EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- A solemn Baron Davis sat against a wall in the Charlotte Hornets locker room, tugging a black Kangol hat so low that it almost covered his eyes.

	Davis

It was as if Davis didn't want to be seen.

He felt like hiding because for the last 5:52 of the Hornets' final game representing the city of Charlotte, Davis was nowhere to be found on the court, having picked up his sixth foul trying to muscle a rebound away from rookie Nets center Jason Collins.

George Shinn and Ray Wooldridge may as well have started the engines of the moving vans for New Orleans right then and there. Without Davis, their catalyst and quarterback, the Hornets were going nowhere. Without Davis, the Hornets went down for the fourth and final time against the New Jersey Nets, who captured the Eastern Conference semifinal series with a 103-95 win Wednesday night.

"To sit on the bench those last minutes and watch my teammates just try to fight as hard as they possibly could to pull out a victory, it just mad me sad because I couldn't be out there and battle," Davis said. "I felt terrible. I could barely watch the game."

The fourth quarter would be Davis' -- and the Hornets' -- demise against the top-seeded Nets. In a 99-93 loss in Game 1, Davis was criticized for not asserting himself more, taking just four shots in the final quarter. In a 102-88 loss in Game 2, Davis ended up trying to do too much in going scoreless for more than 15 minutes in the second half.

In Game 5 on Wednesday, George Lynch and Stacey Augmon were the ones launching shots during crunch time as the Hornets let an 87-84 lead slip away. Obviously, that's not exactly how coach Paul Silas drew it up before the game.

"We needed scoring so badly at that point," Silas explained. "When Baron went out, we lost our primary ball handler, a guy that can penetrate to the hoop and get everybody else involved. It was devastating at that point, but other guys had to step up and we just could not do it."

Davis, the third-year pro who rose to All-Star status this season, was forced to become the Hornets' go-to guy with Jamal Mashburn sidelined the entire series with a viral illness.

Davis confidently spoke about the Hornets' chances of advancing past New Jersey without Mashburn after Game 2. But on Wednesday night, he admitted he may have overestimated the importance of Mashburn's 21.5-point scoring average.

"It was a lot harder than I thought it was going to be," Davis said. "Jamal was a huge part of our team. A go-to guy. He is probably one of the most unstoppable offensive players in the league. I still felt like we had the tools and the players to pull it off. I think that the games that they won, they out-executed us in the fourth quarter."

Davis had just seven points on 2-of-9 shooting in the first half Wednesday, but his drive-and-kickout dish to Augmon for a buzzer-beating, baseline jumper gave Charlotte a 50-48 halftime lead. Davis picked up two fouls in the third, then was called for foul No. 5 with 8:48 to play. He fouled out three minutes later when he got tangled up with Collins' right arm while battling for a rebound on Kenyon Martin's missed layup.

Davis, like his teammates, was surprised to hear a whistle.

"He's the franchise guy. They usually take care of those type of players, especially in crucial games like this," P.J. Brown said. "With games on the line, you need guys like that in the game. It was like that the whole series, so it didn't surprise me."

"It's part of the game," Davis said. "I was down there with the big guys and there was not too much I could do."

Joe Lago is the NBA editor for ESPN.com.