WASHINGTON – Richard Jefferson scored 21 of his 27 points after halftime, and the Nets broke open a tight game in the fourth quarter, beating the Washington Wizards 112-100 last night for their sixth consecutive win.

Jefferson shot 11-for-15 overall, including 4-for-4 in the final period when New Jersey outscored Washington 41-30.That’s the most points the Wizards have allowed in a quarter this season.

Vince Carter scored 28 points – topping 20 for the 11th game in a row – while Jason Kidd had 14 points, nine assists, and seven rebounds in his matchup with Washington’s All-Star point guard, Gilbert Arenas. Over their careers, Kidd usually gets the better of their individual matchups, but Arenas held his own last night, finishing with 25 points and eight assists before fouling out.

Caron Butler also scored 25 for the Wizards, and Antawn Jamison had 16 points and 13 rebounds.

Kidd, Carter, and Jefferson combined to score New Jersey’s first 15 points of the second half, while Butler kept the Wizards in it by scoring nine of his team’s 11 points in one stretch of the third quarter, which ended with the Nets ahead 71-70.

When the Nets got some separation at the start of the fourth quarter, going up 92-81 with just over 6 minutes left, it was with significant contributions from reserves. Lamond Murray made two 3-pointers early in the period, while Clifford Robinson had four points and two assists during an 11-4 run.

The Nets claimed the teams’ season series 2-1, and the Atlantic Division leaders improved to a season-high 10 games over .500 at 38-28.

It was a possible first-round playoff preview, because the Nets should wind up with the third seed in the East, and the Wizards entered yesterday fifth in the conference, a half-game ahead of no. 6 Indiana.

Yet that topic didn’t come up when head coaches Lawrence Frank of the Nets and Eddie Jordan of the Wizards met yesterday afternoon to chat for about 20 minutes. They know each other from when both were Nets assistants, and they run similar offenses – both geared around outstanding trios.

Before the game, Jordan talked about looking for more production from Brendan Haywood and Jared Jeffries, who’ve taken to calling themselves the “Little 2” – as opposed to the Arenas-Jamison-Butler “Big 3.”

“Certainly, the ‘Little 2’ have to play at a higher level,” Jordan said.

They took six of Washington’s first eight shots against New Jersey, and Haywood finished with 10 points and four rebounds. But Jeffries went 0-for-4 from the floor and played less than a minute after the first quarter; the team said it was a coaching decision, not an injury.

New Jersey led 47-45 at halftime, behind Carter’s 14 points. The Nets went up by as many as 11 in the first half, while the Wizards took their first lead at 39-37 on Jamison’s backdoor dunk on a pass from Antonio Daniels with about 4 minutes left in the second quarter.