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PRO BASKETBALL | HEAT 96, NETS 94 | NYT NOW
$192 Million Nets Finish Season Empty-Handed
By ANDREW KEH MAY 14, 2014
MIAMI The $192 million experiment came to an end on Wednesday.
After building the most expensive team in N.B.A. history last summer
and proclaiming their intentions of winning a championship, the Nets
encountered the Miami Heat the two-time defending champions, the
team they were built to topple and saw their ambitions extinguished in
five games.
The final game ended in heartbreaking fashion. The Nets allowed a 9-
point lead to slip away in the fourth quarter, and although Joe Johnson
had a chance to tie the score in the closing seconds, he was never able to
try a shot.
The final buzzer sounded as the ball tumbled out of Johnsons hands,
sealing the Heats 96-94 victory in Game 5 of the teams Eastern
Conference semifinal series.
As the Nets sulked off the court, LeBron James leapt onto the scorers
table and thumped his chest to celebrate Miamis fourth straight trip to
the conference finals.
We worked hard in the off-season, all season long, and now its over,
said Nets point guard Deron Williams, who contributed 17 points and 4
assists. Its definitely tough to swallow right now.
The Nets will descend into a period of uncertainty. The biggest
questions will revolve around Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce, who were
acquired last summer in a trade with the Boston Celtics and highlighted
the Nets off-season overhaul. Garnett has a year left on his contract, but
5/25/2014 $192 Million Nets Finish Season Empty-Handed - NYTimes.com
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speculation about whether he will retire has simmered all season, and
Pierce is a free agent.
Garnett did not make himself available to speak to reporters after the
game. Pierce took questions but did not offer many solid answers.
Im going to sit back, talk to the family, weigh my options and go
from there, Pierce said. I think I still have something in the tank I can
give a team.
The Nets led by 75-69 entering the fourth quarter and had an 8-point
lead with less than five minutes to play. But they failed to finish the task.
The Heat rallied to take a 93-91 lead with 32 seconds remaining when
Ray Allen drained a step-back 3-pointer from the left corner. After Shaun
Livingston missed on the other end, Allen sank two foul shots, extending
the Heats scoring run to 12-0.
Hes continuing to add to his legacy, James, who had 29 points and
9 rebounds, said of Allen, the leagues career leader in 3-pointers.
But even after their meltdown, the Nets had a chance. Johnson, who
produced a virtuoso 34-point performance, hit a 3-pointer with 10.4
seconds left, and then James made only one of two free throws.
The Heat knocked the ball out of bounds twice once out of Pierces
hands, once out of Johnsons before the Nets had a chance to run a final
play. With 4.4 seconds left, the Nets inbounded the ball to Johnson, who
tried to cut across the lane. But James and Allen reached out to him, and
Johnson could not keep control, letting the ball and the season trickle
away.
The Nets credited Miami for its tight defense, but they quietly
grumbled that a foul could have been called on any of the final three plays
involving Pierce and Johnson.
The Heat credited their experience in pressure situations.
We are just a team that has played together for a while, said Dwyane
Wade, who scored 20 points in the first half and finished with 28. We
know where each individual is going to be on the court, and that helps so
much.
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It was a cogent point, given the hurried manner in which the Nets
roster was pieced together before the season. Along with Garnett and
Pierce, the team signed Andrei Kirilenko, Livingston and others who were
given key roles.
For all of that talent, it took months for the players to forge an identity
under the first-year coach Jason Kidd. The process was roiled when the
team lost center Brook Lopez, the former centerpiece of its offense, to a
season-ending foot injury.
I would love to have those guys back, Johnson said of Pierce and
Garnett. It was a great opportunity for me to get the chance to play with
those guys, with the way they led us through this tough season.
Tantalizing questions hung in the air, then, about whether the Nets
had reached their full potential and how much they could have improved if
given more time to jell. Williams said he thought the group could take it
to another level.
It seemed notable, too, that Kidd reverted to the team-building
rhetoric he had used early in the season, when the Nets were struggling.
Its a process, he said after the game. We just put this team
together. Now its time to keep building and keep the process of going
forward and getting better.
The coming weeks will determine which building blocks will remain
at the Nets disposal.
A version of this article appears in print on May 15, 2014, on page B15 of the New York edition with
the headline: $192 Million Nets Finish Empty-Handed.
2014 The New York Times Company