by kibaxx7 on Mon Jan 26, 2009 7:06 am

WASHINGTON(AP) -- Vince Carter scored 23 points, including the winning lay-up with 5.4 seconds left, to lead his rebuilding New Jersey Nets to a 111-109 season-opening victory Wednesday night over the Washington Wizards, overshadowing Gilbert Arenas' 41 points and 15 assists. Carter - whose teammates elected him the Nets' captain - made the shot over Caron Butler.
These are teams that took very different approaches this offseason. The Wizards essentially stayed pat, re-signing All-Stars Arenas and Antawn Jamison to big contracts, while the Nets continued an overhaul that began when they traded away Jason Kidd.
Carter had plenty of help Wednesday, with Brook Lopez and Yi Jianlian adding 14 apiece. Former Wizards player Jarvis Hayes added 9 and backup point guard Keyon Dooling another 10, in 5-for-6 shooting. All Wizards starters scored in double-figures, led by Arenas' 41 and 27 from Butler. Jamison shot 7-for-11 and finished with 14 points.
Neither team looked quite ready to go in a first half that lacked any rhythm and ended with Washington leading 55-48; in the third quarter, Washington went on 10-0 run, with half the points scored by DeShawn Stevenson, to take a 72-68 lead with 4:21 left, but Hayes came in to score five consecutive points - with a background of boos from Wizards fans - and put the Nets back in front.
Bobby Simmons scored the last five points of the third quarter, Washington leading 82-76 heading to the fourth. The Wizards' last lead was 95-91 with 4:17 left, and New Jersey ended the game on a 20-14 run.
Notes
- Etan Thomas played in his first real NBA game since an April 30, 2007, playoff loss to Cleveland. Thomas missed all of last season after having open-heart surgery, but he looked fit and aggressive Wednesday and finished with 12 points and seven rebounds;
- The Nets returned only one starter from last season's opening-night roster: Carter, of course. Overall, only three current players - Carter, Josh Boone and Sean Williams - were on the roster at the start of last season, the fewest number of holdovers in franchise history. Boone didn't play tonight.
- In his first game as a Net, former Mavericks player Devin Harris, who came in the trade that sent Kidd to Dallas, only scored 7 points in 2-for-8 shooting. "Just wasn't my night, everybody can have a bad night," commented after the game.
- Backup Stromile Swift helped with 8 points shooting 100% from the field (4-for-4).
- Both teams shot over 50% from the field.
- Nets didn't have any turnovers.



Video Music: Boys Noize - "& Down"
Last edited by
kibaxx7 on Tue Feb 03, 2009 12:36 pm, edited 3 times in total.
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