By Chris Sheridan
ESPN Insider

Skiles always has struck me as someone who keeps too much intensity bottled up inside, and if ever there was moment when he was going to blow, this might have been it, because instead of having a relatively easy path through the playoffs, the Chicago Bulls now will have to go through the defending champion Miami Heat and (in all likelihood the Detroit Pistons) just to get to the conference finals.

That path could have been avoided with a victory over the Nets, but Chicago came out uncommonly flat and put together just one intense stretch in dropping a 106-97 decision Wednesday night that dropped them into the No. 5 seed and gave Cleveland the No. 2 seed.

But much to my dismay, Skiles walked off the floor with his head only slightly bowed, and he didn't even give the doorknob an angry twist as he let himself in to the coaches' room.

"I can't fly off the handle or anything off of one game," Skiles said. "I wanted them to perform well in this environment so they could take that momentum into the playoffs, but right almost from the jump ball we had busted coverage defensively, and things we would never normally do we started doing tonight. So we have to somehow shake this off."

Was it difficult, I asked Skiles, not to fly off the handle given the lost opportunity?

"No, I mean that's not productive, and I only do that once every couple seasons anyway. That doesn't serve any purpose right now, and the guys inside feel bad, I'm absolutely certain of that because I know them well. There were just some things out there you just can't do if you're going to win a high-level basketball game."

It was the Nets who were doing those things, getting another huge contribution from Mikki Moore (22 points, nine rebounds) to back another productive night from Vince Carter (24 points, 10 rebounds, nine assists) and Jason Kidd (11 assists, 11 rebounds), sending New Jersey into a much more compelling first-round series than what would have awaited them had they lost. Fittingly, much of the focus will be on Carter's return to Toronto to play the team that traded him (or should we say gave him away?), and the hostility rating from our normally friendly northern neighbors should be off the charts.

"The good outweighs the bad," Carter said of his six years in Toronto, correcting a questioner who mistakenly referred to his tenure there as lasting five years.

I asked Carter if he thinks the folks in Toronto and across Canada are any closer to getting over his departure.

"They should be. They're the division champs, and they should feel good about that."

We'll see what else Carter has to say in the days ahead about the fans who used to worship him and now revile him. They're going to get personal with him up there, and it's going to spice up the first round of the playoffs, and that's a good thing -- especially after Skiles failed to spice up the final night of the regular season by busting a gasket.

Chris Sheridan, a national NBA reporter for the past decade, covers the league for ESPN Insider. To e-mail Chris, click here.

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Don Ryan/AP Photo

Golden State Warriors' Stephen Jackson, left, and Mickael Pietrus,celebrate after the Warriors defeated the Trail Blazers 120-98, clinching an NBA basketball playoff berth for the first time since 1994. Jackson led the Warriors with 31 points.

Reasoning Behind Marion DPOY Vote

I went over my choices with Ben Wallace of the Chicago Bulls Wednesday night in the visitors' locker room at the Meadowlands, and he pretty much agreed with all my choices except for Shawn Marion for Defensive Player of the Year.

Big Ben didn't vehemently disagree, mind you, saying his choice was Marcus Camby, and he commented that it was unusual for me to cite the defensive strengths of a player on such an offensively oriented team. I responded by relating to Ben something Mike D'Antoni told me on the phone last week: The Suns have been in the top third of the league when you look at points allowed per possession, something that gets overlooked because their opponents have more possessions than other teams' due to the pace of the game the Suns play. D'Antoni also noted that Marion was the only Defensive Player of the Year candidate who has guarded players at all positions from point guard to center.

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