With 3:59 remaining in the third quarter, Jason Kidd, with a trace of disgust, motioned for a timeout and before he and his teammates walked to the bench, Keith Van Horn lingered on the court, stood under the rim and flipped in a layup.
Just in case he forgot what it was like to put the ball in the basket.
It was that sort of evening for Van Horn, whose desultory performance in last night’s Game 2 of the Eastern Conference finals mirrored the dreadful showing by his team. Van Horn was bad early, feeble in the middle and invisible late. Unfortunately for the Nets, he had plenty of company in the Lousy Department as the Celtics last night ran away with a deceptively close 93-86 victory at the Meadowlands.
“I really felt eventually I would find a good rhythm, but I just couldn’t get into a flow,” Van Horn said.
There were moments, especially in the first quarter, when Van Horn played as if in a trance. He missed all five of his shots to set a bad tone that never ended.
He finished with five points on 2-of-12 shooting. This from a player who scored 14 points and grabbed seven rebounds in the Nets Game 1 triumph.
“I had a lot of great looks early, probably some of the best looks I’ve had in the playoffs,” he said. “I felt I depended a little too much, especially in the first half, on getting some calls from the refs I thought I should get but I didn’t get. I can’t do that. I need to finish some of those plays, not depend so much on getting a call.”