GAME 2
Nets 102
Hornets 88
The sellout crowd at the Meadowlands began the evening chanting and hollering “MVP, MVP” for Jason Kidd, who had been denied the honor.
But they ended the night chanting “Loo-cious Har-ris, Loo-cious Har-ris” in tribute to one of the guys who bailed the Nets out of the Game 2 fire.
With Kidd having a decidedly un-MVP-like performance, Lucious Harris, with one of the most spectacular Net playoff shooting performances ever, led a team-wide cast as for once the team bailed out Kidd. With Harris nailing 24 points on 10-of-11 shooting and Keith Van Horn compiling a double-double that including 20 points, the Nets grabbed a commanding 2-0 lead in the Eastern Conference semis with a 102-88 victory over the Hornets last night.
Charlotte rode its backcourt of Baron Davis (21 points) and David Wesley (17 rebounds) plus center Elden Campbell (15 points) to within 86-83 with 5:49 to go. So then Harris – and the Nets’ defense – stepped up. Harris rammed in three shots starting at 5:23 and ending at 4:09 as the Nets pulled away and never were headed. Charlotte scored just 16 points in the fourth quarter.
Kidd shot just 5-of-18 and finished with 11 points, six assists and three rebounds. Not to worry. There was Harris and Van Horn and the bench.
“You just can’t say enough about Lucious Harris,” said Van Horn (20 points, 4-of-3 on 3-pointers). “I’ve said the key to this series would be a strong bench.”
And no one was stronger than Harris. The Hornets, who view the return of the ailing Jamal Mashburn as a longshot, will try to even the series at home in Charlotte in Games 3 and 4 tomorrow and Sunday.
A massive gamble by Scott – keeping Kenyon Martin (15 points) and Todd MacCulloch on the floor with four fouls in the third quarter – paid huge momentary dividends. Martin was hit with his fourth foul at 6:08 while MacCulloch got his at 5:23. Soon, Charlotte led, 64-59.
So the Nets turned it on and instead of yanking MacCulloch turned him loose offensively. He scored three baskets in 1:25, igniting a 10-0 run that became a 21-8 close to the quarter for an 80-72 lead. The streak saw Charlotte shoot 2-of-7 and commit three turnovers. On the Net side, Kidd scored a couple of lay-ins, ending an 0-for-9 personal drought, and Van Horn continued his terrific long-range shooting with his fourth triple of the game.
Amid chants of “MVP,” signs proclaiming fan outrage over the MVP balloting (“MVP Voters: Call 1-800-U-Should-B-Ashamed”), Kidd came out and suffered through a rather ineffective first half. Perhaps he was overly pumped – Byron Scott said he expected “another gear” from his star – but Kidd missed 8-of-10 shots and managed just two assists and one rebound before the intermission.
The foul trouble began early. MacCulloch was back on the bench with two fouls after just 33 ticks. His replacement, Aaron Williams, picked up three fouls in eight minutes trying to guard Campbell.
But, as Kidd has so frequently stressed, a Net strength is the team’s versatility. Pick a player, he can be the hero on any given night. And this time, names such as Harris and Jason Collins and Richard Jefferson stepped forward to propel the Nets to a 53-50 halftime lead. Harris nailed all six of his shots in the half (he was 7-of-7 before a fourth-quarter miss). Collins stabilized the middle with smart, positional and physical play. Jefferson brought athleticism, such as the spectacular one-handed follow jam :26.1 before the intermission.
At halftime, the Net bench had accounted for 19 of the team’s 28 rebounds and 23 of 53 points. Harris was their top scorer with 12, having elected to stay with the mask that protects where he suffered a facial fracture in March.
“I think I’ll play with it the rest of the season,” he said.