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Harris just beats buzzer and Nets beat 76ers

Feb 24, 2009 - 6:37 AM EAST RUTHERFORD, New Jersey (Ticker) -- Devin Harris scored 39 points including a wild 3-pointer at the buzzer to lead the New Jersey Nets to a 98-96 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers on Monday.

After Andre Iguodala made one of two free throws to give the 76ers a 96-95 lead with 1.8 seconds to go, Harris made a 3-pointer from midcourt that he got off just before the horn.

Harris took the inbounds pass and raced to his left. Iguodala picked him up and knocked the ball away as Harris made his first attempt at a shot to beat the buzzer. The ball bounced off Iguodala right back to Harris, who launched another shot - and this one found nothing but net.

"I was trying to draw the foul and I kind of lost it as I bumped into (Iguodala) it kind of fumbled through my hands," Harris said. "At the last second I kind of just heaved it up. How, I don't know. Just tried to get it in the right direction and it ended up going in. As I'm going into his body, the ball kind of went into his chest, came back to me and then I heaved it down."

The officials took a long look at replays of the shot and determined Harris just beat the clock.

"The call on the court was the basket was no good," lead referee Derrick Stafford said. "We come together to see if we all pretty much had the same thing or if we have anything to overrule the call on the floor, and we did not. So at that point with zeroes on the clock, we continued to go to replay.

"You have to have clear, conclusive information in order for us to overturn the call."

Iguodala scored 21 points for Philadelphia, which has lost all four of its games since the All-Star break.

"We saw the play a few times. The clock didn't start on time, first of all. That was a big issue. They gave him two-tenths of a second," Iguodala said. "There were so many things that went on. But we lost the game. It seems that's the way the season's been coming down, to things like that. We just don't get it to go our way."

Harris helped the Nets snap a five-game losing streak with his game-winning shot, but would have been the goat in a sixth straight loss if the 76ers had knocked down their foul shots.

"We had a couple of turnovers that didn't go away but with an ending like that, there's not a whole lot much more to say than that," Nets coach Lawrence Frank said. "Devin put us on his back tonight and really carried us."

Rookie Marreese Speights made a jump hook from the baseline with 26 seconds to go to give Philadelphia a 94-93 lead. On New Jersey's next possession, Harris got caught up in the air and attempted to make a pass across the court, but he threw the ball right to Andre Miller.

Miller was immediately fouled, but made just one of two from the line to make it 95-93 with 19 seconds to play.

Vince Carter tied the game with a drive right down the middle of the lane six seconds later. Philadelphia then isolated Iguodala at the top of the key and he drove deep into the lane, where he was fouled by Harris on a reach in.

But Iguodala missed the first attempt long and made the second to give Philadelphia a one-point lead and Harris answered for New Jersey.

"A couple of games this year, if we made free throws, we wouldn't be talking about this," DiLeo said. "Tonight was one of those things for whatever reason, we have to improve of free throws so it doesn't come down to a circus shot at the end."