Nets' Season Ends With Victory

While his team closed out a dismal season, Stephon Marbury finished on a high note.

Marbury had a career-high 41 points and 11 assists as the New Jersey Nets capped an injury-plagued season with a 115-107 victory over the playoff-bound Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday night.

"I finished on a high note," said Marbury, who closed the year with four straight 30-plus point games. "I did everything I was supposed to do, for everyone to see what I could do.

"I can score and pass, and I wanted everyone to see I could play hard, and I've done that," said Marbury, who was acquired in March in a three-team deal.

The loss dropped Milwaukee (28-22) to the seventh seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs, meaning the Bucks' first-round opponent will be Indiana, a team that has beaten Milwaukee seven consecutive times.

"We had a good game, but Marbury played a stud game and we didn't have any answers," said coach George Karl, who took over the Bucks this season and led them to the playoffs for the first time since 1990-91.

"I'm excited. I didn't have a lot of desire either one way or the other," Karl added, referring to the choice of Orlando or Indiana as an opponent. "Indiana is a great team. It will be fun."

This season wasn't fun for the Nets.

Just a year after making the playoffs for the first time in four years, the Nets posted a 16-34 record in a lockout-shortened season highlighted by the firing of coach John Calipari on March 15.

During the season, the Nets lost All-Star center Jayson Williams, forward Keith Van Horn and four other players to season-ending injuries.

This 16th victory featured a crowd-pleaing ending with 7-foot-7 Gheorghe Muresan, who has been bothered by a back problem, making his first appearance in an NBA game in two seasons. He was signed by the Nets on Monday but he did not play that night against the Wizards. To the roar of the crowd, he peeled off his jersey with 1:09 to go and missed a shot and had a turnover down the stretch.

Kendall Gill and Mark Hendrickson added 19 points for the Nets and Lucious Harris had 16, including two big 3-pointers in the fourth quarter when the Nets made their first seven shots to open a 14-point lead. Jamie Feick, who played two games with the Bucks this season, added 17 rebounds.

Ray Allen had 22 points while Tim Thomas and Sam Cassell, playing for the first time since being traded by the Nets in March, added 16 apiece.

Marbury was 13-of-24 from the field, including four 3-pointers, in bettering his previous high of 40 earlier this season playing for Minnesota against Houston.

"He had a great game," Allen said. "He just took it over. He got his teammates involved, got them shots. Every time we made a run, he made a play. He was a backbreaker."

Milwaukee used a seven-point run at the end of the third quarter to cut New Jersey's lead to 83-82. But the Nets opened the fourth quarter with a 17-4 spurt to put the game away.

"We appreciate you hanging in there with us in the dark days, these troubling days," Nets interim coach Don Casey told fans just seconds after finishing with a 13-17 record.

Notes

• Nets guard Kerry Kittles did not dress because of soreness in his right knee. He is expected to have surgery on the knee sometime next week.
• Bucks forward Glenn Robinson missed his third consecutive game with a deep bone bruise on his right knee.
• In a season marred by injuries, Gill was the only Net to play in all 50 games. He had three steals, giving him 134 to lead the league.
• The Bucks had a two-game winning streak snapped in losing to New Jersey for the first time in three games this season.

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