The New Jersey Nets finished the 2007-08 regular season with 34 wins and 48 losses, failing to make the NBA playoffs. Veteran point guard Darrell Armstrong, whose pro career began in 1994, played 11.0 minutes per game as a backup. While his stats are low, his leadership drive is high. InsideHoops.com contributor Randy Zellea recently met with Armstrong for an exclusive interview.
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The New York post (Phil Mushnick) reports: Mark Jackson, the Nets’ popular YES analyst the last three seasons and a top candidate to become coach of the Knicks, hit YES with a farewell bomb last night when he announced on the air he would not be returning to call Net games… Jackson’s relationship with YES had been poor since Jackson, two seasons ago, rejoined ABC/ESPN, apparently without consulting YES.

The AP reports: Second-stringer Leon Powe scored a career-high 27 points, adding 11 rebounds for his sixth career double-double, while Pierce, Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and the rest of the Boston starters rested up for the playoffs. With their NBA-best 66 wins, the Celtics had already clinched the top seed in the Eastern Conference and a matchup against the Atlanta Hawks in the first round… Tony Allen scored 18 for Boston, which won its fourth straight game and the 11th of its last 12. Richard Jefferson scored 24 points, and Nenad Krstic scored 13 with a season-high 12 rebounds. The Nets ended up 34-48, missing the playoffs for first time since 2001.

The AP reports: For the New Jersey Nets, missing the playoffs took a lot the fun out of rallying from a 20-point deficit to beat the Charlotte Bobcats. Richard Jefferson scored 28 points and hit a go-ahead jumper in overtime and the Nets limited the Bobcats to 47 points in the final 29 minutes in a 112-108 meaningless victory on Tuesday night… Vince Carter added 18 points, Devin Harris had 17 and eight assists and Bostjan Nachbar added eight of his 10 points in the fourth quarter and overtime as the Nets won their second straight… Jason Richardson had 31 points (and 8 steals) to lead Charlotte in the game between two non-playoff teams. Nazr Mohammed added 19 points, Raymond Felton had 18 and Okafor had 15 rebounds.

The New York Post (Fred Kerber) reports: Now, next season unofficially starts for the Nets. Their 2007-08 playoff dreams are finished. They have been eliminated. That is official. The Nets were living on borrowed time with little hope. They had to win their final four games while hoping eighth-place Atlanta went 0-4 to even smell a chance. The Nets went 0-for-2 last night. “After having six years of tasting the post-season, to not be able to play in the post-season is extremely disappointing. We apologize to our fans, to our management, to our ownership that we didn’t fulfill our responsibility,” said coach Lawrence Frank. “We feel like we’ve let a lot of people down. This won’t ever happen again.”

The AP reports: Richard Jefferson scored 24 points and Vince Carter added 21 as the Nets beat Milwaukee 111-98 on Saturday night, spoiling Bucks general manager John Hammond’s first game watching his new team play… The Nets had 34 assists and 14 turnovers, with three of their leading scorers spending the game making plenty of passes. Carter had 10 assists, Devin Harris had nine and Jefferson had seven… InsideHoops.com Stat Note: For the Bucks, Ramon Sessions had 12 points, 6 rebounds and 13 assists.

The AP reports: After New Jersey was eliminated from playoff contention, Nets coach Lawrence Frank was apologetic for the Nets’ poor play. Carlos Delfino scored 24 points, Chris Bosh had 21 and the Toronto Raptors beat the Nets 113-85 victory Friday night… Vince Carter had 21 points and Devin Harris added 19 for the Nets, who last missed the playoffs in 2001 season… T.J. Ford and Andrea Bargnani each scored 14 as the Raptors rallied from a 14-point deficit in the second quarter to beat the Nets for the third time in four games this season… Toronto’s Jose Calderon finished with 11 points and 10 assists.

The AP reports: So much for LeBron James’ aching back. After missing two days of practice because of back spasms, James scored 33 points as the Cleveland Cavaliers overcame a 14-point deficit to defeat the New Jersey Nets, 104-83, Wednesday night… He was 11-of-21 from the field, made 10-of-13 from the line, grabbed seven rebounds and had eight assists… Zydrunas Ilgauskas 13 for the Cavaliers. Daniel Gibson and Delonte West scored 12 apiece. Carter scored 19 points and Richard Jefferson added 15 to lead New Jersey, which won the first three meetings this season against Cleveland.

The Bergen Record (Al Iannazzone) writes the following on his blog: The Nets will never admit this, but this is my feeling, you’re not going to win when Richard Jefferson is your No. 1 option. He’s not even one of the top five small forwards in the East. I rank in no order Paul Pierce, Andre Iguodala, LeBron James, Hedo Turkoglu and Caron Butler ahead of Jefferson, and I may be missing someone. Carter’s contract and his ability to carry a team make him valuable to the Nets, so I expect him back. They’re not going to trade Harris, the point guard they acquired for Jason Kidd, unless somehow the Nets wind up in the top three in the draft and have the opportunity to take a Derrick Rose. What they probably will do, however, is look to move backup Marcus Williams, instead.

The AP reports: A day after the ankle prevented him from playing against Detroit, Vince Carter returned to the lineup and scored 32 points to lead the Nets to a 99-90 victory over the struggling Toronto Raptors on Saturday night… Richard Jefferson added 28 points and Devin Harris had 12 points and seven assists as the Nets won for only the fourth time in 11 games… Rasho Nesterovic had 22 points and 14 rebounds to lead the playoff-bound Raptors, who lost their third straight and 11th in 15 games. Chris Bosh added 18 points for Toronto, which had all five starters score in double figures. The bench contributed 13 points on 6-of-22 shooting… Carter, who also added seven rebounds and five assists, then took over.