Auburn Hills, MI (My Sportsbook) - Jason Kidd's jumper with 1.2 seconds remaining lifted the New Jersey Nets to a 76-74 victory over the Detroit Pistons in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals at The Palace.

Game 2 of the best-of-seven series is scheduled for Tuesday at Detroit.

Kidd finished with 15 points, nine rebounds and seven assists for New Jersey, which advanced to the conference finals for the second consecutive season following a four-game sweep of Boston. Kenyon Martin paced the Nets with 16 points and nine boards, while Richard Jefferson had 11 points in the win.

"I cashed in at the right time," Kidd said after the game. "We showed a lot of character coming into another hostile environment and beating a very good Detroit team. We have our work cut out."

New Jersey shot 39.7 percent from the floor, while the Pistons made 35.2 percent of their shots. The Nets have now won seven straight overall and four in a row on the road this post-season.

"This is the Eastern Conference finals and we played extremely well through the post-season, especially on the road," Nets coach Byron Scott said. "We know its going to be a challenge. We welcome the challenge. It's going to be a great series."

Richard Hamilton scored a game-high 24 points for Detroit, which needed six games to oust Philadelphia in the other conference semifinal matchup. The Pistons are making their first appearance in the Eastern Conference finals since 1991, when they were swept by the Chicago Bulls.

"Tonight we struggled a little bit to get the ball in the hole," Pistons coach Rick Carlisle said. "We're playing in the third round and you have to do things really hard and really well."

Ben Wallace pulled down a game-high 22 rebounds to go along with six points in a losing cause. He recorded his fourth 20-plus rebound performance of the playoffs. Mehmet Okur contributed 12 points off the bench for Detroit.

New Jersey and Detroit met once before in the post-season, with the Pistons sweeping the best-of-five, opening-round series in 1985.

"He has hit a lot of big ones in his career but that's the biggest shot for us," Scott said. "It gives us home court advantage now. As we always have said, we want the first game."

Trailing by a 74-67 score, the Pistons responded with three straight points from the foul line to make it a four-point game with 1:20 left in the fourth. After Martin's jumper rimmed out, Hamilton added a layup to make it 74-72. Wallace then came up with a huge block on Jason Collins and Billups was fouled en route to the hoop. He would make both shots to even the score at 74-74 with 22 seconds remaining.

After taking the inbounds pass, Kidd waited for the game clock to wind down, then drove the lane and drained a jumper in Okur's face with 1.2 seconds left. Okur had a chance to even the score but his layup off the backboard glanced off the front of the rim. With the loss, the Pistons saw their six-game winning streak at home come to an end.

"I thought if it didn't go in that K-Mart [Kenyon Martin] or somebody would have a great opportunity to tip it in," Kidd said. "The ball bounced our way."

Jefferson's putback off a Kittles missed layup gave New Jersey a seemingly comfortable 18-6 lead with less than three minutes to go in the first quarter. The Pistons then scored 10 of the next 14 points to pull within six at 22-16 after 12 minutes of play. Okur registered eight points off the bench in the quarter-ending run.

Detroit opened the second quarter on an 8-3 spurt to trim the lead to one at 25-24. Corliss Williamson capped the run with consecutive baskets. The Nets later pulled away but Williamson's two free throws made it 31-28 with 5:26 left before halftime. New Jersey then headed to the break with a 43-36 lead.

Martin's basket early in the second half gave the Nets a 46-40 edge. But the Pistons would take their first lead since early in the opening quarter on Hamilton's three-pointer, making it 49-47 with seven minutes left. Then, with less than five minutes to go, rookie Tayshaun Prince buried a three to push Detroit's lead to 54-49. Prince's three ended a 14-3 surge.

Hamilton converted a three-point play with 2:18 remaining in the third quarter to extend Detroit's lead to eight at 58-51. Wallace's layup with 26 seconds to go pushed the lead to 10 at 63-53. The Pistons, who outscored New Jersey 27-12 in the quarter, led by a 63-55 margin after 36 minutes.

"It's disappointing because we had control of it [game] at the end of the third period," Carlisle said. "We've been down before and we're going to have to bounce back."

New Jersey regained its first-quarter form and opened the fourth on a 10-0 run for a 65-63 lead. Kittles and Aaron Williams both had four points in that span. The Nets later increased their lead to 72-65 when Kittles went 1-of-2 from the foul line. With three minutes remaining in the game, Kidd knocked down a jumper from the key for a 74-67 score.

"Great players make great shots," Hamilton said of Kidd. "We had two guys on him, he had to shoot over a 7-footer in Mehmet and he made a big-time play."

New Jersey made 13-of-19 from the foul line but converted just one of its 10 shots from beyond the arc. The Nets won the battle on the boards, 48-43. Collins grabbed a team-high 10 rebounds. New Jersey is 9-1 in the playoffs when leading at halftime.

Billups netted 11 points for the Pistons, who finished 20-of-30 from the charity stripe and buried four of their 12 attempts from three-point range. Detroit is now 6-1 when leading after the third quarter in the 2003 playoffs.

The Pistons are 16-2 in the last 18 meetings at home with New Jersey.