SURVIVAL SKILLS
BOSTON — As Gerald Wallace’s pictureperfect full court baseball pass landed right in Jared Sullinger’s hands with 1.5 seconds left and the Nets clinging to a twopoint lead over the Celtics in Friday’s matinee at TD Garden, everyone on the Nets had roughly the same thought crossing their mind.
“I was holding my breath,” Nets coach Lionel Hollins said.
“I was just like, ‘Please don’t go in … please don’t go in,’ ” Jarrett Jack said.
Fortunately for the Nets, Sullinger’s 13foot turnaround jumper over Mason Plumlee’s outstretched arm hit the back of the rim and rolled out as the buzzer sounded, allowing Brooklyn to escape with a 109107 win, and a threegame winning streak for the first time this season.
“We could make it easier on ourselves for sure,” said Plumlee, who finished with 14 points and 12 rebounds as he once again started ahead of Brook Lopez. “But a win’s a win right now.”
Sullinger’s shot nearly marred what was an impressive comeback for the Nets (1315), who trailed by 11 after a Brandon Bass layup gave the Celtics (1017) a 9584 lead with 8:53 remaining. The Nets then went on a 154 run to tie the game at 99 with 4:15 remaining on a pullup jumper by Jack, who finished with a gamehigh 27 points to go along with seven rebounds and five assists.
“That kind of just kind of happened with the flow of the game,” Jack said of his scoring outburst, which came as he started a third straight game in place of Deron Williams, who returned from a strained right calf and scored eight points in 21 minutes off the bench. “I just kind of took what the defense gave me, but also doing what was working for us, which was the pickandroll.
“We were able to manufacture opportunities, not necessarily for me but for everybody to get us opportunities to get a rhythm whenever we had a lull or got stagnant.”
The two teams then exchanged baskets for the next few minutes — including a clutch, offbalance 3pointer by Alan Anderson after corralling a loose ball with the shot clock about to expire to tie the game at 104 with 1:38 left. Jack followed that by driving the lane and making another midrange jumper to give the Nets a 106104 lead with 27.8 seconds left.
Then, after Evan Turner drove against Sergey Karasev and missed a potential gametying runner with 9.9 seconds left, the ball went out of bounds to the Nets. After Jack was fouled and made a pair of free throws to put Brooklyn up 108104 with 5.4 seconds left, it looked as if the Nets had this win in the bag.
But it turned out things were just getting interesting. On the ensuing inbounds play, Celtics coach Brad Stevens drew up a terrific scheme to spring Avery Bradley for a wideopen 3pointer at the top of the key, pulling Boston to within 108107 with 1.8 seconds left.
Then, after Joe Johnson was fouled with 1.5 seconds left and missed the first of his two free throws, Stevens subbed in Wallace, a former Net, for the first time all game. That led some Nets to be suspicious about what might happen next.
“I was like, ‘He don’t have his dreads tied or nothing, so there’s got to be something to this play,’ ” Jack said with a laugh.
After Johnson made the second foul shot to give the Nets a twopoint lead, Wallace took the ball from referee Eric Lewis, cocked his arm and fired an onpoint pass the length of the court that Sullinger caught with his back to the basket on the left block. Sullinger turned and let it go well before the buzzer, only for it to somehow miss after looking perfectly on target from the moment it left his hand.
“That’s the best shot you can get,” Sullinger said. [With] 1.5 seconds left on the clock and that close to the rim. … Gerald threw a hell of a pass, and I’ve just got to make it.”
But he didn’t, and the Nets escaped with a second straight comefrombehind win and a third straight victory overall. They hope this will be the moment where their season begins to turn for them.