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Carter, Nets look to win again in Toronto

Apr 24, 2007 - 1:13 PM New Jersey at Toronto 7:00 pm EDT Eastern Conference first round New Jersey leads series, 1-0

TORONTO (Ticker) -- Vince Carter helped the New Jersey Nets elevate to a sixth seed in the final week of the season. But the Nets' high-flying star struggled most of the way against his former team on Saturday.

Carter and the Nets will look to win their second straight game against the Toronto Raptors at Air Canada Centre on Tuesday in an Eastern Conference first-round playoff series.

Hearing the jeers from a sellout crowd each time he touched the ball, Carter scored 16 points on just 5-of-19 shooting as New Jersey held on for a 96-91 victory over Toronto in the series opener on Saturday.

Despite his poor performance, Carter was just happy to walk away with a win.

"The important thing for us was to get a great team effort and that's what we got," said Carter, who played for the Raptors from 1998-2004. "In the playoffs, you need everybody. You need guys to step up and do their jobs when needed."

The Raptors won 47 games during the regular season and captured their first division title. But in their first playoff game since 2002, Toronto trailed most of the way, although it nearly overcame a 15-point second-half deficit.

"We do have to win Tuesday, but I don't think the whole season rests on it," Raptors All-Star forward Chris Bosh said. "It's a seven-game series and we have to take it one at a time. We're going to have to do a better job and play more like we did in the regular season."

Games Three and Four will be in New Jersey on Friday and Sunday, respectively.