"Pretty bad," Carter acknowledged when asked how bad the joint was. "It bothered me a little bit. It's hard to get extension sometimes. Some days are worse than others for sure. It's one of those things. You step on the court, you're ready to play, you can't use it as an excuse," Carter said.

--The mission for the Nets this season has been about developing young players. And if they can win while they're at it, so much the better. This week was an example of them doing both. On Monday, guard Devin Harris was named Eastern Conference Player of the Week while center Brook Lopez was Eastern Rookie of the Month. On Tuesday, the Nets moved to within a half-game of Milwaukee in the race of the final East playoff spot.

Harris averaged 35.7 points and 9.3 assists in leading the Nets to a 2-1 week. He scored 39 points and hit the game-winning half-court shot against Philadelphia and then tallied 42 against Chicago. Harris became the fourth player in Nets history to record 39-plus points in consecutive games while joining LeBron James as the only NBA player to do it this season. Lopez became the first Nets rookie to win the award in consecutive months. He averaged 15.9 points, 8.5 rebounds, 1.7 blocks and shot .610 in February, all highs among East rookies.

"Going into the year we talked about the development of the young players. Devin Harris wins Player of the Week, Brook Lopez wins Rookie of the Month for the second straight month," said coach Lawrence Frank. "We're able to serve a couple gods which sometimes is hard in terms of winning as many games as possible and also seeing our young payers develop."

QUOTE TO NOTE: "I was puzzled. You know, I wasn't really sure why I was out. I wasn't given a reason. But you know, that happens." -- F Ryan Anderson, who sat for two straight games but then was called on for size Tuesday in Milwaukee and scored 13 points in 13 minutes.