Bad becomes worse, as the Nets drop their 8th in a row in front of barely 1,000 fans

SCOTT JACOBS

Sometimes things are so bad that to avoid crying you just have to laugh.  Maybe the New Jersey Nets should start laughing.  Not that their fall from respectable team to historic challenger of the worst record in the league (the all-time worst record) is funny, but at this point, what other choice do they really have?

Today the Nets season hit another low in a season filled with them, when they dropped their 8th straight game to the Milwaukee Bucks in front of barely a four digit crowd.  A snow storm which dropped nearly a foot of snow on the New York area (including the Meadowlands) kept many fans at home, but the ones who did make it to the game probably would vouch they didn’t miss much.

Andrew Bogut scored 22 points for the Bucks who trounced the Nets by 22 sending one of the most embarassing seasons by one team spiraling out of control even further.  New Jersey, which once had its pawprint all over the Eastern Conference dropped to a porous 4-48 entering the All Star Break, which shockingly won’t include a single Net.

It’s hard to believe that this is the same franchise that made the playoffs every year  from 2002-2007, including back to back trips to the NBA Finals in 2002 and 2003.  Those teams had Jason Kidd.  He’s now a Mav.  Remember Richard Jefferson?  He’s now with the Spurs.  Vince Carter who never led the Nets to a title, but did keep them respectable is now in Orlando.  The carnage left behind is a team that is lost and confused, in search of an identity, and after this season, a coach too.

They don’t have an All Star but they do have Brook Lopez.  And not much else.  Literally.  Unbelievably, or unfortunately, Lopez leads the team in — get this — points (19.0), rebounds (9.1), assists (2.3), and blocks (1.94).  (Devin Harris who has  only played 35 games this year is averaging 6.3 assists, but apparently he hasn’t played enough games yet).  If Lopez was on any other team this year you’d know his name by heart.  Instead, he’s stuck on the dreadful Nets, this season’s NBA punching bag.

When you look at the numbers you almost feel sorry for this team.  That just doesn’t happen very often these days.  But look.  This is just sad.

They’ve lost 9 times by 20 points or more.  Nine!  They’re dead last in the league in scoring.  So not only are they not good, they can’t score either.  Not that they’re stopping anyone either (teams average 101.6 ppg on them).  Their scoring differential is like the opposite of the UConn Lady Huskies.  Instead of beating down the opponent, their average loss is by 11.5 points.  The next closest team, Minnesota, is almost a full 3 points better (not that that’s good either).

It’s too bad more games don’t come down to the wire for the Nets.  And by wire I mean the foul line.  New Jersey as a team is 5th in the league.  That’s a bright spot I suppose.  Shockingly they’re not the worst team in the league at drawing butts to the seats.  That honor somehow goes to the semi-decent Memphis Grizzlies, who only add more merit to the idea that Memphis can’t support an NBA team if they can’t outdraw the putrid Nets.

How bad is New Jersey?  The Flint Tropics would probably beat them.  Too soon?  Too soon?  Maybe.

But this season can’t end soon enough for the Nets.  They’re dead even with the 1972-1973 Sixers porous pace for the worst record in league history as they crawl to the break.  Break?  More like mercy timeout.  The Nets need to win 6 more games to avoid infamy.  Then they can fade into history as the NBA’s version of the 2007 Miami Dolphins: a team that flirted with futility nearly the entire season, before doing just enough to avoid being the worst ever.  Unfortunately for the Nets, all Miami needed to do that year was win a game.  Six sure seems like its asking a lot.

A whole lot.

Photo: AP

Popularity: 6% [?]