The Mavericks retain the top spot but the Suns are right there waiting to leapfrog them to the top.  The Lakers win four straight despite playing through significant injuries.  The Spurs slump unexpectedly while the Rockets hold their own with Yao Ming.  Where the rankings get tricky is at the top of the Eastern Conference where the separation between the Pistons, Wizards, Bulls and Magic is hard to quantify.  The Cavs and Magic overcome difficult stretches to have perfect weeks.  The scorching hot Bulls lose two of three but then wax the Pistons.  Give it a week or two and the pecking order in the East will become more evident.

 

 

Throughout the preseason, he sensed something was wrong, that the de-emphasis on defense was going to come back to bite them, and that a profound change in style would be reckless, no matter how much offensive talent the team had assembled.

Everything Cliff Robinson said was spot-on. And though the Nets weren’t a good defensive team when he departed with a meniscus tear on Nov. 18 — they were 5-4 at the time — they have evolved into a terrible one (8-14) in the six weeks hence.

The 40-year-old is too modest to suggest that this is a cause-effect equation. But he vividly recalls crying wolf as early as mid-October.

“I tried to say something,” he said with a shrug last night, before taking the court with his teammates during an open practice at Ramapo College. “But hey, if we’re going to hang our hats on defense, we have to be consistent, do it on a nightly basis. For us to do anything of significance, that’s going to be the end we’re going to have to (improve) on.

“We’ve been able to put up some points, but we haven’t been able to stop anybody on a consistent basis.”

Now, instead of just nagging everyone about it, Robinson is in a position to do something about it.

He took part in last night’s scrimmage, and the Nets will give him back his uniform in time for Chicago’s visit Friday night, nearly seven weeks after injuring his left knee in that Saturday night debacle against Portland. The team has missed him, and he knows it, but he leaves it to others to point it out.

“We’re starting to develop consistency at the defensive end, and he’s one of our best defenders,” Richard Jefferson said. “So it’s good timing. Just to have his veteran leadership is going to be big for us. We have a lot of road games in the next month and a half, so to have another post guy won’t hurt, either.”

“No doubt, we definitely missed him,” said Lawrence Frank, whose team is ranked 16th in scoring defense. “He only played seven games (after his two-game league suspension). The bigs have done a good job, but losing Curly (Nenad Krstic) like we did, we certainly welcome Cliffy back.”

So what went wrong with the defense during his absence? Robinson only cites a lack of commitment — on the part of the players, not the coaches. Asked whether Frank is adamant about defense as he has been in years past, his response was immediate:

“Oh, yeah — he’s even more high-strung than he’s been in the past,” Robinson said. “It still hasn’t worked out to be effective. I can’t put my finger on it. I don’t know if it’s new guys out there, I don’t know if it’s old guys. We just haven’t come together.”

Notes: The trade talks with Charlotte involving Melvin Ely and Jeff McInnis are all but dead: While the Bobs would do the deal for a second-round pick, the Nets’ overarching concern is to avoid the luxury tax, and this deal wouldn’t do it for them. They are $1.7 million over the threshold. But according to ESPN, the Nets and Charlotte were discussing a deal involving McInnis and swingman Bernard Robinson, which would get them below the $65.4 million tax threshold…. Jason Collins (sore back) sat out last night….

The practice was said to be a sellout, but the stands were only two-thirds full…. The most crowd-pleasing moment (aside from some long jumpers from Mikki Moore and Eddie House) actually occurred before the scrimmage, when Frank announced, “The officiating will be better here than in an NBA game.” Basically, there wasn’t any, other than out-of-bounds calls….

With two more off-days, the Nets’ social calendar is full: Three rookies (Marcus Williams, Josh Boone, Hassan Adams) will read to fifth-graders at Martin Luther King Elementary School in Edison today at 2, while Boki Nachbar and Mile Ilic will visit 50 children in the pediatric unit at St. Peter’s University Hospital in New Brunswick…. Friday marks the start of the 10-day contract period, but with Robinson returning, the Nets don’t have a need to bring in anyone.

