A right knee injury forced Vince Carter to the sidelines for part of Friday's game versus the Pistons.

Carter drove to the basket and missed a short shot. He landed on his left leg and took a couple steps without apparent pain, but crumpled to the court after turning to run back upcourt.

Carter was helped off the court by teammates, then went back to the New Jersey locker room at the end of the quarter. He returned midway through the second with a slight limp.

New Jersey Nets guard Eddie House has been diagnosed with a mild concussion and a partial tear of the left hip muscle, Nets President Rod Thorn announced today.  House suffered the injuries in the second quarter of last night?s game versus Indiana.  He will remain out indefinitely.

House, a 6-1 guard out of Arizona State, was signed by the Nets as a free agent on August 17, 2006.  In 56 games this season, House is averaging 8.4 ppg, shooting .428 from the field and a team-high .429 from three-point range.

Jermaine O'Neal missed the Pacers' game against the Nets on Wednesday night with left knee and ankle sprains.

O'Neal's absence is a major blow for the Pacers, who started the night one game behind the Nets for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

Vince Carter isn't optimistic that Michael Jordan and the Bobcats will be interested in him.

"I doubt he would," Carter said dismissively of Jordan. "You don't know what's going to happen. You can't recruit somebody if you don't know what's going to happen. That's a long time away, in my opinion, so we'll just see."

The Nets are in Orlando on Friday and Charlotte on Saturday, two very possible destinations this summer for Vince Carter.

"I don't care about all that," Carter said. "I never thought about it."

The Nets are in the thick of the playoff chase and Carter has been attempting to keep his focus on that.

The New Jersey Nets' Jason Kidd and the Los Angeles Lakers'  Kobe Bryant today were named the Eastern and Western Conference Players of the Week, respectively, for games played Monday, March 12 through Sunday, March 18.

Kidd, who has recorded double-digit assists in four  straight games, averaged 14.5 points, a league-best 12.8 assists, 7.5 rebounds and 2.8 steals in helping lead New Jersey to a 3-1 record. He scored 18 points to go with 12 assists, six rebounds and four steals in a 112-108 win at New Orleans/Oklahoma City on March 13, and scored 23 points and dished out 13 assists in a 101-95 win over the Los Angeles Clippers on March 18.

Bryant averaged an NBA-high 46.7 points in helping guide the Lakers to a 2-1 record. He poured in 65 points along with seven rebounds, three assists and three steals in a 116-111 overtime win over Portland on March 16, and followed that  up with 50 points, six rebounds and three assists in a 109-102 win over  Minnesota on March 18. Bryant became the first Laker to score 50 or more points in back-to-back games since Elgin Baylor in 1962.

With 16 games left on the Nets' schedule, exactly one month left in the regular-season to earn their way into the postseason, coach Lawrence Frank admits time is running out. His team either will get back to its old defensive ways, or it will be home watching the playoffs by the end of April.

Richard Jefferson guarantees the Nets will match or surpass their longest winning streak of the season - a modest four games; but if they're going to do so, Frank says it's going to have to happen on the defensive end of the floor. And that'll have to start against the Clippers tonight at 6 p.m.

"We match that or break that. That's my prediction," Jefferson said. "Every team I've been [on here] has had a double-digit win streak. But for where this team wants to get and how we feel we're playing and the direction we're moving, I think that's a safe bet.

"I'm insanely optimistic. And in the six years you've heard me say that, haven't for some reason things turned up roses? I believe with 16 games to go this team is going to reel off four big wins."

As the Raptors move closer to the first division title in franchise history, mathematics becomes part of the equation.

With New Jersey suffering a 93-86 loss to the Miami Heat last night, any combination of 11 Raptor victories or losses by the Nets or New York Knicks will give Toronto the Atlantic Division championship.

With a low-grade buzz surrounding the Knicks as the team nears a playoff berth, the Knicks have re-asserted their market dominance over the Nets.

Last season, the Nets competed well with their cross-river rivals in television ratings.  On MSG, the Knicks ended 2005-06 with an average of 1.19 percent of households, translating to about 88,000 homes.  On YES, the Nets were close at 1.00.

This season, the Knicks' average rating is 1.42 while the Nets have fallen to 0.72, giving the Knicks nearly double the TV market share.

Both times that the teams have played each other this season, MSG has roughly tripled the Nets' rating on YES.  Most recently in the teams' February 25 game in New Jersey, MSG registered at 1.29, soundly beating the 0.44 of YES.

Richard Jefferson will accompany the New Jersey Nets on an upcoming six-game road trip, but it is uncertain whether he'll play for the first time since undergoing ankle surgery in January.

Jefferson, a forward, played some slow-paced one-on-one with rookie Hassan Adams on Saturday about an hour before the Nets played the Boston Celtics at Continental Airlines Arena. It was the first one-on-one action for the six-year veteran since surgery Jan. 22 on his right ankle.

"I don't even know if I will be back on this road trip," Jefferson said after his workout. "I would like to come back somewhere around the end, depending on how it feels."