SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Yesterday is history and tomorrow is a mystery, so live for today. That’s the best advice the Nets can give themselves in what figures to be their most realistic chance of avoiding a huge niche in the NBA Hall of Infamy.
The Nets play the Kings tonight, lugging a monstrosity of an 0-15 start on their shoulders. The NBA galaxy knows the Nets are two losses away from tying, three from setting, the record for the worst start ever. Miami in 1988-89 and the Clippers in 1998-99 both began 0-17. The Nets need to turn it around tonight, beyond the obvious need of a win.
Why? Because they face the Lakers in Los Angeles on Sunday and come home for Dallas and Jason Kidd on Wednesday.
“The Lakers and Mavs, they can be beaten,” Nets guard Rafer Alston said. “Teams have proven that.”
Yeah, teams like the Nuggets and the Spurs.
The Kings (6-8), coming off a rout of the Knicks, are hardly a pushover. But they are less formidable than the Lakers and Mavericks, who have lost seven combined games, basically two weeks work for the Nets.
There is a small piece of trivia favoring the Nets: When the Clippers ended their 17-game skid, they did it against the Kings. Too bad the Kings don’t still have Oliver Miller and Jerome James (that’s a gruesome twosome, huh?).
“It’s one game at a time. As good as those teams are, you’ve got to put it off,” said Brook Lopez, who is coming off his career game: a personal high 32 points and 14 rebounds (an NBA season-high 10 offensive) in the 93-83 loss to Portland, defeat No. 15, Wednesday. “Either way, you have to focus on the game you’re playing. You can’t play tonight worrying about tomorrow.”
The Nets, virtually to a man, insist they are not looking at history’s stats and starts. For their own mental health, they want — no, they need — a win. If this continues, they’ll be sitting around chewing crayons under a new coach. So a win tonight would cure many ills.
“That would be the ideal thing to do,” said Devin Harris, who has played three games since returning from a strained groin and likely will make his first start tonight. “We’re just looking for a win. All I’m thinking about is the next one.”
There’s a lot of that going around.
“Personally, I don’t pay attention to [the history],” Harris said. “We’re just going out to compete and try to get the first win. It’s that way for every game, whether 0-1 or 0-20. We just want to get one win, take that first step.”
The Nets have lost heartbreakers (Miami). They have lost no-shows (Denver). They have lost blowouts (Washington). They have lost games in which they fought and scraped and just did not have enough talent or bodies (lots of games). The wear, the strain is showing. Harris said sleeping is tough. Chris Douglas-Roberts said he is miserable.
“You walk in that locker room and it’s like a morgue because they’re laying it all out there. It’s disheartening to lose,” coach Lawrence Frank said.
“I think you have to be worried about that,” general manager Kiki Vandeweghe said about the team’s psyche. “Winning is a habit and losing becomes a habit also. You want to continue to progress. But losing becomes very, very difficult and it’s difficult for everybody.”
Especially when it feels like the whole world is watching. Though it’s not quite as big as Game 4 of the 2002 Eastern Conference Finals in Boston after a historic Game 3 collapse, tonight’s game is a must win for the Nets. Unless they want to make some horrid history.