With 8.7 seconds left and the Clips down 101-99, Mobley inbounds the ball on the left side to Cassell. 

  • Cassell dribbles right, guarded by Marcus Williams.  At 7.1 he gets a high screen way beyond the top of the arc from Elton. Mobley dives toward the right post.  Maggette, who is there, slides left along the baseline. 

  • Cassell fakes left - away from the screen - then, at 6.3, switches course, right, around the screen to get Jason Collins on the mismatch. 

  • At 5.1, Williams recovers nicely and picks up a penetrating Cassell.

  • For whatever reason, Vince Carter decides to leave the perimeter at 4.2, and double Sam as he enters the lane, even though almost every red jersey on the floor - Nachbar and Collins [who has left Brand at the left elbow[1]] included - has collapsed on Sam. 

  • At 3.2, with Carter in his path, Sam kicks it out to Mobley, who is all alone at the right garden spot, a millimeter beyond the arc. 

  • Mobley sets and, at 2.5 he elevates, left hand cocked.  The ball leaves his hands at 2.2.

  • With 1.0, the ball drops through the hoop, landing on the floor at 0.6.


Crazy as it sounds, the Clippers are lucky to tip away the Nets' inbounds play.  Kidd lobs the inbound pass directly to the hoop.  Carter muscles behind Ross and tips it against the back iron.  The Clips get out alive. 

All in all, the Clippers turned in a hellacious second half performance and probably deserved to lose the game.  After Sam put the Clippers ahead by eight with 6:52 in the fourth, the Clippers go 1-12 until Mobley hits the winner.  Of the 11 misses, seven are jump shots from 16 feet and beyond. 

Meanwhile, a nationally televised home game is when you're supposed to straighten up the place - stack the magazines on the coffee table, tidy up the den, make sure there's an un-groady soap in the bathroom.  So what do the fans in the lower bowl do?  The friggin' wave, initiated just as Maggette is about to shoot two from the line.  Dignify much?


[1] It's interesting, because EB is wide - and I mean wide - open at his favorite spot, the left elbow, and there's absolutely nobody in the passing lane.  Was the play designed for Cat?  Did Sam want to go for the win when he saw Cat all alone beyond the arc?