Nets 99

Celtics 86

Vince Carter had the urge to speak up yesterday. So he told the Nets to get after it from the start. Don’t waste time.

“I told the guys in the beginning, ‘It’s time to clock in,’ ” said Carter. “Last game, we kind of eased into it. . . . I just wanted to make sure everyone was all in it because we have a legitimate shot of being in the playoffs. If everybody’s together, everybody’s focused, we’re a pretty tough team to beat.”

And when Carter has a game like yesterday’s season-high 45-point detonation, coupled with another Jason Kidd masterpiece that included a season-best 17 assists, the Nets are more than tough. Just ask the Celtics, who were ripped, 99-86, during the Nets’ 11th victory in 14 games.

Carter wasted no time: He went off for the finest quarter of his NBA life, scoring 24 points on 9-of-10 shooting in the first 12 minutes when the Nets built a 37-19 lead. With Nenad Krstic adding 17 points and an active defense scoring 32 points off 22 Boston turnovers, the Nets never looked back. But they did look to Carter.

They looked in the third quarter, when Carter and Kidd, in a 2-on-1, bore down on rookie Delonte West. Kidd passed behind the back. Carter, spun and with his back to the basket, almost tripped over West. Somehow, off-balance, he flipped the ball left-handed from behind the basket and scored.

“Every game, [Carter] does one or two things you’ve never seen before and you think you would never be able to see,” said Travis Best (9 points, 4 assists), who along with Cliff Robinson (11 points, 7 rebounds) provided superb bench play. “He’s just an amazing player. . . . The way he’s shooting, mixing it up. He’s catching the ball with his back to the basket and just jumping in the air and turning and shooting. You don’t see stuff like that.”

Yesterday, you did. Well, maybe not Celtics coach Doc Rivers, who was bounced just 1:41 into the game with two technicals. Rivers saw Carter’s first two points, but missed the last 43. Nets coach Lawrence Frank, however, saw it all.

“Those guys [were] great. Jason had 17 assists. But Vince just said, ‘Jump on my back,’ ” said Frank, whose Nets (38-39) moved to within one game of .500 for the first time since they were 2-3 on Nov. 10. Last night, however, they fell back to 1½ games behind Philadelphia and Cleveland, still tied for seventh and eighth at 39-37 after both won. “Vince, he had 24 before you even looked up.”

Carter’s total was the sixth highest ever by the Nets; the record is 52 by Mike Newlin in 1979. Carter’s 24-point first, an NBA high this season, was the most by a Net since the league began tracking quarter totals in 1997. Stephon Marbury scored 23 in a fourth quarter for the Nets on Jan. 27, 2000.

“Vince was incredible,” said Kidd (9 rebounds) who wasn’t too shabby either, but who was kicked in his ankle providing a second quarter scare that proved to be nothing serious. “My job was to get him the ball as soon as I could and as fast as I could. He did the rest.”

After that first quarter, when Carter was 5-of-5 on 3-pointers (he finished 7-of-9, tying the team record for made 3s), Boston pulled within single digits at 52-44 in the second quarter. So Carter blasted a 3-pointer for an 11-point lead and the Nets breezed throughout the second half.

“When a player of his caliber gets going, he’s tough to stop” said Boston’s Paul Pierce (16 points). “He just pretty much carried them.”

*

Nets president Rod Thorn said his club must win 5-of-6 to make the playoffs . . . Thorn chuckled about the Jason Kidd-Knicks controversy. “Everyone knows what [Kidd’s comment] was aimed at. He’s like an elephant, he doesn’t forget anything,” said Thorn, referring to Marbury’s comments about being the best point guard in New York . . . Doc Rivers on his ejection, which came after he argued an offensive foul on Antoine Walker: “I said, ‘C’mon, know the rule, that wasn’t a hook.’ That’s all I said. And he hit me with a tech. I think [ref] Tim Donaghy has got it in [for me]. That was a personal tech. But I earned the second.”

QUARTER MASTER (Sports & Late City Editions)

Here’s the breakdown of Vince Carter’s 24-point, 9-of-10 shooting first quarter yesterday:

Time Play Point total

11:11 21-foot jumper up top, Kidd assist 2

10:19 Two technical free throws, no good, good 3

9:57 Left wing 3-pointer, Kidd assist 6

9:37 18-foot transition jumper, Kidd assist 8

8:59 3-pointer left top, 26 feet, Collins assist 11

5:21 19-foot jumper, Kidd assist 13

4:39 18-footer right of the foul line 15

4:11 Misses 16-foot right side fade 15

3:40 27-foot 3-pointer, straight out, Kidd assist 18

1:20 26-foot 3-pointer left side, Planinic assist 21

:17.3 27-foot 3-pointer up top, Best assist 24