EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. ? No matter how Byron Scott tried to modify it, the Kings-Nets game was best described with one word.

“It was a little ‘Wow,”‘ Scott said after the New Jersey Nets dealt the Sacramento Kings their worst loss of the season Monday night, 117-83 in a matchup of the top teams from the Eastern and Western Conferences.

“I was a little surprised we were beating them like we were beating them, but our guys were really in tune tonight, they wanted to play really well against the team that has the best record in the league,” Scott said.

The loss was just the second in the last 19 games for Sacramento, which still owns the NBA’s best record (36-11). But the Kings aren’t separating themselves from the pack in the West like the Nets (32-14) are in the East, where their nearest pursuer is now 412 games behind.

Jason Kidd had 14 points, seven assists and seven rebounds, Keith Van Horn broke out of a scoring slump with 25 points and Todd MacCulloch outplayed Vlade Divac at the center position, scoring 10 points and grabbing six rebounds.

Lucious Harris added 17 points and Kenyon Martin had 15.

New Jersey led by as many as 36 in winning its eighth straight home game.

“Everybody is still doubting what we’re made of anyway, people don’t understand that we do have a good basketball team,” Scott said. “They’ll have a big wow.”

One third quarter sequence illustrated how the Nets were the faster and sharper team.

After Sacramento committed a turnover, Kidd took the ball on the sideline and caught the Kings napping, firing a 70-foot baseball pass to Van Horn for a layup. Two seconds later, Kerry Kittles picked off Chris Webber’s inbounds pass and calmly sank a 3-pointer.

“That play and Kerry’s 3-pointer was a statement right there,” Van Horn said. “That really blew the game open for us.”

Raptors 100, 76ers 93

Philadelphia Vince Carter scored 13 of his 28 points in the third quarter, leading Toronto past Philadelphia.

Allen Iverson scored 36 points for the Sixers, but was ejected after getting his second technical foul with 6.3 seconds left.

Alvin Williams had 17 points and Keon Clark added 14 for the Raptors, who have won eight of 11 to get within a half-game of the Milwaukee Bucks in the Central Division.

The defending Eastern Conference champion Sixers had won nine of 11 to move back into the playoff race.

Rockets 104, Jazz 97

Houston Steve Francis shot 18-for-22 from the line and scored 33 points, and Cuttino Mobley added 30 points to lead Houston. The Rockets led by 13 points in the fourth quarter before the Jazz rallied behind Karl Malone. Malone scored seven points in a 9-3 run that gave the Jazz a 90-89 lead with 4:36 remaining.

Spurs 113, T’wolves 83

San Antonio David Robinson had 13 points and 15 rebounds and seven San Antonio players scored in double figures. The Spurs, who snapped a four-game home losing streak, played most of the second half without star forward Tim Duncan, who was ejected along with Minnesota’s Kevin Garnett early in the third quarter. Duncan was ejected for the first time in his four-year NBA career after a brief verbal exchange with Garnett with 9:49 remaining in the third quarter.