The Nets already have won more games than many forecasted they would manage all season. They near the All-Star break as one of, it seems, about 97 Eastern teams in the hunt for one of the final two or three playoff spots. They are eighth, 2 1/2 games out of seventh, four games ahead of 13th.
They desperately want to hit the break on a positive note. They have won 4-of-5, losing Sunday without Vince Carter and his strained right elbow. One more win tonight would put them in a great frame of mind. And they expect to have Carter back.
But they play the Spurs.
Did we mention they’ve already won more than many figured?
“We need Tuesday,” said forward Trenton Hassell, who has been starting for the injured Bobby Simmons. “We have two hard games on the other side of the break, so we have to be perfect against the Spurs from the jump. More than perfect. They went in and beat Boston. They beat the reigning champs. But they’re champs, too.”
And the Spurs beat the Nets with the regularity of A-Rod making headlines. San Antonio has beaten the Nets 12 straight times since a 91-82 New Jersey home-court victory on Nov. 13, 2002.
The Nets gained some confidence from their effort in a 94-91 loss in San Antonio on Jan. 23, when Tim Duncan showed why Brook Lopez made him his career model with a 30-point, 15-rebound double-double. The Nets played hard and played well. But the NBA doesn’t grant playoff spots for effort.
“We definitely want to go in on a good note,” said All-Star Devin Harris, who seems near a full recovery from a battery of ailments (ankle, hamstring, ribs) that sapped him for a while after ringing up back-to-back 28-point games. “It’s a chance to protect home court. Obviously, the way we played them in San Antonio gives us a little confidence.”
And confidence has been key for the Nets, who have been playing with both starting forwards out due to injury (Yi Jianlian has missed 15 games; Simmons, 4 1/2).
