He didn?t have the same explosiveness as he did as a Net as he had his shot blocked at least once and had a couple of others altered. Jefferson finished with 13 points on 3-of-15 shooting, but the Bucks pulled out a 104-102 victory Friday night at the Bradley Center.

Luke Ridnour?s runner in the lane with five-tenths of a second left was the winner.

Jefferson hugged Ridnour euphorically after the shot.

"I told him I owe him a big one," Jefferson said.

The Nets (18-19) didn?t get a shot off as Luc Mbah a Moute slapped the ball away from Vince Carter.

Carter had 23 points, 14 assists and nine rebounds. Yi Jianlian, playing his first game against the team that drafted him, finished with 16 points before leaving the game in the third period with a broken right pinkie. He?s expected to miss at least a month.

Devin Harris missed his second consecutive game due to a hamstring injury.

Michael Redd scored 24 and Charlie Villanueva had 23 off the bench for the Bucks, who drew within one-half game of the Nets in the Eastern Conference standings.

The Nets cut a 14-point third-quarter deficit to three with 1:09 left and had a chance to draw closer.

With Milwaukee ahead, 102-99, Ridnour poked the ball away from Keyon Dooling with about 41 seconds left, but the Bucks couldn?t convert.

Charlie Bell missed a 15-foot jumper and the Nets got the rebound and called time with 17.1 seconds left. On the ensuing play, Carter drove and passed it to former Buck Bobby Simmons, who buried the game-tying three from the left wing with nine seconds to go.

"The play Vince made was unbelievable," Nets coach Lawrence Frank said. "He drove and brought the defense with him. I thought we showed a lot of fight. It?s a shame we couldn?t get it to overtime."

Jefferson was traded in June for Yi and Simmons. He was upset at the time because he was a rarity ? someone who wanted to end his career as a Net.

"It was difficult because I wanted to be a New Jersey Net ," Jefferson said. "I stayed positive throughout, because I wanted to stay a New Jersey Net ."

In the fourth, Jefferson canned a three to give the Bucks a 95-82 lead with 6:32 left and then pointed to the stands and smiled at Nets team president Rod Thorn, who reciprocated.

The Nets answered with an 11-2 run and trailed 97-93 after a Dooling three with 4:26 remaining. They had a chance to draw closer after Jefferson missed twice on Milwaukee?s next trip, but Dooling missed a three and ultimately the Nets turned it over.

After a Michael Redd three put Milwaukee up seven, Carter hit a long jumper and Brook Lopez scored inside to make it 100-97 with 2:26 to go. Redd then knocked down a jumper with 2:05 left to make it a five-point game. It stayed that way until two Carter foul shots with 1:09 to go.

Jefferson missed his first four shots before knocking down a three that gave the Bucks a 56-45 lead with just 1:50 left in the first half. The Nets, who went 4:10 without scoring in the second period, trailed 61-49 at the break.

The last couple of days, Jefferson has opened up a little more about being traded and his time with the Nets. He said he needed to "hear a new voice," and that last season was "humbling."

He said he was humbled and frustrated by having his best statistical season when the Nets had their worst as a team during his seven years there.

"Last year was humbling for me," he said.

Yet Jefferson reflected favorably on his time in New Jersey and what the Nets accomplished.