 Sacramento's Peja Stojakovic drives the lane against the Nets. Rocky Widner NBAE/Getty Images 56k | 300k |
But Stojakovic made two free throws at the other end. Kidd had a chance for a tying 3-pointer, which would have been his third overtime-forcing shot in the first four games of this five-game road trip. But with Bobby Jackson in his face, Kidd's shot was way off. Keith Van Horn tipped in the rebound at the buzzer.
"They're not going to give you a wide-open look," Kidd said. "You have got to be creative and I thought I'd try to get (Jackson) off his feet, but he didn't go for it. So I thought the next best thing was to try to get it up there. It was on line, just a little strong."
"When you're down by three, you just got to take whatever you can," New Jersey coach Byron Scott said. "Jason just hit one so I think Bobby was going to make sure he didn't give him any room. The only thing you could do at that particular point is probably try to drive and kick it out to somebody else. But I'll live with Jason taking those shots with the game on the line. More times than not, he's been able to hit them."
Jackson, who had 13 points and six rebounds, took personal pride in covering Kidd late in the game.
"Everybody has to step up and make key defensive plays," he said. "We traded baskets for a little bit in the second half. They were scoring at will and so it's my job to come in there and be a leader, play defense, score and do whatever I can do to help this team win games.
"He's a point guard so I just try to make it tough on him. He's such a threat offensively and defensively, so you just got to keep your head up when you're playing against that guy."
Mike Bibby contributed 16 points for Sacramento, which improved to 7-0 at Arco Arena. The Kings had won their first six home games by an average of 21.7 points.
"It was exciting," Bibby said. "We could have put it away a long time ago, but that's why we play the game. They kept fighting. It's not over until the buzzer goes off. We were lucky we pulled it off."
Kenyon Martin scored 20 points and Van Horn contributed 19 and 10 rebounds for the Nets, who fell to 2-2 on their trip.
"We never quit," Scott said. "We continued to play hard. I thought the first half, we just didn't come out with the same intensity that we did in the second half. In the second half, we did a very good job on both ends of the court. The positive thing is that we competed. For 48 minutes we pretty much played a pretty good basketball team. We fought them tooth and nail all the way to the end."
Sacramento began the fourth quarter with a 17-6 run, taking a 92-78 lead with six minutes remaining on two free throws by Stojakovic.
New Jersey responded with an 11-0 run, moving to 92-89 as Kidd made a driving layup with 2:39 left. Divac hit a jumper 20 seconds later but missed 2-of-4 three throws before Kidd hit one from beyond the arc with nine seconds left.
"People have been talking about how they wanted an exciting game here, so we did that in the fourth quarter," said Sacramento coach Rick Adelman, who moved seven wins away from 500 for his career. "I thought we had them put away when we had that 14-point lead. I give them credit, they came back and they made a lot of shots. Fortunately, we made enough plays to win the game."
The Kings used a 19-7 run to take a 24-12 lead with 3:12 left in the first quarter. Stojakovic scored 10 points in the opening period.
In the second quarter, New Jersey closed to 33-30 on Derrick Dial's three-point play with 9:22 left. But Sacramento regained its double-digit lead with a 14-6 run, capped by consecutive driving layups by Jackson that opened a 47-36 advantage with 5:15 to go.
"We let them get out to an early start," Kidd said. "Anytime you're on the road, you want to give yourself a chance to win the ball game. But the guys stayed with it and we kept fighting, and we just came up a little short tonight."
Martin scored 10 points in the third period, when New Jersey used a 14-5 run over the second half of the quarter to close to 73-72 with 1:23 remaining.
Doug Christie contributed 10 points and five assists for the Kings, who shot 41 percent (36-for-87) from the field and converted 24-of-37 free throws.
Kerry Kittles had 14 points and seven rebounds and Aaron Williams collected 10 and five as New Jersey shot 44 percent and owned a 50-45 edge in rebounding, but was awarded only 16 free throws.
"Thirty-seven free throws to our 16, that's the bottom line," Scott said. "We didn't get a lot of calls, obviously, and they got a lot of calls. I guess that's just part of basketball."