Short answer: They're not sure, but the fall from about halfway up is murder.

They played very well for nearly 2 quar- ters against the league's best team last night, before the Lakers got serious and took them apart without Kobe Bryant even playing very well, 120-93, at Staples Center.

Bryant shot 5-for-17 (12 points), but the Nets had no answers for Pau Gasol (26) or the Lakers' superb bench effort, led by Jordan Farmar's 17 points.

Brook Lopez had his third double-double in six starts for the Nets (17 points, 10 boards), while Devin Harris managed 21 points and six assists by playing well in only one quarter.

The Nets were alive and well five minutes into the third period, in a game tied at 66 apiece, when they suddenly recalled they were in the presence of greatness and fainted.

Actually, the Lakers upped their intensity at both ends, and the Nets were quickly put in their place - in the form of a 23-8 run that covered the next 6 minutes.

It began with Andrew Bynum drop-stepping a helpless Yi Jianlian and slamming one home to snap the tie, and one play later, Bryant stole a Yi pass and made the crowd shudder with a breakaway slam to force Lawrence Frank into a timeout.

But the hits kept on coming. As the Nets missed five of their next six shots, the Lakers got to the rim at will, with a sensational change-of-hands drive from Farmar getting L.A. its first double-digit lead (81-70) and putting Carter on the bench with four fouls.

In the end, L.A. scored on 12 of its last 15 possessions, and took a 90-76 fait accompli into the final period.

The Lakers are the highest-scoring team in the NBA - averaging 105.9 points per game - and given their present arrogant state, they could be excused for expecting an early knockout against a Nets team that is the league's fifth-worst defensively.

But nobody expected this: Bryant was 1-for-9 from the floor in the first half, the Nets played with confidence and poise and determination (aside from a two-minute exhale in the second period), and the Lakers still had a 56-54 lead at the break.

That's the way it goes in LaLaLand nowadays. They entered the game at 11-1, and they don't even think they're playing well yet.

"We're still quite a ways away from playing with the fluid rhythm that it takes for us to play," Phil Jackson said before the game. "I think we're playing kind of a herky-jerky, spotty games right now. And it's early, it's still the first month. But some of it is that we're playing so many different guys. I'm trying to get units together to mesh their talents."

His counterpart understood: "The best teams are always dissatisfied," Frank said.

Yet there was very little to gripe about in the first 24 minutes from Frank's point of view, other than the officiating. The Nets got off to a terrific start offensively (11-for-19), Lopez had three layups/dunks and a pick-and-pop score the first four times he touched the ball, Yi nearly matched his career high in assists in the first quarter alone (three), and the Nets shot 13-for-24 (with 12 assists) after 12 minutes.

Even with Harris in playmaker mode, they were rolling up the same numbers they've had of late - which Jackson agreed are Laker-like.

"We've always liked Harris here," the Lakers coach said. "His speed and quickness was always a factor against us when he was with Dallas, so we're not surprised.

"Most of the time they're pretty much opening the floor up and doing specialty things, and they have shooters to go with Carter and Harris, so that keeps the defense spread. It's kind of the rage right now in the NBA."

And the Nets' lead held for the first three minutes into the second - when one brief lapse against the Lakers' second unit made them surrender it for good.

It began with Frank asking Luis Grillo why his team had nine personal fouls to L.A.'s four - a valid question - but he should have been lecturing his team to add to their total of eight layups in the first 14 minutes.

Instead, they came out of a timeout taking three straight jumpers (Lopez-Harris-Lopez), the Lakers got three very easy scores (Lamar Odom backing down Ryan Anderson, a Bynum slam off a Trevor Ariza drive-and-dish, and a Farmar runout), and L.A. grabbed the lead back and never let it go. It topped out at 52-43, until Harris capped his terrific 14-point quarter with by sparking an 11-4 closing rally.