It was the sort of performance that leads to therapy and “How do you feel?” questions.
Vince Carter ended a 6-of-23 shooting horror by losing the ball on the Nets’ last possession of their Game 4, 87-85 loss to the Cavaliers. No object was large enough to hide under.
Asked what was most bothersome, Carter said, “Just not getting the shot off more than anything. So in Game 5, I just wanted to come out and execute, and if it (awful shooting) happened again, I’d just make a play for the team.”
So Carter made play after play after play after . . .
“Vince cares deeply about winning and losing. He felt horrible, and I thought it was good because some guys would overreact and think that they have to do it all by themselves,” Lawrence Frank said of Carter’s 10-assist Game 5, in which he took 11 shots in an 83-72 win.
He has taken 11 shots before. Then in the second quarter . . .
“I’ve said before: It doesn’t always have to be scoring,” said Carter, who had 12 points Wednesday. “Jason (Kidd) has proven that time and time again. It’s my turn to do the same and make plays, be aggressive, and if it’s there, it’s there. And if not, find the guys who are hitting shots who are open.”
Kidd, who advised Carter to forget the Game 4 snafu, said Carter was in a no-win spot.
“He is going to get criticized no matter what, whether he took a jump shot or did something that somebody disagreed with,” Kidd said. “All we can do is move forward, and he did a great job.”
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Cavs coach Mike Brown on a possible momentum shift in the series with the Nets’ Game 5 win: “I don’t even know if we had momentum.” . . . Brown on LeBron James, who shot 5-of-14: “He’s got to be aggressive, keep attacking the rim, but when he’s got three bodies on him, he’s got to pass it.”. . . Richard Jefferson on attacking James with post-ups to start the second half. “I had no idea (it was coming). We hadn’t posted up LeBron pretty much all series, we hadn’t done that. He (Frank) just wanted to try to get a different look to see how they react. That’s what L-Frank does a lot. He tries to experiment with a play or two or a situation that works.” . . . The game tonight also will air on Ch. 9 locally.