BOSTON — In the end, Kenny Atkinson just let it all go. On a night when almost nothing else worked and Atkinson was on the brink of waving the whole thing off and regrouping for the second half of a back-to-back on Wednesday night, Caris LeVert got cooking just in time.
“It was all him,” said Atkinson. “We didn’t run anything. He just kind of took over. I mean, he called what’s in our playbook, but I was definitely not calling any plays. That’s where as a coach you better get back, get out of his way.”
For about nine amazing minutes of basketball, there was nothing Caris LeVert could not do.
The numbers, staggering as they are, probably don’t do it justice, but we’re going to run them out there anyway: LeVert scored a career-high 51 points, with 37 of them coming in the fourth quarter and overtime and the final 27 coming in the last 4:05 minutes of regulation and overtime.
Over the last 17 minutes, LeVert shot 11-of-16, including 4-of-7 from 3-point range. He scored 29 of Brooklyn’s last 35 points, including all 11 of overtime in the 129-120 win that left the TD Garden crowd shocked into a beautiful silence.
“It was just play after play, right? And then defensively he got a big steal, and obviously hitting three free throws down at the end,” said Atkinson. “I don’t know if you guys see a lot of them, a classic performance. Great, great performance.”
It started off as a pretty good night. LeVert made six of his first eight shots and had 14 at halftime. But not much else was working. The Nets turned it over too much early, fell behind by 13 at halftime. Midway through the third quarter, the Boston lead was 21 points. LeVert, somehow, went through the third quarter without getting a single shot.
The Nets cut the deficit to seven coming up on the midpoint of the fourth, keeping the game close enough to dissuade Atkinson from pulling the plug. With the Memphis Grizzlies due in Brooklyn on Wednesday night, the coach was keeping the big picture in mind, especially with LeVert, who’s played the last two games with a bothersome thumb he banged last Friday in Atlanta. It’s his shooting hand, to he took a couple shots on it against the Celtics as well, to no surprise.
“I was thinking about taking him out,” said Atkinson. “He kind of said, ‘back off.’”
But the Boston lead was back up to 13 with under five minutes to go, and then LeVert hit a 3-pointer with 4:05 remaining. Chris Chiozza came up with a steal, got the ball to LeVert for another. Thirty-five seconds later, LeVert’s third 3-pointer in less than 90 seconds went down and the Nets were suddenly within four.
“Honestly I’m not thinking anything at that point,” said LeVert. “I’m just one possession at a time, the basket was so big at that point, I had hit a couple, got some easy layups going to the rim. Like I said the basket was huge at that point, so you’re just trying to get a good look.”
They started trading baskets with Boston. Chiozza made a 3-pointer, then fed a cutting LeVert for a dunk. Another LeVert 3-pointer, his fourth in less than three minutes, had the Nets within 110-108.
“He made a couple of shots, and we made a run,” said Chiozza. “I said, ‘We’ve got a chance at this right here.’ In the fourth quarter, he came out and was hitting everything. I just tried to find him as much as I could. I told him during the timeout, ‘Let me bring the ball up, and you’ve got to score. When you get to your spot, you just put your hands up, and I’ll get you the ball.’ That’s what he did the whole fourth quarter. He got to his spot.”
It still almost wasn’t enough. The Nets were back down five with 10 seconds to go. DeAndre Jordan got a quick dunk to make it 118-115. The Celtics inbounded with 6.7 seconds left. Rodions Kurucs forced a jump ball with Kemba Walker, won the tip. Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot grabbed the ball and the Nets called timeout with 1.4 seconds left.
The inbound went to LeVert, wisely triple-teamed. But there were almost too many arms flailing at him as he rose to shoot and the foul was called on Boston’s Marcus Smart with 0.2 seconds left. LeVert went to the line needing all three free throws to tie the game, and hit them all.
“I never had that,” said LeVert. “I’ve never had that before; that was very unique. But I was confident when I stepped to the line I was going to hit all three.”
He outscored the Celtics all by himself in overtime, 11-2. The first eight came in the first 2:20 of OT, putting the Nets up 126-118. LeVert had wiped them out.
“He was not missing, couldn't be stopped,” said Luwawu-Cabarrot. “When you got a guy like that, it's easy. Play defense, give him the ball on offense do what you have to do and bring the win home.”