Jason Kidd dropped his calling card, a 3-pointer, on the parquet at the buzzer and ushered the Nets into elite company. The Nets had never swept a team in a playoff series. The Celtics, with 16 championship banners flapping above the Fleet Center court, had been swept only three times in 42 years of playoff tradition.

The Nets made it four tonight.

Undaunted by two overtimes and Celtics tradition, Kidd and the Nets wrested Game 4 from the Celtics with a 110-101 triumph that sent the Nets into the Eastern Conference finals for the second straight year.