Carter's patience pays off big time

Vince Carter spent much of the first half sitting on the New Jersey Nets' bench with foul trouble, playing just 11 minutes worth four points.

"There was nothing I could do for my team except be a great cheerleader and hope that was good enough to get us some points," said Carter, rumored to be available in trade, with one report out of the East indicating the Nets might want the Utah Jazz's Andrei Kirilenko in exchange for Carter.

"Once I got my opportunity in the second half, it was just a new ballgame for me. I just wanted to relax. I didn't want to come out and gun the ball or anything like that but just play within myself," said Carter, who warmed up for fourth-quarter Net heroics with a 13-point third quarter Monday in EnergySolutions Arena.

Carter sat out the first eight minutes of the fourth quarter, then, with Utah trying to guard him mostly with rookie Paul Millsap, until Millsap fouled out and Matt Harpring took over, Carter scored 16 of the final 17 points for New Jersey, including the buzzer-beating 35-foot 3-pointer that beat the Jazz by one, 116-115.

"I was trying to give myself an alleyway just to get good vision and sightline of the rim and just try to get my feet set," Carter said of the winning shot from near Jazz owner Larry H. Miller's seats that was set up by former Jazzman Mikki Moore.

Carter had been allowed unobstructed to the rim on New Jersey's second-to-last possession to make the score 114-113 for Utah, and Utah's Deron Williams made one of two free throws with :05.9 seconds left for a 115-113 Jazz advantage.

Carter got the ball on the inbounds play and headed up the sideline against Harpring, got the Moore pick and shot with :00.1 left, the ball settling softly.

Moore said during Williams' free throws, he looked at New Jersey coach Lawrence Frank, "And he told me that whoever gets the ball, set a screen as soon as we get across halfcourt. When we got downcourt, I gave Vince a look, then I laid the pick on him."

Moore said as soon as he set the pick, he ran toward the basket in case there might be a chance for a tip.

But this was a motivated Carter doing the shooting.

"I didn't realize how far it was," Carter said of the shot, the fourth buzzer-beater to beat the Jazz this season.

The Nets can empathize, having lost by a point each on the first three games of this five-game road trip to tie an NBA record before winning 112-102 at Denver Saturday.