After a turbulent season full of ups and downs, the Nets are set to begin their first playoff series in Brooklyn — and finally know what team they’ll be playing against.
On the season’s final day, but the Nets found out their first- round opponent in the Eastern Conference playoffs will be the Bulls, who beat the Wizards in Chicago to lock up the fifth seed and the right to face the No. 4 Nets.
Game 1 of the best-of-seven series will be Saturday in Brooklyn at a time to be determined.
But for the Nets, last night’s 103-99 win over the Pistons in front of 16,868 at Barclays Center was a fitting cap to what has been, while eventful, a successful season for the Nets in their first year in Brooklyn.
“I thought our guys have done a good job,” interim coach P.J. Carlesimo said. “They had to handle a coaching change, which is not an easy thing, and I think they’ve played well. They played well on the road. I think we’ve improved, and we’ve got home court, which is significant.
“Making the playoffs is significant. Winning the road games they’ve won is significant. But now we have one more to get through, then get through a couple days of practice and then it’s a whole new [season] … [the playoffs] will still color the year more than anything else.”
There certainly have been plenty of ups and downs — from the brilliant 11-4 start in November that led to Avery Johnson earning Eastern Conference Coach of the Month honors, only to lose his job a few weeks later after the Nets went 3-10 to open December.
Then, after Carlesimo took over, the Nets had arguably their best win of the season — a victory in Oklahoma City over the defending Western Conference champion Thunder — that propelled them on a seven-game winning streak and a 9-1 start under Carlesimo.
“Since [Jan. 1], we’ve really turned it around, and solidified home-court advantage in the first round,” said Joe Johnson, who has battled a sore left heel and a right quad contusion recently before rounding back into form over the last week.
“I think it’s been pretty good. We’ve been through a lot, overcame adversity, and we’ve responded when our backs are against the wall, so I think we’re capable of doing something special.”
You can even include the two versions of Deron Williams the Nets have seen this season — the one from before the All-Star break who was dealing with ongoing ankle issues, and the slimmer, quicker one from after the break and a round of platelet rich plasma treatment in both ankles that has taken the league by storm over the last 20 games or so.
“I feel good right now,” Williams said. “I feel like I’m in a good rhythm.”
But with everything that’s happened over the last several months, it will be the next few weeks that will likely determine how this first season in Brooklyn is viewed. Now that the Nets have earned the fourth seed in the East and home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs, they’ll be viewed as favorites to make it into the Eastern Conference semifinals and a possible matchup with the defending-champion Heat.
“I think that will determine how good this season turns out,” Johnson said. “It depends on how far we go in the postseason, and we’ve got guys hitting on all cylinders right now.
“We’ve been playing pretty good basketball of late, so I think that’s great. Especially going into the postseason, you always want to go in with a little bit of confidence and momentum, and I think we’ve got that.”
tbontemps@nypost,com