PHOENIX – There’s a dilemma here. Ask half the Nets where their main problems reside and they point to the offense. Ask the others, and they’ll lay the blame just as quickly on the defense.

Both groups are right. This is sort of like the chicken and the egg stuff.

Then there is the sideline chorus with an equally strong argument saying the problems stem from a good chunk of the team hanging out in the infirmary. The Nets again went into battle last night, against the Suns here, with a drastically shorthanded roster. The game was a rematch of the Stephon Marbury-Penny Hardaway “sissy-garbage” feud, a tiff that carried little pre-game smoke. The Nets were more concerned with fielding a team over stoking a feud.

Scott Burrell was expected to sit after re-injuring his left knee in Friday’s Shaq Attack defeat in Los Angeles. Shaquille O’Neal and the Lakers manhandled the Nets, 103-80, New Jersey’s most lopsided loss of the season, one that led to the great “offense or defense or injury?” debate, one that left Phil Jackson saying stuff that sounded real deep and philosophical but would make the guy on the street call him a twit.

So choose a stance in the Nets’ debate and you’ll be right. Either side is a winning argument. Want to say the defense is at fault? You need not look beyond the .476 yielded. That placed them 28th in the league. Only Chicago was worse. The Lakers shot .524 in dropping the Nets to 2-11.

“Defensively, we’ve got to do something different because that pretty much kills us every game,” said Sherman Douglas, who sat out the two previous games with a sprained ankle but who hoped to get back against the Suns. “The opposing team shoots a high percentage, defensively we have breakdowns, we don’t get back.”

Granted, most of the defensive problems in L.A. were caused by O’Neal (“I’m like the Pythagorean Theorem. Not too many people know the answer to my game. Quote me on that,” Shaq said). Shaq had 30 points and 16 rebounds and worked at will down low, bagging 14-of-24 shots.

But that was one end. The Nets’ offense hasn’t won any awards. At .404, the Nets were able to look down only on Chicago and Golden State. Against the Lakers, with O’Neal clogging the middle, the Nets were a wretched .346. Keith Van Horn, who shot just 5-of-14 and claimed the Lakers “dissected” the Nets, sounded frustrated and angry.

“I don’t see any progress at all, regardless of how Shaquille played. He had a fantastic game, but he does that against anybody,” said Van Horn. “We held Glen Rice to 1-of-7 shooting, He’s their second best offensive option. Defensively, we were fine. Offensively, we did not execute at all. We came out of time-outs, we did not run plays the way we were supposed to. When the coach draws up a play, you’ve got to be able to run it, bottom line. And we didn’t do that.”

Don Casey readily agreed on the matter of offensive struggles. But look at what the Nets have. Or don’t have from injuries.

“You don’t have Jayson (Williams), you don’t have (Kerry) Kittles, you don’t have Sherman (Douglas), you don’t have Burrell, you don’t have Kendall Gill. You don’t see much,” Casey sighed. “What do you see? You see holes. Our players play hard, not efficient. We are in a difficult scoring position.”

Marbury, who had a dreaded 3-of-16 shooting night (O’Neal denied him so many times on penetrations), also pointed to the offense.

“He took away everything,” Marbury said of O’Neal. “I penetrated and we got guys, our centers, running out instead of cutting to the basket. It’s hard because they’re not being a threat.”

Marbury refused comment on his rematch with Hardaway and Jason Kidd. Back in New Jersey on Nov. 10, Hardaway claimed Marbury called Kidd’s game “garbage” and as they left the floor, called to the Net guard, “See you in Phoenix, Steph, you sissy.” Hardaway now says all is well.

“We’re both competitive and that was just a little playground coming out,” said Hardaway, who insisted he’d shake Marbury’s hand before the game (he said Marbury refused to shake the last time). “Stephon is a great player, honestly. That’s all blown over as far as I’m concerned.”