FEELING RANDY
foye saves day, but Lin leaves hurt again
It was backup point guard — and forgotten man — Randy Foye who won it with an off-balance, 3-point prayer as the buzzer sounded.
But it was starting point guard Jeremy Lin who hobbled off with yet another strained hamstring and cast a pall over that win, a 120-118 victory over Charlotte that could prove bittersweet.
The Nets had blown a fourpoint lead in the final minute, and allowed Cody Zeller to tip in a Kemba Walker miss for what seemed destined to be the gamewinner with 3.5 seconds left. But Foye — who had lost his spot in the rotation when Lin returned from his previous hamstring injury — turned destiny around with a clutch shot as the Nets snapped a five-game losing streak.
“Actually [the play] was for Brook [Lopez]. I set the screen, but Kemba was kind of stuck in between switching over to Brook and guarding me. He’s a step late, I saw him running out and I just jabbed and went up,” said Foye, who made only the second buzzer-beater of his career. “It just felt good as soon as it left my hand.”
Foye took an inbounds from Bojan Bogdanovic (game-high 26 points off the bench) and when he saw an opening, instead of feeding Lopez, he took one jab step to his left and put up a 3pointer over Walker. Replays showed it just beat the buzzer, and the Nets erupted off the bench to swarm Foye.
“It’s hard to [express]. We all just kind of reacted, and we’re all in a scrum a second later,’’ said Lopez, who had 10 of his 21 points in the fourth quarter, including every Net point in an 8-0 run. “I don’t know if I’ve run that fast all season.”
The Nets (8-22) now have to await word on Lin, who left with 17 points and four assists. The last time he left a game with a strained hamstring, he missed 17 straight games over five weeks. The Nets are hoping they don’t have to wait until February to get their point guard back again.
“It was important, for the group for the guys just to have that validation, because for the longest time we haven’t really responded [in the] third quarter and I think we did that,’’ Lopez said.
Lin came up limping after being fouled by Walker with his Nets down 68-54. Then he landed on Nicolas Batum’s foot but stayed in the game, his free throws sparking a 10-0 Nets run to get within two on Bogdanovic’s 3pointer. But Lin aggravated his hamstring on a layup attempt, leaving with 7:47 left in the third and not returning.
“It’s extremely frustrating: Not for me or for the guys but seeing your guy work so hard to get back. Just respect, just leadership, every single day, on the court, off the court. Then for him to go out again with the same thing, come on man, why?” Foye said. “But at the end of the day Jeremy is resilient. He’s a strong person, and he’s going to get through this.”
The Nets showed resilience, taking a 69-68 lead on Bog- danovic’s three-point play just 12 seconds later. Even down 98-92, Lopez scored every point in a 10-0 run to put Brooklyn ahead 100-98. Then 3s by Sean Kilpatrick (21 points) and Bogdanovic made it 117-113 with 1:06 on the clock.
Batum (24 points) rattled home a 3 with 32 seconds left, and when Bogdanovic missed a 3 of his own Charlotte had one last shot. Zeller made it, but Foye made a better one.