Bill Kostroun / AP

Nets forward Vince Carter pokes the ball from Cavaliers forward Robert Traylor during the first quarter of New Jersey's 104-98 victory Sunday. Carter scored 34 points.

updated 2:46 p.m. ET Feb. 28, 2005

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. - Vince Carter and Jason Kidd had no problem handling the old triangle-and-two defense that helped the Cleveland Cavaliers wipe out a 21-point deficit.

The New Jersey Nets’ two leaders just needed some fourth-quarter help on Sunday, and Travis Best finally gave it to them — after missing his first six shots.

Carter had 34 points and 11 rebounds and Kidd added 14 points and 12 assists, including one on a backbreaking 3-pointer by Best with 1:13 to play, as the Nets held off LeBron James and the Cavaliers 104-98.

“It was the weirdest thing. I hadn’t seen the triangle-and-two since high school,” said Carter, who hit 10 of 18 shots in notching his 15th straight 20-point game. “It got us out of whack a bit, but we kept fighting and stuck it out.”

Down by 21 in the second quarter and 20 midway through the third, the Cavaliers finally woke up and cut the Nets’ lead to eight points entering the final quarter.

New Jersey missed its first seven shots and former Net Lucious Harris tied the game at 83 with a jumper with 8:38 to go.

Nenad Krstic, who had 15 points, sandwiched two free throws around a jumper by Carter to give New Jersey an 87-83 lead.

Every time Cleveland got close Carter, who played the final 8:50 with five fouls, and Kidd came up big in sending the Cavaliers to their sixth straight road loss.

A 3-pointer by Carter with 5:22 to go gave New Jersey a 90-85 advantage. A 5-footer by McInnis later cut the margin to 92-89, but Kidd nailed a 3-pointer with 3:48 to go.

An tip-in by Ilgauskas pulled Cleveland within 95-93 with 2:06 to play.

However, Carter, who was 10-for-18 from the field, hit a fadeaway jumper and Best made his only basket after being set up once again by Kidd, who added four free throws and a big steal in the final 45.9 seconds.

“We had a lot of open shots, but we just didn’t make the shots and let them get back in the game,” said Kidd, who also had eight rebounds. “You just have to keep finding the open guy and in this case it was Travis. We kept giving him the ball and you have to have confidence in your teammates to make the shots. He made one. That’s all it takes sometimes.”

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