EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. -- In the end, all Jason Kidd wanted was to get to sleep.

	Kidd

He had scored 31 points. Grabbed eight rebounds. Dished seven assists. And chased Reggie Miller through an endless array of bruising screens. After 51 minutes of basketball, Kidd was left sore, exhausted and desperate for a stiff mattress and a cushy pillow.

But finding one wouldn't be so simple.

After leading the New Jersey Nets to their first playoff series victory since 1984 -- and just the franchise's second ever since joining the NBA from the ABA prior to the 1976-77 season -- exiting Continental Airlines Arena was no easy task.

There were the handshakes -- from friends, teammates, security guards, media personnel and fans. There were the interviews. The high-fives. The autographs. And then, when Kidd finally had his bottle of orange Gatorade and his wife Joumana at his side and was headed for the exits, the adorable smile of his son TJ lured him into still more basketball.

A few dribbles here, a few dribbles there and Kidd, wearing a tan suit, was at it again, teasing his little one to play some defense.

"Come on now," Kidd called out. "Play some defense."

Even though he was beat, even though he had a cramped up and was hobbling around the court uncomfortably, you got the feeling he didn't mind the few extra minutes of hoops.

"How can you say no to that?" Kidd said, nodding toward TJ. "How?"

He was right. His legs, his arms, everything in his body told him to go home. But his heart and his mind told him to stay. So he did.

And who could blame him? This, after all, was Jason Kidd's night.

Miller may have tried to spoil the occasion, banking a 40-footer at the end of regulation to send the dramatic series finale to overtime and then throwing down an emphatic slam at the end of OT to force a second extra period, but Kidd and the Nets got the last laugh.

They survived not only the pesky Pacers and jaw-dropping heroics of Miller, but their own sloppiness, poor free-throw shooting and lack of execution in the clutch, to win in two overtimes, 120-109.

	“	Tonight, he showed why he's the MVP of this league. He just did not want to lose. I couldn't have asked for more out of him. ”
		— Nets coach Byron Scott

The reason? Kidd, who proved yet again why he deserves the NBA's most coveted individual award.

"Tonight, he showed why he's the MVP of this league," Nets coach Byron Scott said. "He just did not want to lose. I couldn't have asked for more out of him."

Sure, Keith Van Horn contributed 27 points and six boards, and Kenyon Martin added 29 of his own, but it was the clutch play of Kidd, who down the stretch went blow for blow with Miller, that carried the Nets.

He scored 20 of his game-high 31 in the fourth quarter and two overtimes. In every possession in the first overtime and all but one in the second, Kidd either scored or had the assist.

"He was playing the Superman role tonight," Pacers forward Jermaine O'Neal said.

But perhaps more impressive than the pull-up J's and the how-did-he-do-that lay-ups in traffic was Kidd's ball-handling. Not only did he precisely distribute the ball perfectly, feeding his teammates when the defense collapsed on him, but he did so without turning the ball over.

In fact, thanks largely to the handles of Kidd, the Nets didn't turn the ball over once in the game's final 27 minutes. Not once.

"He was the key to the game," Indiana guard Kevin Ollie said. "He was the difference maker."

And then, on defense, he had the unenviable task of chasing Reggie Miller in, over and around a series of screens as if Miller had just robbed an old lady and Kidd was the cop in hot pursuit.

"This is do or die," Kidd said. "You give everything you have until the tank is empty. Chasing Reggie is not a lot of fun. He doesn't quit. But I could have gone all night. This is the type of game that, your mind will let you go until it's over."

Kidd nearly won the game for New Jersey at the end of the first overtime when his last second pull-up jumper rimmed in and then out of the basket. But he made up for the miss in the next period, setting up Kerry Kittles on a three-point play and then burying 17- and 21-foot jump shots to give the Nets a five-point lead.

The Nets wouldn't look back. Kidd would add a steal and a nasty block of a Miller jump shot, before Scott pulled him with 14.3 seconds left to a rousing round of applause from the victory-starved Nets fans, who hadn't seen postseason dominance like this since Dr. J was in uniform and the team was in the ABA.

In his five previous playoff series, Kidd had gotten past the first round with the Phoenix Suns only once. He was quickly gathering a label as a postseason choker. But this year -- after becoming the first Nets player to earn all-NBA honors as well as being the team's first legitimate candidate for the MVP award, he delivered when it mattered most.

"That's why, in my opinion, he's the MVP," Miller said. "He controlled the tempo perfectly and didn't try to force anything. He's their catalyst and the biggest reason why that team is headed where they are."

Put together, those are big words for someone who, entering Thursday, had advanced in just one of five career postseason series.

After Thursday's victory, some reporters suggested this was the best game of Kidd's career -- the one he'll be most remembered for so far. Scott and Kidd shrugged the suggestion off.

But those who like to draw drastic conclusions, like the media often does in these parts, might say the win saved the franchise. That it might have given Kidd, a free agent after the 2003 season, added incentive to stick around after his current agreement is up.

Maybe yes, maybe no.

There's no doubt that the buzz in the arena was something entirely new for a franchise that has seen more heartbreak than mediocrity in the last two decades. But only time will tell. Thursday night, Kidd was worried about three things: getting some sleep, preparing for the Charlotte Hornets and, most pressing of all, waking up Friday morning in time to take TJ to preschool.

Priorities, you see, are priorities.

"It'll be an early one," Kidd said. "It'll be an early one."

Wayne Drehs is a staff writer for ESPN.com.