NBA

Nets’ defense needs lots of work

The Knicks shot .402 against the Nets Friday. Normally, that would be cause for defensive celebration.

But the Knicks entered shooting .371 and were one step from being legally certified as optically challenged.

“We’re trying, but we’ve got a long way to go defensively,” Nets president Rod Thorn said.

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“We’re not making as much progress as we expect from ourselves, and we have to expect better,” said coach Lawrence Frank, who has joked throughout preseason that he doesn’t want to even talk about offense.

Well, after this skippy performance, he might not want to get too chatty about the defense, either. Oh, there were good moments — like the fourth quarter when the Knicks shot 24 percent (6-of-25) and committed five turnovers. The Nets managed six blocked shots in the quarter, four of them by Brook Lopez.

But before the bubbly is popped over that segment, consider the Knicks — the .371-shooting entering the game Knicks — shot .522 in the second quarter and a preposterous .588 in the third.

“If we played [throughout] like we played at the end, maybe it’s different. Maybe the outcome is different,” said rookie Terrence Williams, who had an overall active and impressive 21-point night in his 25 minutes.

“We had a lot of defensive assignments that we missed,” Courtney Lee said. “We had stretches where we did compete on defense, that’s where we made our run. We executed our offense, but we let our offense determine our defense.”

“You get caught up and put people in bad situations. We had a couple of mental lapses. Not being in the right spot. He [Frank] called it ‘hugging up on your man’ instead of giving help.”

So after five games — all losses — the Nets are surrendering 98.4 points (they’re scoring 93.8 — which ranks 26th) and are allowing .430 shooting, which is good (ranked 9th) but they’re still being burned deep — .363 on threes which is not good (ranked 22d). But it’s not just the perimeter where the troubles lurk.

“We have these stretches where, particularly against pick and rolls, we’re having a real tough time defending,” Thorn said. “We’ve shown there are times we defend pretty well but you can’t have that 10-minute stretch where teams just get a lot of real easy shots against you.”

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As for the offense, the latest display wasn’t exactly the stuff of dreams.

Offensive execution? This time it was more nightmares. The Nets shot .384, committed 17 turnovers. What was wrong?

How about everything.

“Our offense progressively, our lack of recognition, sometimes taking quick shots, sometimes just dribbling the ball to pound it to no end, sometimes failing to see inside when guys are open,” Frank said.

“A lot of one-on-one stuff,” Terrence Williams said.

“We let our offense determine our defense,” Courtney Lee said.

And both offense and defense stunk overall.

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Prospective owner Mikhail Prokhorov, the Russian billionaire, is scheduled to attend the NBA Board of Governors meetings Wednesday and Thursday in New York.

On Tuesday, he will have lunch with current owner Bruce Ratner, Nets CEO Brett Yormark and team president Rod Thorn. It’s not certain whether Prokhorov will be at Wednesday’s game in Newark, again at the Prudential Center. Prokhorov has sent several of his representatives, including his attorney, to New York several days ago.

The upcoming Board of Governors meeting is not where the vote will be taken to approve Prokhorov as a new owner.

“No chance, they’re just not ready,” a league spokesman said.

That vote is several months away. This will be an introductory meeting to allow Prokhorov to introduce himself to the owners. Prokhorov already has David Stern‘s seal of approval so there is virtually no chance he will not get approved. He needs a 75 percent vote.

The only snags would be if the entire Brooklyn move fell through or if the minority owners collectively balked at the sale.

“I have not yet met with him,” Thorn said. “But I certainly hope and expect to in the near future.”

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Jarvis Hayes said don’t count him out for the remainder of the preseason. And he expects to be ready for opening night, despite the right shin stress reaction that sidelined him this past week.

“I’m going to practice before [the opener],” Hayes said. “I’ll be ready.”

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The small ball approach that the Nets used seemingly was on the fly.

“I thought it was good,” Terrence Williams said. “We didn’t go over it like, ‘We’re going to go small tonight.’ We were pushing the ball, we were scoring when we went small. And we were able to get stops.”

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Good over-under for the season as suggested by Associated Press’ NBA reporter. What will be higher, Boston Celtics’ victory total or the combined number of wins by Knicks and Nets? Take the Celtics.

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Nets’ preseason records just go back to 1990, but the Nets have not been winless in preseason. Always a first time for everything. Nets play Knicks in Newark Wednesday, Sixers at St. John’s Friday. . . . Remembering it’s preseason: Nets are ranked 12th in overall rebounds (41.8), 10 in blocks (5.20), 12th in steals (9.00), 24th in 3-point shooting (.311).

fred.kerber@nypost.com