EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- Unless Vince Carter was dunking, he missed just about everything in the New Jersey Nets' playoff opener against the Indiana Pacers on Sunday.
It was so bad, the All-Star guard could only laugh at himself during and after the Pacers' 90-88 win at the Continental Airlines
Arena in Game 1 of their best-of-seven series.
"It was one of those days," Carter said after scoring 31 points on 12-of-33 shooting from the field. "Of course, you always
wish you could have it back, but you can't."
Carter has had bad shooting nights before, but this one was
atrocious. Only two of his 12 baskets came on jumpers, and he was
1-of-8 from 3-point range.
After throwing up airballs on two 3-pointers in the third
quarter, Carter looked up and laughed at himself. Five of his 10
baskets were dunks.
"I'll go home and try to figure out what I can do better,"
Carter said. "I am going to watch the film and figure it out. Like
I said, first and foremost, I can play better. Hopefully, I can
make shots, make layups, something to help. It's one of those
games."
The game actually had an exciting start for Carter. He made two
dunks, including a spectacular reverse slam on an alley-oop pass
from Jason Kidd.
After that it went south. Carter missed his final eight shots in
the first quarter, and he never found his touch. The only way he
scored was going to the basket, and that came with mixed success.
It also proved painful.
Carter took a terrible spill with 4:35 to play when he lost his
balance on a layup and landed hard on his side. He limped into the
postgame news conference, noting a couple of things hurt, but he
plans to play in Game 2 on Tuesday.
"It seemed like the fall was taking forever just to hit the
floor," said Carter, who missed two free throws down the stretch
that could have given New Jersey the lead. "I looked down and I
was just trying to brace myself. I've been in that position before
where I broke my wrist."
Pacers guard Stephen Jackson said all his team wanted to do was
to make Carter take tough shots.
"Stay on his hip and make him shoot over you all night,"
Jackson said. "Don't give him no good looks because he's an
outstanding scorer."
Indiana coach Rick Carlisle isn't counting on Carter to have a
repeat performance.
"We know that we got lucky today," Carlisle said. "We know
Vince Carter is not going to have another 1-for-8 3-point game or
12-for-33 game, because he's a great player and he's going to make
his shots. We got very fortunate that he didn't have his best
game."
The 33 shots were just shy of a playoff record for the Nets.
Carter took 37 in a double-overtime loss to Miami last season,
making 15.
Carter made an excellent adjustment, going to the basket when he
realized his outside shot was not working.
However, he could not get the ball to fall.
"You can't get any closer than where I was," said Carter, who had a team-high 13 rebounds. "They were all layups, you can't get any better than a layup. I feel they just didn't go in. All went in and out. A lot went off the backboard and in and out. It was one of
those days."