The Nets know they will find an ornery group of Nuggets awaiting in Denver Monday. The Nets really didn't need any more difficulties.
The Nets already have the hardest schedule remaining of any of the six teams fighting for the final playoff spot in the East. And the game in Denver not only ends a four-game Western segment of a five-game trip (they come home to play in New York), it comes as the completion of a back-to-back. And it comes with them minus All-Star Devin Harris, out with a sprained left shoulder.
And it comes over five weeks after the Nets routed the Nuggets in New Jersey, handing them their worst defeat of the season, a 44-point blowout, 114-70.
The blowout of the Nuggets may have been the high water mark for the Nets. They held Denver to just .356 shooting as Carmelo Anthony, with 15, was the only Nugget to score double-figure points. The 44 point-spread tied the second greatest margin of victory by a Nets team. Six Nets reached double figure points led by Devin Harris, who scored 28.
Harris will be out Monday after spraining his left shoulder Sunday night in Los Angeles so the Nets will be hard-pressed to handle Nugget point Chauncey Billups one of the league's best clutch performers. Ex-Net Kenyon Martin has missed 5-of-6 games with a lower back strain. He sat out the Nuggets' victory over the Clippers Saturday.
CLIPPERS 107, NETS 105: The word coach Lawrence Frank used was "snakebit." No one will blame him. The Nets lost All-Star point guard Devin Harris to a sprained left shoulder in the third quarter and then the game slipped from their grasp when Steve Novak nailed a three-pointer at the buzzer that was ruled good after review. The shot squashed what had appeared to be a game-winner by Vince Carter who ended a season-high 41-point night with a long three-pointer with 12.7 seconds left to play. The Nets went up three, fouled Baron Davis who made two free throws with 7.3 seconds left. The Clippers then got life when Jarvis Hayes missed two free throws, setting the stage for Novak's winner.
