson and Thaddeus Young (16 points, 12 rebounds). But not in crunch time.
After Johnson hit his last three free throws — with the Cavs calling timeout between No. 2 and 3, Cleveland huddled again. James (26 points, nine rebounds, five assists) broke from the bench and saw only one thing.
“The rim. That’s what I saw,” said James, who was freed by a screen from Tristan Thompson before going at Lopez. “Double-T set a hell of a screen and I tried to get a good look and I was able to do that.”
Johnson stayed with Thompson to prevent an offensive rebound score and Lopez lunged put at James, who had ample help throughout the game from the likes of Kevin Love (26 points, 6-of-11 3-pointers) and Mo Williams (14 points).
“It’s the luxury of having multiple shots in your arsenal where you can always keep the defense off balance, and obviously Brook, he did not think in his wildest dreams that I was going to shoot that one,” James said. “That helps me out, because you have different shots, you have different ways of scoring.”
Lopez, like all the Nets, simply had to tip his cap to the opponent. Again. Like they tipped their cap to the Thunder in Oklahoma City on Wednesday when the Thunder broke from an 85-85 tie with 11 points, including two 3-pointers from Durant.
“[James] made a great play. He made the shot,” said Lopez, who scored 22 points — 10 in the first quarter — but committed two turnovers and an offensive foul at 1:53 that left him steamed and negated a score; plus a pocket pick by James at :55.9 when both times the Nets trailed by one. “I thought we guarded it well, I contested it. I thought it was a tough look and he converted.”
So for the eighth time in a loss, the 3-13 Nets either led, were tied or stood one basket away from an opponent in the fourth quarter.
“You can talk about that [being close] but we want to win,” coach Lionel Hollins said. “It’s the same thing every night. The other night, it was Durant. Tonight it was Kevin Love and then LeBron James.”
It is a familiar refrain.
“What happens is the best players on other teams have come through and made plays for them to cause them to win. That’s what this league has always been about, ” Hollins said. “I see it and I know what it is but what good does it do for me to stay up all night analyzing and trying to figure out how to make it different when we don’t have Kevin Durant, we don’t have [Russell] Westbrook, we don’t have LeBron James? We are who we are and if we go out and play together as a team and work as a group and try to be disciplined in what we’re doing we give ourselves a chance to win.”