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Hayes shoots Nets past Bobcats
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A pair of Jarvis Hayes three pointers in the final two minutes helped guide New Jersey's 91-87 fourth quarter comeback win over Charlotte Monday night at the Izod Center.
Hayes' heroics led the Nets past Charlotte. (AP Photo/Bill Kostroun)
Down 79-67 with 9:36 left to play, the Nets staged a 10-0 run to make it close, and then Hayes, who shouldn't even be playing at this point with a partially torn ligament in his left thumb that will likely require surgery, nailed treys with 1:44 and 1:07 left in the fourth to give New Jersey its 34th win, matching last season's total. Hayes knew what the difference was on this night.
"It was us coming through at the right time," Hayes said.
His 15 points off the bench ended up making a difference against a Charlotte team that played four reserves, Sean May, DeSagana Diop, Dontell Jefferson and Vladimir Radmonovic, the entire second and fourth quarters under the experimental eye of Larry Brown. Raymond Felton led all scorers with 19 points in the losing effort.
"I don't know what he was trying to do," Hayes said. "We wanted to win."
"New Jersey hit some big shots." PG DJ Augustin said. "Those shots killed us. It was really frustrating, because we played well for most of the night. We tried to make plays down the stretch and didn't get it done."
While facing Diop during most of the crucial portions of the game, Brook Lopez put on what could be his best performance of the season, scoring 18 points on 7-15 shooting while grabbing a career high 20 rebounds. Coming back from a left shoulder injury, Devin Harris was solid but far from spectacular, scoring 11 points on 4-7 shooting. Vince Carter once again showed great veteran leadership while scoring 17 points to go with a team high five assists, six rebounds, four blocks and two steals.
Brook Lopez certainly got the best of Okafor and the Bobcats on Monday.
(AP Photo/Bill Kostroun)
With Raja Bell out with a calf injury and the importance of the game relatively nonexistent, Brown decided to shake things up and give extended minutes to his bench. May led the bench brigade with nine points, while Jefferson had seven, Radmonovic had six and Diop just four. Boris Diaw had 13 points on 5-11 shooting to go with five rebounds, Gerald Wallace had 11 and both Emeka Okafor and Augustin had nine points apiece. Brown tried explaining himself after the game.
"This game, I thought, was to give guys a chance to get guys who play so hard in practice some playing time," Brown said. "If the game meant something to the playoffs, I might have played it differently, but we weren't going to the playoffs and New Jersey wasn't going. So I decided to give the other guys a chance to see some time. I'm pleased that we were able to play some other guys. I'm disappointed that we lost."
Larry Brown's lineup shuffle didn't pan out in East Rutherford.
(AP Photo/Bill Kostroun)
With Keyon Dooling and Trenton Hassell both out on Monday, Chris Douglas-Roberts was once again inserted into the starting lineup, this time with mixed results. The nine points and four rebounds look good on the stat sheet, but the 2-8 shooting and the 36 minutes he put these numbers in leave a lot to be desired from the rookie out of Memphis. Ryan Anderson had eight points and four rebounds in 21 minutes while Yi Jianlian's role on this team continues to shrink. Yi scored a single point on 0-5 shooting with four rebounds in 18 minutes, but Bobby Simmons came through with 10 points.
Carter played most of the fourth quarter with a sprained right toe, and showed the leadership and determination needed to be a positive influence on his younger teammates.
"Coach asked me three or four times if I wanted to come out," Carter said. "I wasn't coming out. If I had taken my shoe off I would not have been able to return."
It was a very nice win over a team in a similar situation as franchises, and it was good to leave the home crowd with a good taste in their collective mouths. Even with the circumstances of the game, it was good to see the Nets come out there and care. Sometimes during the grind of the NBA season, the team that comes out with more effort wins, and the Nets definitely won in that department, and in the scorebooks, on this night. New Jersey will finish the season Wednesday night at Madison Square Garden against the Knicks.
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