Final play wasn't total Vinsanity

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- When Nets coach Lawrence Frank walked into the huddle to explain how he wanted his team's final play run in Game 6, the most surprised guy on the bench was Richard Jefferson. That play had been designed for him, not Vince Carter.

"Honestly, I haven't had the ball in my hands for a game-winning shot in I don't know how long, and especially a play drawn up for me, and especially with Vince Carter on the team," Jefferson said. "Since I've been here, he's probably hit seven or eight game- winners. But Vince was the first one over there to congratulate me."
Jefferson wasn't the only one stunned by the final play call -- or with the way his final possession went. The coaches for the Toronto Raptors, like everyone else in the building, expected the final shot to go to Carter. And when the ball went to Jefferson, they were convinced he'd go to his right. But Jefferson made the winning basket by driving right, spinning left and finishing with his left hand.
"That was the first time in the whole series he scored going left," one of the Toronto assistants told me outside the Toronto locker room.
Even Jefferson himself didn't quite believe he finished with his left hand, asking a TV cameraman in the locker room afterward to play back a shot of his game-deciding bucket with 8.3 seconds left so he could see for himself.
"Well, it's not that I have no left, but I am dominant right," Jefferson explained. "Honestly what's happened is this is the ankle I had surgery on [pointing to his right ankle] and this is the wrist I had surgery on [pointing to his left wrist] in the last two years, so jumping off this leg and finishing with this hand is something that I've probably gotten away from."
Jefferson also came up with the biggest defensive play of the game, reaching up to intercept Jose Calderon's not-lobbed-enough lob pass intended for Chris Bosh with 1.9 seconds left to wrap up New Jersey's 98-97 victory in Game 6 as the Nets moved on to face the Cleveland Cavaliers in the second round beginning Sunday.
This will be the fifth time in the past six years that New Jersey has gone on to the second round, and while they'll be the underdog against the Cavs, they're not to be taken lightly -- especially now that they're hitting a stride they had been waiting for throughout a season that included Jefferson missing 27 games due to ankle surgery, and especially with Jason Kidd exiting this series having averaged a triple-double with 14.0 points, 13.2 assists and 10.0 rebounds (the 10th time in NBA history a player has averaged a TD in a playoff series), and not to mention Carter having shaken off his early-series jitters to score 27, 30 and 21 in the final three games.
Of course, the thing that makes this all sort of surreal for the Nets is the fact that they were thisclose a couple months ago to basically blowing their whole team up, entertaining offers for Carter and Kidd right up until the morning of trading deadline day.
I cornered Nets president Rod Thorn in the locker room afterward and tried six different methods of asking him about the Kidd trade talks before growing exasperated and putting it to him like this: "Given how well Jason has played in this series, why would you even have considered trading him?"
"We'll, that's a very pertinent point you make," Thorn replied with his trademark West Virginia chuckle thrown in. "Since the trade deadline he's played absolutely great. Absolutely.
"You know, there are times when some of the best things you do are things you don't do," Thorn said.
Like calling the last play for Carter. Or trading Kidd.
The Nets did neither, and now look where it has led them -- to a place Dirk Nowitzki, Kobe Bryant, Dwyane Wade, Allen Iverson and Shaquille O'Neal couldn't reach.