Nets edge Raptors, advance to 2nd round

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - After helping the New Jersey Nets beat the Toronto Raptors with his scoring and passing, Vince Carter sent his former team packing in a most unusual way: by being a decoy for Richard Jefferson. Jefferson scored the winning basket on a spinning layup over Chris Bosh with 8.3 seconds left and stole a pass in the waning seconds as the Nets beat the Raptors 98-97 on Friday night to win their first-round series 4-2.

Toronto Raptors' Chris Bosh, right, blocks a shot by New Jersey Nets' Vince Carter during the third quarter of Game 6 NBA first-round basketball Friday night, May 4, 2007, in East Rutherford, N.J. The Nets won the game, 98-97, and the series, four games to two. [AP]

Next on the agenda for the Nets will be LeBron James and the Cavaliers, starting Sunday in Cleveland.

However, New Jersey easily could have been playing a Game 7 in Toronto had Jefferson not stepped up big time after getting a surprising call from Nets coach Lawrence Frank with the game on the line.

With New Jersey trailing 97-96, Bosh missed a jumper from the top of the key with 16 seconds to play. Antoine Wright got the rebound and the Nets called a timeout with 12.6 seconds remaining.

Everyone in the Continental Airlines Arena watched the Nets walk to the bench and expected Frank to call a play for Carter, the former Raptor who was booed every time he touched the ball in Canada in this series.

Frank had another idea. He called Jefferson's number and had Carter run to the left corner, the same side from which Bostjan Nachbar was inbounding the ball. The pass went to Jason Kidd on the left wing and he found Jefferson coming off a screen by Mikki Moore at the right side of the key.

Jefferson, who needed surgery to fix a bothersome right ankle in January, went right at Bosh, spun, elevated to the rim and scored a layup to bring the crowd of more than 17,000 roaring to its feet.

Carter just smiled.

"That shows the character of our team and the weapons we have on our team," said Carter, who finished with 21 points on 6-of-19 shooting. "For the last couple of plays, they were really loading on me and sending a lot of guys to the middle. This time, they put me on the wing and R.J. had a one-on-one drive to the basket and had a hell of a finish."

Jefferson's play at the other end of the floor was just as good.

The Raptors, who rebuilt their team in the offseason and supplanted the underachieving Nets as the Atlantic Division champions, wanted to go to Bosh on somewhat of an alley-oop play.

Jose Calderon took the inbounds pass about 10 feet inside the midcourt line. He dribbled a couple of times and then tried to lob a pass to Bosh, who had scored 13 of his 23 points in the fourth quarter.

Jefferson fought off a little shove in the back from Bosh and leaped high to steal the pass.

Within seconds, the series was over.

"We executed the play we wanted," said Bosh, who also had nine assists and seven rebounds. "Richard Jefferson made a super athletic play. If that ball gets over him, we probably win the game."

NBA coach of the year Sam Mitchell agreed after the Raptors experienced postseason play for the first time since 2002.

"We had a chance to win the basketball game," he said. "They just made one more play than we did."

Carter, who averaged 25 points in the series, refused to gloat over eliminating the Raptors.

"We get to move on, that's all that matters," he said. "I don't want to get caught up in the whole situation people are making. For us, it's trying to advance and that was our goal this evening. We knew it was going to be a battle and a dogfight. We had to make plays at both ends of the floor."

Luckily for the Nets, Jefferson did at the end of the game.

Kidd finished with 18 points, 15 assists and eight rebounds for the Nets, averaging a triple-double for the series. Jefferson had 24 points and Nachbar added 15 off the bench.

Toronto got inspired efforts from banged-up point guards T.J. Ford and Calderon, who were both hurt in the Raptors' win in Game 5. Ford finished with 19 points in 15 minutes, and Calderon had 14 points and six assists while gutting out 33 minutes on a sprained ankle. No. 1 draft pick Andrea Bargnani added 17 points and seven rebounds.

Notes:@ Kidd averaged 14 points, 13.2 assists and 10 rebounds to become the first player to average a triple-double for a series since he did it against Boston in the 2002 Eastern Conference finals. ... New Jersey advanced to the Eastern Conference semifinals for the fifth time in six years. ... Toronto forced 19 Nets turnovers, including five by Jefferson and four apiece by Carter and Kidd. ... Calderon had a game-high four steals.