The games now number two dozen, and the Nets, at 26-32, have virtually no margin of error if they are to avoid a second straight playoff season out in the cold after six years in the post-season.
Unfortunately for them, their schedule is brutal. They have two games each remaining against Boston, Cleveland and Orlando, the three best teams in the Eastern Conference. They have a four-game Western road trip. And they have their share of tough games against opponents they see once more. Like Sunday against New Orleans in New Jersey. The marquee matchup pits two of the fastest point guards alive in Net Devin Harris and Hornet Chris Paul. But the real drama is the Nets trying to stay afloat in the race for one of the lower Eastern seeds.
The Hornets seek to complete a sweep of the two-game season series with the Nets. In New Orleans on Jan. 21, Paul threatened a triple-double with 29 points, nine rebounds and eight assists while Harris left the game with bruised ribs after shooting 1-of-11. Vince Carter topped the Nets with 20 points.
The game ends a four-game homestand for the Nets who were hammered by Washington, stunned Philadelphia on Harris' buzzer-beating half-court heave and then beat Chicago Wednesday.
NETS 111, BULLS 99: Devin Harris lacked the dramatic flair of his previous game, won with a half-court heave at the buzzer. But he was just as lethal Wednesday, scoring 19 of his 42 points in the fourth quarter as the Nets moved within one game of eighth place Milwaukee. Harris scored seven straight in a key stretch of the fourth quarter that saw the Nets hold the Bulls to 28 percent shooting. Bobby Simmons scored 18 points off the bench, Brook Lopez scored 13 and Vince Carter, while still stuck in a shooting slump, had 11 points, nine rebounds and seven assists.
