EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. ? With the game on the line, Jason Kidd didn’t hesitate to push his surgically-repaired knee to the limit.
Kidd hit a go-ahead basket early in overtime, and the Nets denied former coach Byron Scott a win in his return to New Jersey with a 94-91 victory over the New Orleans Hornets on Friday night.
“Coach asked me and I told him I wanted to continue to keep playing,” Kidd said after contributing eight points and eight assists in a season-high 28 minutes. “I felt great. We’ll see how I feel tomorrow.”
Nets coach Lawrence Frank struggled letting Kidd continue the extra five minutes in only his third game since returning from knee surgery in July.
“I went to our coaches and said: `I think I have to take him out,'” Frank said. “I looked at him and I went with it. I just pray he’s OK.”
Kidd had a basket, an assist and two rebounds in the overtime. His biggest play came with 3:26 to go when backed David Wesley down and hit a 10-footer for a 90-88 lead.
Neither team scored again until Eric Williams hit a layup with 1:31 to go.
George Lynch cut the lead to a point on a 3-pointer with 1:11 to play, but Travis Best hit two free throws with 49 seconds to go, Jason Collins blocked a layup attempt by Matt Freije with 25.9 seconds left and Freije also missed two free throws with a second to go.
As the teams walked off the floor, Scott pointed to Frank in acknowledgment. Kidd had acknowledged Scott with a point before the game.
“He just wanted you guys to know there is no rift,” said Scott, who was fired in January amid rumors that he and Kidd were at odds. “Anything you guys are trying to make it out to be, it’s not. … We’ve never had a problem and I don’t know how many times I have to say that.”
The Nets rallied from a seven-point deficit with 2:10 to play in the fourth quarter and sent the Hornets to their season-high ninth straight loss and 17th in 18 games.
Richard Jefferson scored 24 points and Williams added 19 for the Nets, who had 30 turnovers.
Dan Dickau came off the bench to lead the Hornets with a career-high 18 points. Lynch and P.J. Brown added 14 points apiece for New Orleans, which made too many late mistakes to win.
The Hornets seemed on the verge of their second win of the season when Dickau and Brown scored four points apiece and Lynch hit a 3-pointer in a late 15-6 spurt that gave New Orleans an 86-79 lead with 2:10 to play.
However, the Nets scored the next seven points. Jefferson fed Williams for a 3-pointer and then he scored on a fast break after Kidd stole the ball.
Collins tied the game at 86-all, catching an airball by Jefferson and scoring a layup with 1:03 to play.
“The game never should have gone to overtime,” Brown said. “We were in complete control with two minutes to go. It’s experience. You have to learn that. That’s the hardest part of the game. You have to raise your game and concentrate more. We had a turnover or two and let them take it to overtime.”
The final 63 seconds were sloppy. Brown missed a jumper for New Orleans with about 40 seconds to go and Jefferson then had an errant pass stolen with 22.3 seconds left. Dickau threw up an airball with 3.6 seconds to play and Jefferson missed a jumper at the buzzer.
In his 3 1/2 years in New Jersey, Scott led the Nets to two NBA Finals appearances. He was fired in late January and replaced by Frank, who then won his first 13 games.
Notes: Nets C Alonzo Mourning sat out with hand, hip and knee aches. He also intends to sit out Saturday’s game at Atlanta. …The Hornets, who already have Rodney Rogers, Jamal Mashburn, Baron Davis and Jamaal Magliore on the injured list, had starting F Lee Nailon sit out with a groin injury. … Kaniel Dickens, who was leading the CBA in scoring before signing with New Jersey earlier this week, hit a 3-pointer on his first shot with the Nets. …Hornets rookie and New Jersey resident J.R. Smith did not play in his first pro game here.
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. ? Jason Kidd couldn’t have scripted a better ending, except perhaps for a flashier assist on the game-winning basket.
Making his season debut, Kidd was credited with an assist on Richard Jefferson’s jumper from the lane with 7.1 seconds left that gave the New Jersey Nets an 88-86 victory over the Toronto Raptors on Monday night.
Jefferson pretty much did all the work on the key play, catching Kidd’s pass on the right wing, taking three dribbles to his left and launching a 9-footer that fell through.
“Heck, yeah. He deserved an assist,” Jefferson said. “I finished, but he put me in position to finish it.”
After sitting out the season’s first 16 games recovering from left knee surgery, Kidd had 10 points, six rebounds and three assists in 21 minutes with the Nets restricting his playing time.
Jefferson had 26 points, nine rebounds and eight assists for New Jersey, which began the night in last place in the Atlantic Division after winning only four of its first 16 games with Kidd sidelined.
“It was a whole different feeling when he was out there,” Nets forward Eric Williams said. “We got the ball up and down the floor, and the game just looked a whole lot better.”
Vince Carter had 22 points for Toronto, but he missed a driving layup just before the final buzzer that would have sent the game to overtime. Chris Bosh added 15 points.
“I thought for sure it went in. As I’m turning around heading to the bench, I see Richard Jefferson holding the ball _ but he wasn’t under the basket,” Carter said.
Kidd defended Carter on the final play, the ball bouncing around the rim and missing to give Toronto its fourth straight loss.
“I wanted to guard him,” Kidd said. “We all knew in the huddle where the ball was going to end up. I wanted to guard him and try to make it as tough as possible. I thought he was going to try to win the game by shooting a 3, so I tried to ride him and make him take it to the basket.”
Trade rumors involving Carter and Jalen Rose have been circulating daily around the Raptors, who were outrebounded 61-36.
“I’m just numb. I am not angry. I’m not frustrated. I’m just numb,” Toronto coach Sam Mitchell said. “It’s not my job to change the roster, it’s just my job to coach the players, and I am going to do that to the best of my ability.”
Coach Lawrence Frank limited Kidd to 11 first-half minutes, and the Nets trailed 47-42 at intermission after Kidd contributed only two points, two assists and four rebounds with five turnovers.
Travis Best was the Nets’ starting point guard at the beginning of the second half, with Kidd staying seated until 5:40 remained. Kidd played the remainder of the third quarter, but Jacque Vaughn replaced him at the start of the fourth.
The Nets trailed 78-73 when Kidd returned with 5:54 left, and his 3-pointer with 1:56 remaining tied the game at 84-84.
“Watching a lot of basketball, watching the great shooters like Ray Allen, they don’t think, they just shoot,” Kidd said. “When you start to think about maybe passing, that’s when your brain might get in the way of the shot. My new philosophy is just let it go.
A pair of free throws by Jefferson with 52.5 seconds left made it 86-84, giving New Jersey its first lead since midway through the first quarter. Carter tied it 10 seconds later with a pair from the line.
Notes: Carter had missed the Raptors’ previous game due to food poisoning. He played 29 minutes and shot 7-for-14. … Battle of the redheads: Brian Scalabrine and Matt Bonner, the NBA’s only two redheads, were matched against each other early in the fourth quarter. Bonner, who began the night leading the NBA in field goal percentage (60.2 percent), shot just 1-for-6. … To make room on the active roster for Kidd, the Nets placed guard Awvee Storey on the injured list. … Forward Aaron Williams, who has dropped almost completely out of the Nets’ rotation, played one minute in the third quarter.
