If Jason Kidd's career goal is to win an NBA title, the ramifications attached to the outcome of Game 5 of the Nets' first-round playoff series against Milwaukee tonight might go well beyond its impact in determining the winner of a 2-all, best-of-seven series. It might affect Kidd's free-agency decision this summer and change the course of franchise history.

Not that Kidd is lending any credence to that theory, mind you.

"Nothing," he said when asked yesterday how much it means to his decision. "It has no weight."