NBA

HARRIS, NETS PUT ‘FOURTH’ BIG EFFORT IN WIN

TORONTO – Raptors fans brought their usual supply of venom last night for the Nets’ Vince Carter, the man they used to love but now would love to see fall off a cliff. But while they focused their wrath on Carter, other elements – Devin Harris, Ryan Anderson, Trenton Hassell – and, no misprint, the Nets’ defense, arose and stole a game right from under their flame-exhaling noses.

Harris pulled a “Where’s Waldo?” for three quarters, then provided the type of direction the Nets expect in the fourth quarter when he shot all of his 11 free throws and scored 16 of his 20 points in a 94-87 victory. And Harris wasn’t alone.

Anderson completed a career-high, 21-point night and added nine rebounds. Carter who scored 20, led a destruction of the Raptors on the boards and again got the last laugh here as the Nets, forcing Toronto into 14 straight misses in a 25-2 run to start the fourth, snapped a three-game losing streak.

“It’s getting to the point where that’s kind of expected,” Anderson, who responded from a dreadful 1-of-9 shooting game in Chicago, said of Harris. “That’s his game. We know he’s going to do something unbelievable for us in the fourth quarter. It’s something a lot of players can’t do, just take over the game.”

But it started with the defense.

“Great job, defensively,” said coach Lawrence Frank, whose Nets did not give up a field goal in the fourth quarter – Toronto shot 4-of-20 in the frame – until Jose Calderon (15 points) tripled just 2:35 from the end. “Holding them to 17 points in the fourth quarter was tremendous.”

Not to mention Harris, who was stymied for 36 minutes by the Raptors’ sagging defense, before kicking it up about 12 aggressive gears in the final quarter.

“I paid attention a lot to the last game and how they were sucking in the paint,” Harris said. “I really just wanted to get the ball moving and try and get other guys confidence. I knew the ball was going to come my way in the fourth so I just wanted to stay patient.”

He had help. Hassell and Brook Lopez (10 points, seven rebounds) were defensive forces. And Anderson was huge off the offensive glass.

“A beast,” Hassell said of Anderson, who helped the Nets finish with a 54-38 glass advantage.

It was nice payback for a 22-point home loss to the Raptors on Friday, when Carter shot 0-for-13. After Andrea Bargnani made two free throws with 10:22 left to put the Raptors ahead, 72-63, Toronto’s offense for all intents went home.

The Nets, who started the game in a stunning 16-2 hole, came all the way back and then some. A Harris three-point play started the avalanche. A Lopez put-back gave the Nets the lead for keeps at 7:09 and Carter rubbed salt in the wound with a three-point play for a 77-72 lead at 5:31.

And all the while, the fans booed whenever Carter even smelled the ball, although they were not nearly as rabid as in November. But the guy who helped legitimize basketball in this city and the country just shrugged it off.

“I understand a sports fan,” Carter said. “If you put me at a Tampa Bay game – I love my Buccaneers – I’m the same way. Some of these people are harsh. It’s fine and I understand it. . . . Every time I come here I still love it.”

fred.kerber@nypost.com

Nets 94 Raptors 87