Justin Lane/EPAPure poetry, it was. . . .

Observations, bon mots, and fulminations from Nets 98, Kings 90:

Bill Kostroun/APTime to get nasty

Here's why you love this game: They could get the Devo Boost tonight and win in a walk against the third-worst team on the continent, or fall flat on their faces and lose by 20 if the Kings go 14-for-25 from deep like they did in Indy.

But here's the best part about it. This game will determine whether their defense is actually starting to come together - because the Kings have all those components that give them headaches - or whether we're just going to feel really stupid tonight for bringing it up.

We bring it up for one reason. In the last 12 quarters, your team has held opponents to 24 points or fewer 11 times.

For the second time this season, Devin Harris will be a scratch when the Nets play at the AAA here in Miami tonight.

It's a sore right hamstring, and if you watched the overtime last night against Atlanta -- when he had three of his eight turnovers, and could barely move -- you're not surprised.

Bad timing, this. Not like there's ever good timing when it comes to the loss of their leading scorer.

Tim Farrell/The Star-LedgerEveryone can agree that Yi Jianlian is not the next coming of Dirk Nowitzki. One reader thinks he's closer to being the next Keith Van Horn.

I wouldn't use him at the 3, MJ - as much as he is exposed by his lack of toughness, he'd be even more pitiable if he had to start chasing guys off screens, and he'd get murdered off the dribble on wing isos. The one thing he does passably well right now is rebound defensively, so it makes sense to keep him near the glass - until he stops getting his fair share, in which case you might have to stop playing him altogether. As for his post-up game, that isn't something we're going to find out about in the next year or so. His game is on the perimeter, and sooner or later, he's going to have a 5-for-7 night from deep that will probably get him back in a good groove for a few weeks. Problem is, it may be later than sooner, but again, much of this season was about living with his hiccups.

Tim Farrell/The Star-LedgerVince Carter is ready to put his confrontation with referee Derrick Stafford behind him.

The league has completed its investigation of the Vince Carter-Derrick Stafford incident in Detroit Wednesday, and ruled it a no-call.

The NBA dropped the matter today -- mostly because they have concluded that these are two adults who can work it out.

Jason E. Miczek/APYi: Someone please inform him that power forward is not always a finesse position.

Suddenly, these guys seem pretty lost. They're getting nothing from the four-spot, they can never win without shooting well, L-Frank keeps issuing the same platitudes about patience and growing pains, and unless something changes pretty soon they'll be four under sea level before the week is out.

The thing that we find most bizarre is this obsessive commitment to Yi lately. It's pretty clear that the kid has regressed in the last month - now he hits the wall in December, not January? - and if the coach is seeing something the rest of us are missing, we wish he'd share it.

His last 10 games -- 6.2 points on 30.2 percent, neither figure a misprint - aren't exactly what you can live with from a starter. He's still the softest finisher in the league, he's too timid for the position, and his confidence is shot. His offense has almost sunk to the level of his defense, which was already excruciating.

Bill Kostroun/AP

Young players, more often than not, are dumb players. There are exceptions. But by and large, there is a distinct difference between having physical talent and knowing how to play. One NBA head coach likes to call it his "NRA analogy."

It goes like this: "I can have a big gun that makes a lot of noise, which will scare the crap out of everybody," he told us the other day. "But if you don't have a sight on it, it ain't gonna hit (anything)."

That's basically what the Nets have in Sean Williams, which is why they're sending him across the country - to get a clearer vision on his target, whatever that may be. World-class hops don't make you a player. Power dunks don't make you a player. Working on your skills until every movement becomes automatic -- leaving your mind free for the nuances you have to master on every play - that makes you a player.

P.T. Barnum used deception. That didn't make him a bad person -- he was a fervent abolitionist, a philanthropist who founded hospitals and bankrolled great universities -- but he'll always be remembered as an ingenious manipulator of truths. That was his thing.

Like the time he bought a truckload of unmarketable white salmon, then sold it at a huge increase by sticking a label on it that read, "Absolutely guaranteed not to turn pink in the can." Pure genius, don't you think?

"I never read about him," Brett Yormark said.

Aristide Economopoulos/The Star-LedgerLarry Brown says Devin Harris' name can be mentioned among those of the best young point guards in the NBA.

The merits of the Devin Harris-Jason Kidd trade will be discussed until the last gong of eternity, but for one connoisseur of the basketball arts, the final verdict was rendered when he witnessed Harris and the Nets humiliate the Mavericks by 24 points last Friday.

