http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/basketball/story/417905p-353003c.html The Nets lost another tough one yesterday at home to the Heat, 102-92, and that pretty much does it. They will travel down to Miami now, likely drop their fourth straight game, say goodbye to the playoffs again. But there is another game going on out here this spring for the Nets, the one they will never admit exists. It is the contest between Richard Jefferson and Vince Carter to decide who goes, who gets to stay in the Meadowlands when the Big Trade is made. The Big Trade must be made. That is more obvious now even than it was two weeks ago. Somebody goes, finally putting an end to the stylistic chafing between Jefferson and Carter. The defeat in Game 4 yesterday was another lucid argument to retain Jefferson, to deal the flashier option. Carter, we all know, is a breathtaking player, a valuable gate draw. But the Nets have come to rely on him far too much, too often, and he is only too happy to enable that dependence. Once again yesterday, the wrong Carter showed up in the building. This wasn't the Carter who beat the Pacers. This was the Carter who gets tangled in bodies or bottled up by the remarkably quick Dwyane Wade, then forces jumpers off Lawrence Frank's unimaginative isolations. It is the Carter who doesn't quite make the right decisions when the opponent constructs a wall of defenders to cut off his lanes. "You have to take what they give you, be unselfish," said Carter, who fired 28 shots and made 12 of them. "I just wanted to be aggressive. If it's there, it's there. Get to the paint, to the free throw line. Make them pay for putting a line up there of three, four guys." He didn't do what he said. And really, this playoff lesson from the Heat is all for the best. The Nets, as constituted, are not a team that can win a title. They require one major transaction this offseason, a package deal sending two draft picks and Carter to get a different, taller star. You've all heard one name by now, Kevin Garnett. There are others out there, too. A cosmetic series victory over the Heat might have disguised that need, confused the issue. Already, after the Nets knocked off the Pacers, Net management was talking as if Jefferson-Carter was a viable combo. Now, though, it is much tougher to make that case. Jefferson, the more unselfish player, is written out of the script too often. He was 7-for-13 yesterday from the field, 2-for-3 from three-point range. He deserved to see the ball more often, have a few more plays run for him. "Unfortunately, I just work here," said Jefferson, who has been frustrated at times this season with the shot distribution. "As long as I have been here, I have never been about offense and this and that. Defense, that has been more the story." The Nets now are well on their way to a third straight playoff exit under Lawrence Frank, without reaching a conference final. They aren't playing the kind of motion basketball that got them to the NBA Finals twice under Byron Scott, who took a lot of grief from Jason Kidd and never received enough credit. They stand around and watch Carter too often. The coach deserves some blame. He's been outmaneuvered by Pat Riley. When Carter plays out of his mind, the Nets still can beat anyone, even out of a halfcourt set. When Carter is 0-for-7 from beyond the three-point line, like yesterday, the Nets lose. "Nothing different than we have seen the last three games," Frank insisted about the Heat triple-teams. "Shaq comes to the strong-side box. Vince sometimes made passes and we didn't execute. I don't think anything caught him off guard." Frank has two years left on his contract, and maybe he deserves one last autumn with a Carter-less roster to prove he remembers how to coach a real offense. Kidd no longer can be allowed to call the shot on this, though. It must be Rod Thorn's decision. Time to reclaim the team concept, find another way, because only one team ever won titles this way and there was only one Michael Jordan. "Go back to the drawing board," Carter said. He meant for Game 5, but it's more than that now. --

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