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'At a loss' Magnitude of Nets' collapse begins to sink inPosted: Saturday May 25, 2002 10:25 PM
BOSTON (AP) -- New Jersey coach Byron Scott tried to convince his team that it was only one loss, but as he said it his players were back in the locker room, covering their faces with towels or their hands as the magnitude of their collapse began to sink in. "We didn't finish the game out," forward Kenyon Martin whispered after the Nets blew a 26-point lead Saturday night and lost Game 3 of the Eastern Conference finals 94-90 to the Boston Celtics. "I'm at a loss for words right now." Boston trailed by 21 after three quarters before outscoring New Jersey 41-16 in the fourth to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series. No team in NBA history had ever won after trailing by more than 18 at the start of the final quarter. It was the 11th consecutive victory at the FleetCenter for Boston, which protected the home-court advantage it gained with a split in New Jersey in the first two games. The Nets need to recover in time for Game 4 on Monday night or they'll face the possibility of a 3-1 deficit against a franchise that has never lost a playoff series after leading three games to one. "I don't think our guys will be that dejected. ... I think they understand that this is a game that we blew," Scott said. "We had the game and we blew it. And our guys, they've been very resilient all season, so I'm sure we'll come back with the same type of effort we had in the first three quarters " He can only hope so. The Nets did everything right for three quarters and everything wrong in the fourth. They shot just 4-of-22, got beat on the glass and turned the ball over six times (for 11 Boston points). Meanwhile, Paul Pierce erupted with a fourth quarter like he hasn't had this series, scoring 19 of his 28 points in the final 12 minutes with six layups and 7-for-9 free throw shooting. Kerry Kittles had 19 points but only four in the fourth. Jason Kidd went scoreless and Martin had just one point in the last quarter while picking up three fouls apiece. Only Aaron Williams had a strong fourth quarter, with 11 points. "You could kind of see it in their eyes. At a certain point, it was like nobody wanted to shoot it for them," Pierce said. "I think they were kind of intimidated by the crowd and the simple fact that we were gaining momentum." And the Nets couldn't stop Pierce -- the NBA leader in fourth-quarter points this season -- when they needed to most. He scored three baskets from inside during an 11-0 run at the start of the fourth that got the crowd back into the game and cut the Nets' lead to 74-64. Rodney Rogers made six free throws to help cut the deficit to six, then Antoine Walker made two with 2:41 left to make it 88-84. After Williams made two foul shots, Pierce made one and then hit a driving layup to make it 90-87 with 1:37 left. He hit four more free throws and the Celtics had their first lead, 91-90, since they made it 1-0 in the opening seconds. Kittles lost the ball to send Kenny Anderson off on a fast break, then Walker blocked Keith Van Horn's shot. Pierce went back to the line and hit one of two free throws with 17.6 seconds left to clinch it. "It's extremely frustrating. It's disappointing," Van Horn said. "Our mindset going into the fourth quarter was that it was over. We've had a resilient team all year. We're going to need to be resilient again and put this fourth quarter behind us."
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