Not only have the New Jersey Nets won 10 in a row,but Vince Carter has proven to be untouchable. Sort of. The Newark Star Ledger’s Dave D’Alessandro explains.

For all of Carter’s fourth-quarter heroics (24 of his 42 points), he may have won the game before halftime, when he was engaging in some friendly banter with Mo Peterson.

The Nets guard was consoling his former teammate after Peterson was tagged with a technical foul, and he did it by giving him an affectionate tap on the cheek as the teams prepared for the inbounds. Peterson responded with his own tap to Carter’s face — a backhand slap that missed, actually — and that’s what referee Steve Javie saw.

Without consulting his colleagues, Javie immediately blew his whistle, and threw Peterson out of the game with a second T.

“He didn’t see Vince put a hand in my face,” Peterson said. “I did the same thing back and I got caught. It was an unlucky break. We’ve gone through games where we did the same thing. It wasn’t anything where we were fighting out there.”