There have been many strange things about this inaugural Nets season in Brooklyn. But the strangest may be the fact that despite a tumultuous season including various ups and downs — from long winning streaks to nearly as long losing skids, from a coach winning Coach of the Month honors one month to being dismissed the next — the Nets are right about where they should be.
When this season began, nearly all preseason predictions — ours included — had the Nets winning 45 to 50 games and finishing in one of the top four or five spots in the Eastern Conference standings. Despite all of the drama surrounding the Nets this season, that's exactly where they are: fourth in the Eastern Conference, 2 1/2 games behind the Knicks for second in the Atlantic Division — and on pace for 48 wins.
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[A] Brook Lopez: Deservedly headed to Houston after a terrific first half of the season, Lopez has been terrific and easily the best player on the Nets.
Though they are right on schedule, that doesn't mean things have gone according to plan.
"It's been OK," said Joe Johnson, who is averaging 17.0 points in his first season as a Net. "We're not quite where we thought we would be, but a lot has transpired in the first half of this season. Right now, we're OK, but we have a lot of work to do."
The Nets have often been baffled by the way their season has twisted and turned over the first few months. After their 11-4 November earned Avery Johnson honors as Coach of the Month, a 3-11 start to December led owner Mikhail Prokhorov to remove Johnson and replace him with interim coach P.J. Carlesimo. The Nets then went on another hot streak, only to recently slip in losing six of nine games.
Much of that has fallen on the shoulders of Deron Williams, who missed the final two games before the break after receiving platelet-rich plasma treatment to relieve inflammation in the joint linings in both of his ankles. But the star point guard's struggles to live up to the nearly $100 million deal he signed last summer do not completely explain away the Nets' on-again, off-again efforts through the first 53 games of the season.
"I'm still trying to figure it out with this team," Gerald Wallace said Wednesday with a smile after the Nets beat the Nuggets in Brooklyn to end the first half of the season. "You walk into the locker room and you never know what you're going to get.
"[Tonight's win] just shows when we come to play and everybody's playing, the ball's moving and we're talking on defense? We're pretty hard to beat."
The Nets also have been hard to beat when Brook Lopez is on the floor, going 29-17 in games Lopez has played. After spending virtually all of last season on the bench with a pair of injuries to his right foot, Lopez has made huge leaps forward this season — leading all centers in scoring and improving his defense — to the point where he earned a deserved trip to Houston this weekend for the All-Star Game.
"I've been somewhat amazed that he has such soft touch around the basket," Joe Johnson said. "To be 7-foot and do some of the things that he's doing … I think he's probably the only 7-footer in the game with the touch that he has."
The Nets have a chance to improve on their current standing in the Eastern Conference with 16 of their final 29 games against opponents currently with losing records. But that won't mean much if the Nets do not find a way to snap out of a season-long, inconsistent pattern.
"Everybody knows the potential we have as a team," Wallace said, "but you can't give us the benefit of the doubt if we keep playing for two games and then we [don't] for two games.
"We have to come out and get rid of this having a good streak and then having a bad streak. We have to get more consistent. We understand that we're not going to win every game, but we have to get more consistent in our offense and defense."
tbontemps@nypost.com
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