Nets Bring Magic to Toronto

I had been looking for inspiration all day. Even the clever cap-clearing moves engineered by new Knicks GM Donnie Walsh didn’t really do it for me. I had loved watching Jamal Crawford the last two years, and I’d recognized some renewed efforts put out by Zak Randolph this year.

That the Knicks would get a former NJ wunderkind named Al Harrington and a still very serviceable Cuttino Mobley in exchange didn’t really do it for me. Although things will be much more exciting two years from now for the Knicks, it’ll be pretty much the same story for the rest of this 2008-2009 season.

I had thought I could salvage something from the NFL Thursday night game, but as the Steelers rolled over the hapless Bengals rather easily, my inspiration wouldn’t come from there. The most notable aspect of that game was the Bengals coach’s decision to kick a field goal rather than go for a touchdown embarrassingly late in the game.

Maybe that’s what’s wrong with the Bengals. They have a head coach who’s just as happy to cover the spread as he is to win the game. After the Pittsburgh-San Diego refereeing debacle of the previous week, in which the referee “mistakenly” called back a touchdown that would have enabled the Steelers to cover the spread, it was another unpleasant reminder that we may not be watching what we think we are. It may be rather well-disguised professional wrestling.

The Giants and Jets prospects can usually move me, but as it was still Friday, and with both teams facing rather uncertain futures on Sunday, the Jets having to play the undefeated Titans and the Giants having to face the pass-happy Arizona Cardinals, I wasn’t quite ready to wax prosaic just yet about those contests.

But tonight, quite by chance, amid some channel surfing, I witnessed a furious battle in Canada, an NBA basketball game that reminds me of what purpose there could be in sportswriting. Someone needs to chronicle the heroism displayed in only those contests decreed by God to be special.

Such was the battle between the Nets and Raptors last night. Who would have expected it, such drama, such intensity, such athleticism, such talent, such strategizing, all being played out before my wondering eyes on what otherwise could have been a dreary Friday night.

Just for the record, the Nets won 129-127 in overtime. But that says nothing. It was the ebb and flow of the game that was mesmerizing, and the heroics of Nets point guard Devin Harris in the third quarter and perennial All-Everything and Toronto pariah Vince Carter in the fourth quarter and overtime that eventually decided the matter.

But for all their heroics, it was the inbounds pass from Bobby Simmons to the very sneaky Vince Carter that eventually ended this marathon. It was seemingly an impossible scenario, being that Vince was electrifying all night and had sent the game into overtime with his last-second high arching jumper from the top of the key.

Carter seemed to just disappear as he glided away and behind his defender, and Simmons waited until the last possible moment to loft his perfect inbounds Alley-Oop pass to Vince directly in front of the basket. Carter simply jammed it in backwards and didn’t even smile really. His face just radiated contentment and a realization that his had been a job well done.

Right behind Carter in the line for accolades had to be the mercurial Devin Harris. It was Harris who mobilized the Nets in their comeback in the third quarter, Harris who charged past defenders, Harris who made the pull-up jumpers, Harris who made all the right passes to bring his team back from a huge deficit.

Despite the flair exhibited by the Nets in coming back, at no time was the miraculous ending an expected one, if only because of the unbelievable efforts of Toronto forward Chris Bosh. Every time the Nets did something, it was Bosh who’d answer back. Sometimes, he’d defer to Bargnani or Calderon, but it was Bosh who was running the show, and he fought the good fight.

That it was Carter providing most of the spectacle was especially fitting, given that the Toronto fans continue to boo the man for having had the temerity to abandon their team those many years ago, this despite Vince’s admitted lack of enthusiasm for the game in those days. The fans’ vitriolic treatment of Carter, though, certainly made the win sweeter for Vince, sweeter for the Nets, and sweeter for yours truly.

Nets coach Lawrence Frank was predictably ebullient in the game’s aftermath. He of course praised his big guns but also had kind words for the less evident aspects and players of the game. He certainly had many good reasons to be happy.

Jarvis Hayes got 32 minutes off the bench and contributed 14 points, a late and timely three-pointer, 6 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals. Rookie Brook Lopez contributed 14 points and 6 rebounds and Sean Williams, though the box score may not reflect it, contributed a great deal to the win with physical play in the paint.

Williams certainly let Jermaine O’Neal know he was there. Williams’s not so flagrant flagrant foul on the Toronto center contributed to some pain O’Neal had been already feeling in his knee and hip and sent him to the bench.

Coach Frank’s biggest problems may be just determining his starting lineup, a happy dilemma to be sure. The young Nets are now 6-6 and seem to have a lot of talent, not to mention height, power, a dynamite speedster in Harris and the magic that Vince Carter can still bring to the court more often than not.

Yes, sometimes you get some magic in the unlikeliest of places and so it was last night in Toronto. I most certainly appreciate the Nets effort. I know I’ll be looking to watch those Nets some more in the months ahead, especially when I might need some inspiration.



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