Despite letting another 15 point third quarter lead evaporate with 17.6 seconds left in the game the New Jersey Nets were never going to lose this game.  The game certainly had it?s moments, from Jason Kidd taking three charges late in the game to Paul Pierce of the Celtics missing two free throws with 1.1 seconds remaining in the game and his team down by 2, in their minds the game was never going to be lost.

"He's going to miss the first one," Lucious Harris said he thought at the time. "That's the first thing came in my mind. You talk about the ghosts in the building. Hey, is the ghost still here?"

The Nets played with confidence early on, never looking back at the historic 21 point comeback loss only 48 hours earlier.  And when the final buzzer sounded after a Tony Battie miss after Pierce deliberately missed the second of his free throws Kidd yelled back at the raucous Celtics fans who had ruthlessly taunted him, and he reminded them that the Nets had evened the Eastern Conference finals at two games apiece.

"I was tired of being humble," Kidd said.  "You get tired of these guys' chitchat," Kidd said. "As a veteran of the team, sometimes you have to speak out and let it go because you'll feel better. Now this is serious. We did what we had to and that was win one of two games on the road.?

"This is a heck of a win after the way we lost Game 3," Nets Coach Byron Scott said. "Game 5 is very, very important for us to protect our homecourt, and now that we got it back, I do not think anybody on this team wants to relinquish it."