Only through the power of mathematics does the next game carry any real meaning for the Nets.
They'll meet up with the Pistons Wednesday in New Jersey in a game that not long ago loomed large. It's still big -- but for the Pistons, who are fighting the Bulls daily for the seventh spot. For the Nets, it's just the first of the final eight games before they can officially start the summer. Elimination will become part of the Nets' vocabulary virtually any day. They have lost 11 of 14 and carry a five-game losing streak into the game.
Hardly the way to make a playoff run. Now they see a team they've lost to in 13 of the last 17 meetings.
The Nets registered one of their most spirited victories of the season against the Pistons, 103-96 at New Jersey on Nov. 7. In that game, Devin Harris sprained his ankle but returned to finish a then-career high 38-point performance -- with 13 points in the fourth quarter.
The Pistons retaliated in Auburn Hills on New Year's Eve with an 83-75 victory in a game where Vince Carter was ejected for exploding at ref Derrick Stafford.
BUCKS 107, NETS 78: It was pitiful. The Nets were within one point when the Bucks ran off the last 18 points of the first quarter, and it never was a game after that. The Nets gave a total non-effort for a second straight day and also gave the impression of a team that has quit. Chris Douglas-Roberts led the Nets' scoring with 14 points, while the league's highest-scoring backcourt, Devin Harris and Vince Carter, combined for 19 points. Ex-Net Richard Jefferson torched his old team with 29 points and 10 rebounds. The Nets fell 5 1/2 games back of the final playoff spot with eight to play.