"I just saw Cuban's face," Larry Brown said with a laugh, referring to the grim visage of Dallas owner Mark Cuban that night. "They showed it on SportsCenter. I thought that covered it all."

No disrespect to Kidd, the Charlotte Bobcats coach quickly added as he sat on the opposing bench at Izod Center an hour before tipoff Friday night. Brown reveres Kidd, regards him as one of the best point guards to ever play the game, and he is quick to point out that the Mavs' point guard "is playing great" this season.

Dave: Despite the 13-14 record, with many new players and rookies, this was always said to be a rebuilding year. As the first third of the season is nearly over, I'm very interested in your take on that progress on a team and individual level. Also, how do you translate that extrapolated growth into the Nets team of the future (ie, as playoffs approach and as the 2009-10 team)? Oriel Newman

Oriel: I'd say they're moving along very nicely, and that there is no longer any excuse NOT to make the playoffs. And that's all based on what the competition is doing. Consider: There are three great teams in the East, and one really good one (Atlanta). Detroit will eventually turn its season around. Philly will eventually turn its season around. So those are six teams that, in the end, will probably be in the playoffs. And that leaves the Nets in a fight with Miami, Milwaukee, and Chicago for the last two spots. I'm dropping Toronto from contention because I think they've gone bust: They've lost 17 of 24, and there are just too many ominous signs of a potential meltdown -- they still don't have a quality wing who can carry the offense, they have C-minus depth, Bosh's numbers have faded since the coaching change, etc. etc. Let's also drop Indy from the mix because of injuries, and not even a return from Dunleavy in January will make them defend anybody - even though the Pacers have played better than their record. And we'll drop the Knicks and Bobs just out of habit.

William Perlman/The Star-Ledger4.7. . . .5.2. . . .5.6. . . .not happening.

It looks like that offer sheet Nenad Krstic received this morning from Oklahoma City is valued at $15.58M over three, starting with $4.78 million for the first year.

In which case the Nets will say, "Enjoy your new gulag."

They have seven days to make up their minds, but the initial reactions in-house are a near-unanimous thumbs-down.

Yes, he would have fit in very nicely with this offense, and yes, there was a time in the pre-ACL days that we all thought he was headed for a 6-and-50 payday for his prime years.

William Perlman/The Star-LedgerThe consummate leader and teacher -- for all of us.

Somebody asked to see this yesterday, and we figured the timing was good -- it's a column from the climax of the 10-game winning streak during the '03 postseason.

It not only encapsulates the man you will honor tonight, it also evokes memories of the Nets' defining moment, and recalls -- in a small way -- how much J-Kidd thought of Rodney Rogers, who deserves some good karma right about now.

Reprising it from the May 26th, 2003 Star-Ledger:

Rick Scuteri/APThey communicate better than most married couples

Trenton Hassell, who could go on one of those talent shows billed as The Man Whom Nothing Bothers, is the 10th man in a nine-man rotation. No problem, he says.

He can go a week without playing, then get thrown into the mix on a moment's notice. Piece of cake, he says.

He can play well one night and still get benched for no reason other than a coach's whim. Whatever the man wants, he says.

William Perlman/The Star-LedgerRod Thorn, above, thinks the absence of Jarvis Hayes has hurt the Nets.

Just got off the phone with Rod Thorn, who doesn't sound quite as upbeat as he did a week ago. A three-game losing streak will do that to anybody.

Still, he opens with this: "I thought we played with a lot of energy in Chicago - we played hard, but we just couldn't stop anyone in the last three minutes of the game," he said. "With 2:40 (left), we still led, and then we lost by nine. We just didn't get a stop in the last three minutes, which was bad. Against Toronto, we obviously played terribly; and against the Knicks, we just couldn't stop anybody again."

Does he think that defenses have started to figure them out?

Bill Kostroun/Associated PressVince Carter watches from the bench in the fourth quarter during the Nets' 101-79 loss to the Raptors.

The bright side (if you want to call it that) was this particular game (if you want to call it that) wasn't played in Toronto, where Vince Carter's performance might have caused serious injury - the inevitable result of 20,000 paying customers falling all over each other in hysterics.

Just the same, regardless of venue, this one was just so off-the-charts bad, it was almost funny.

And that's despite the fact there was nothing else humorous about the Nets' latest Izod debacle, a 101-79 mauling they took from the Raptors, who held Carter without a single field goal.