TORONTO – One man does not a team make.
Yeah, try telling that to the Nets after last night’s season opener.
For 2 ½ quarters, the Nets were the better team against Toronto. They were talented. They were versatile. They were leading – by 13. And for 2 ½ quarters, Toronto’s Vince Carter was decidedly human.
But in the final quarter-and-a-half, Vince Carter was, well, Vince Carter.
The Nets had figured this one was secure in the ‘W’ column. So they caught their breath, then watched almost helplessly as Carter crammed 25 of his 39 points into the final 17:09. That included two huge jumpers in the last minute to send the two-time defending Eastern Conference champ Nets to a 90-87 defeat here, ruining Alonzo Mourning’s debut in a New Jersey uniform.
“You saw it,” said Kerry Kittles (13 points), who along with Richard Jefferson tried everything permitted by the legal system to halt Carter’s 15-of-30 shooting performance. “When you have legs like that, you jump out of the gym and you’re jumping back shooting off-balance fadeaways, what are you going to do?”
Pray? Call Tony Soprano? Drink heavily?
“It has been a long time coming,” said Carter, who suffered a season-ending ankle injury against the Nets here last April 6. “I’m excited to be back healthy. Every time I step on the court, [I want to] be a leader for this team.”
Well, he led. And the Raptors won, virtually stealing a victory away from the Nets. With Kenyon Martin, who had 24 double-doubles last season, on his way to his first this season (26 points, 11 rebounds) despite a sprained thumb, with Jason Kidd (11 points, 10 rebounds) supplying direction, with the defense looking great at times (there was a stretch of five straight Raptor turnovers early in the third), the Nets were cruising.
“We just inhaled and kind of let it out and pretty much figured the game was over. We stopped being aggressive on both ends,” said Byron Scott, who inserted Jason Collins as his starting center, bringing Mourning off the bench. “I was hoping we would take that lead from 13 to 20 but it turned the other way.”
Courtesy of Carter and a fourth foul – of the frustration variety – that sent Martin to the bench. After falling to get a foul call, Martin came down on the ensuing possession and rammed into Antonio Davis (12 points) for a charge. The Nets were up 11. He came back to start the fourth and the Nets were up three.
“We played the game well enough to win, but we didn’t do it for 48 minutes. I understand you’re going to have lapses but you’ve got to recover and try to maintain,” said Mourning, who in his first game in 18 ½ months, played 17 minutes, scored six points and grabbed three rebounds.