EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) – Brian Scalabrine awoke with a euphoric feeling Saturday to find 32 messages on his answering machine and a surprise waiting with the breakfast his wife always prepares.

“She gave me a glass of orange juice. Usually I only get water,” the New Jersey Nets’ forward said.

Scalabrine, who by his own account is the league’s only red-haired player, gulped down his treat and was told by Kristen, his wife of 10 months, to not even think of picking up a razor.

“Here’s the issue. I was supposed to shave after we lost those two games in Detroit,” Scalabrine explained as beads of sweat rolled down his cheeks and into a fuzzy tuft of orange facial hair.

Superstition kept Scalabrine from shaving after New Jersey’s losses in Games 1 and 2, and it’s the same reason he won’t be picking up a razor any time soon.

“She’s like: Baby, you can’t now. You’re hot,” Scalabrine said. “If we can win it, I’m going to be (Bill) Walton back in 77.”

There can be no blaming Scalabrine for not wanting to change things after he came off the end of the bench to score a career-high 17 points and made two critical game-altering plays in one of the epic contests in NBA playoff history – New Jersey’s 127-120 triple-overtime victory over the Detroit Pistons on Friday night.

Scalabrine will be a bit more recognizable now to the casual fan, especially those fortunate enough to have witnessed his incredible save of a ball going out of bounds late in the second overtime. The hustle play led to a free throw by Richard Jefferson that allowed the Nets to extend the game to a third extra period – only the fourth time it’s happened in league history.

Scalabrine’s other big play was a 3-pointer with 41.8 seconds left that put the game out of reach.

The Nets were still giddy Saturday over the victory and the accompanying experience, a game that featured 83 fouls, 97 free throws, eight disqualifications and countless memorable moments.

Jefferson was angry with himself for missing two free throws late in regulation that helped allow the Pistons to tie the game on Chauncey Billups’ buzzer-beating 40-foot bank shot at the end of regulation. The Nets’ Kenyon Martin remained upset that he had to watch 33 of the 68 minutes from the bench because of foul trouble.

The Pistons, meanwhile, were confronted with the task of trying to regroup from one of the most difficult losses any of them have ever endured.

“You never win a championship without winning a big game on the road. If we can’t win on the road, we don’t deserve to be here,” Pistons coach Larry Brown said.

Scalabrine, a third-year power forward from Southern Cal, was pressed into duty as the Nets’ four best big men – Martin, Jason Collins, Rodney Rogers and Aaron Williams – fouled out. The 26-year-old player, once cut from his freshman team at Enumclaw (Wash.) High School, went 4-for-4 from 3-point range and shot 6-for-7 overall in a performance so unlikely and unexpected that he couldn’t come up with something even remotely comparable in his basketball career.

Of the 32 phone messages, Scalabrine’s favorite was from his former coach at Highline Community College, Joe Callero, who congratulated him but reminded him it was only one game.

A few teammates dropped references at practice to Scalabrine’s summer basketball camp, hoping to help him sell it out, and he shot free throws with Jason Kidd, losing their personal shootout as he does almost every day.

But that was about his only bummer of the day.

“It feels good to be a basketball player, it feels good to be a Net, feels good to be doing what I do,” he said. “It feels great to be Brian Scalabrine today.”

AP-ES-05-15-04 1836EDT