Brooklyn Nets: 25 greatest individual games in team history
By Phil Watson
14. Stephon Marbury vs. Los Angeles Lakers, Feb. 13, 2001
The defending NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers arrived at Continental Airlines Arena on Feb. 13, 2001, with a 31-16 record and were expected to encounter little resistance from the 17-34 New Jersey Nets.
But the Lakers had no one who could stop Stephon Marbury on this February night. Fortunately for the Lakers, the Nets had no one who could stop either Kobe Bryant or Shaquille O’Neal and the twin threat combined for 70 points as L.A. escaped with a 113-110 overtime win.
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The Lakers had a 12-point lead, 100-88, when Bryant dunked with 4:14 remaining, but Marbury went to work. Marbury scored 13 points over the final 4:05, including back-to-back 3s in the final minute to force overtime.
Marbury opened the scoring in overtime and New Jersey led 110-107 after Johnny Newman‘s dunk with 1;21 to go. But Tyrone Lue tied it with a layup with 37 seconds left and Bryant’s three-point play the hard way with 4.8 seconds to go was the diffeence.
Marbury finished with a career-high 50 points on the night, hitting 17-of-29 overall, 4-of-8 from 3-point range, and going 12-for-16 at the line. He also had 12 assists.
Even though the Nets were a non-contender, Marbury got his first All-Star nod in 2000-01, part of a season in which he averaged 23.9 points, 7.6 assistsm 3.1 rebounds and 1.2 steals in 38.2 minutes a gae on .441/.328/.790 shooting.
He was traded that offseason to the Phoenix Suns for Jason Kidd. We know what happened from there.