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There was a certitude in everything he did this time — he felt it, and everyone saw it. There was no hesitation, no fear, no mind games. Richard Jefferson made up his mind to do something, and he did it.

And when you added it all up — 43 minutes, 23 points, six rebounds, five assists — you can only reach one conclusion: This could be a happy new year for him after all.

“I hope so,” the Nets forward said Saturday night, as he pondered whether his right ankle has reached a positive turning point after the Nets beat the Timberwolves, 100-92. “Because the last two games, I haven’t done anything out of the ordinary.”

Re-check the numbers, he was told. He had 22 points at Miami, 23 against Minnesota — both victories. He hadn’t had back-to-back 20-point games all season.

“No, I played the way people are used to seeing me play, the way I’ve played the last four or five seasons,” he corrected. “For this year, those are looking like great games. But in the past, those are numbers you’d expect from me. Also, we won the last two games, and we got numbers you expect from your small forward.”

But there are small forwards, and there are great small forwards. Jefferson ranks among the top half-dozen at his position in the league, but persistent ankle problems — first the left, then the right — have grounded him to the point in which he thought of giving up on the season as recently as two weeks ago, one teammate said.

Then the Wolves arrived in town, and he turned into RJ again — maybe not the same, walking-on-air sorcery, but certainly more certain of every move he tried to execute.

“That’s the thing — exploding up on your jumper, driving the lane and being able to finish, free throws…you’re always going to get beat up, but when you have a major thing you’re trying to deal with, it’s confidence,” Jefferson said. “It’s like, ‘Okay, driving the lane, do I have the explosion to get up?’ So you hesitate. The last few games — I want to say the last five or six games — for the most part, I’m getting better.”

This should be music to Lawrence Frank’s ears.

But he isn’t going to jump to any conclusions, because injuries — especially ankle injuries — tend to come and go. . . .and come back again.

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In the jaunty optimism of the visiting locker room Friday night at Miami, there was a lone figure with his head down in his locker stall. The Nets had won, but Mikki Moore was not pleased.

He’s a starter these days, but as that game broke in the third period, he was like a traffic cop with his hands tied behind his back — the world moving past him at its own pace, with its own design, as though he were a spectator listening to interesting stories told by other people. 

He was pulled five minutes into that quarter for Boki Nachbar, and the Nets kept going. And as the lead increased, Moore’s confidence sank. “He was very disappointed in his performance,” coach Lawrence Frank recalled. “And when a guy is committed to the team, he wants to make amends.”

So here’s how a journeyman atones for a one-point, three-re bound dud: He attacks the game with his old vigor, throws up nine shots from inside and out, hits all nine, abuses Mark Blount for five offensive boards, makes two steals, helps hold Kevin Garnett to five measly field goals, acknowledges the crowd when it chants his name and helps carry the Nets back into first place in the Atlantic with a routine 100-92 triumph over the Minnesota Timberwolves at Continental Airlines Arena.

Yes, Mikki Moore.

“I’ll tell you what,” said Richard Jefferson, reduced to second-star status after playing 43 brilliant minutes, “Since I’ve been here, we’ve had a lot of success, and I can only remember three or four times when the crowd was chanting somebody’s name. That’s huge. Even the way things have gone this season, it shows the impact Mikki’s having on this team.”

He finished with a career-high 20 points and eight rebounds in 39 sterling minutes — a career night by any measure — and suddenly the Nets, while not having any unrealistic expectations, feel a lot bet ter about their starting lineup.

But Moore’s contribution wasn’t the only reason. Jefferson, despite the chronic pain in his right ankle, showed his old bounce and put up his old numbers (23 points, six rebounds, five assists), and together they showed that the Nets can control a game from start to finish and not always have to rely on the Jason Kidd/Vince Carter tandem to carry them every night.

Even the bench had its standouts — there were seven assists for Marcus Williams, nine quick points in the second quarter for Eddie House (chaining Carter to the bench for the last 10:36 of the first half) and a game-busting 3 for Boki Nachbar.

But only one guy heard his name chanted. And only one guy received an ovation in the postgame locker room from his teammates.

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