Nets Hang On and Cut Into the Raptors' Lead

Paul Pierce sank a 3-pointer with 1 minute 14 seconds remaining in the game Monday night at Barclays Center and spent the next several seconds skipping deliberately back to the Nets bench - the whole time rotating his body clockwise with his right hand in the air - as fans erected a wall of noise all around him.

It was a pivotal moment in the Nets' 101-97 victory against the Toronto Raptors, stretching their thin lead to 3 and restoring some belief to a tense crowd. It was a clear sign, too, that the playoffs are around the corner.

With the win, the Nets moved to three games behind the Raptors for the lead in the Atlantic Division. Both teams have 20 games left to play. Winning the division will still represent a tall task for the Nets. The Raptors will play 14 of their final 20 games against teams that currently have losing records. And Toronto holds a comfortable advantage in the tiebreakers.

But it would be a worthwhile goal to pursue. The spoils handed to the league's division winners are not insignificant. They are guaranteed at least a No. 4 seed entering the playoffs. This would seem to represent a considerable advantage within the top-heavy Eastern Conference.

While Jason Kidd, the Nets' coach, insisted before the game that Monday's contest was no different from any other one - telling reporters that there are 82 games in a season has become a favorite, evasive maneuver of his - Dwane Casey, his Toronto counterpart, was at least willing to concede that the stakes were slightly higher.

'It's not going to make or break either of our seasons, this game tonight - we still have quite a few more games to go,' Casey said. 'But with us being so close, and them being right behind us in the standings, it puts a little extra importance to it.'

That the playoffs are on the horizon first seemed apparent halfway through the third quarter, when the Nets went on a 14-0 run that included four 3-pointers. The last one spurred a 20-second timeout from the Raptors and a burst of noise from the announced crowd of 17,351. The fans were loud all game, a notable development, as it is not a given in the building from night to night.

The atmosphere continued from there. After Pierce's 3 late in the game, the Raptors crept back to within a point. But Shaun Livingston poked the ball away from Terrance Ross with 25 seconds to play, and Pierce gathered the loose ball, effectively sealing the Nets' win. Pierce finished with 15 points, and Deron Williams and Livingston each had 18 points to lead the Nets.

Pierce held the ball like a prize as he sauntered down the court, high-fiving a fan at midcourt who had leaned into the playing area.

It was an impressive win, as the Nets were lacking two of their best defensive players because of injury.

Before the game Kidd said that center Kevin Garnett, who missed the Nets' previous five games with a sore back, and Pierce, who left Sunday's game after taking a hard blow to his right shoulder, would both be in his starting lineup.

But minutes before tipoff, the Nets announced that Garnett would instead sit out the game and that Mason Plumlee would start in his place. It was an unexpected setback for the Nets, who were already missing Andrei Kirilenko because of a sprained his right ankle sustained in Sunday's game. Kirilenko said Monday that he was hoping to be ready to play Wednesday night against the Miami Heat.

Without Garnett and Kirilenko, the Nets looked rather lost defending the pick-and-roll. They stumbled at the start and trailed by 12 points in the first half. But they made things competitive again with a flourish just before halftime.

With 2:02 left in the second quarter, Plumlee finished a two-handed, put-back dunk on a missed floater by Williams that sent a shock wave through the stands and cut the Raptors' lead to 3. Alan Anderson's corner 3-pointer with 21 seconds left sliced the deficit to a point before halftime.

The crowd let out an ecstatic cheer, a hint of the cacophony to come later on.

REBOUNDS

The House of Representatives of the Philippines approved a bill Monday to grant Filipino citizenship to Andray Blatche, a Nets backup center. Blatche, 27, agreed in January to take part in the unusual move as part of an effort to have him eligible to represent the country at the FIBA World Championships this summer in Spain. A similar bill still needs to make it through the Senate of the Philippines before it can then be sent to President Benigno Aquino III for final approval. Blatche is from Syracuse and has never been to the Philippines.

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