"I thought we would be better," Jarvis Hayes said. "We've got to take our lumps and growing pains. Along with the growing pains we want to be a playoff team. That's what we're striving to be."

The Nets, who leave today for a four-game western trip, have been talking about the playoffs since training camp. After back-to-back wins at Toronto and against the Clippers to make it four out of five and get them to .500, it's easy to understand the Nets' optimism.

Vince Carter and Devin Harris are playing at All-Star levels, rookie center Brook Lopez is improving every day and the Nets' bench and role players are doing their jobs.

"Everything we're doing now is to get better," Carter said. "Our play and the performances we've had that weren't very good are no excuse, but at the same time were learning experiences for us. Now we're trying to put all those things together, good and bad, to create a pretty good Basketball team."

With eight new players, three rookies and eight guys 25 and younger, outsiders expected very little from the Nets. But things haven't been perfect, either.

They've gotten inconsistent play from starting power forward Yi Jianlian, who had 27 points Saturday after totaling 23 in his previous four games. Injuries have forced Josh Boone and Eduardo Najera to miss five games each and Harris three. The Nets were 0-3 without Harris and are 4-1 since his return.

So all things considered, at 6-6 and with two wins over Atlanta and one each against the Pistons and Raptors, the Nets seem to be ahead of schedule.

"Hopefully we can keep them surprised because I know a lot of people picked us last in the East," Hayes said. "That's definitely motivation. If we keep playing like we played the last two nights, I think we'll be where we need to be and want to be."