PORTLAND, Ore. — The red-hot Nets still are stuck in fourth place in the Eastern Conference, and are 2 1/2 games behind the Knicks and Pacers for second place.
Getting past one of those teams would allow the Nets to avoid the Heat — who easily swept the Nets in the three meetings between the two teams this season — until at least the Eastern Conference Finals.
But, to do so, the Nets, who pounded the Trail Blazers 111-93 last night, still need to make up three games in the loss column on the Knicks and two on the Pacers, who both won last night, with just 11 games remaining in the regular season.
"I mean, it's going to be tough," Deron Williams said. "It's going to be tough. Two-and-a-half games back early in the season isn't a big deal, but now with this amount of games left, you have to win a lot of games and then hope for some help.
"New York's not giving any help right now. It seems like every time we drop one, it seems like that's when they lose theirs, or win one."
Though the specter of having to face the streaking Heat, who had their 27-game winning streak snapped last night against the Bulls, is something everyone in the East wants to avoid as long as possible, but Nets interim coach P.J. Carlesimo said it's going to happen at some point.
"You've got to play them," Carlesimo said. "They're not going to be more tired in the third round. The only reason to avoid them is to hope that somebody else is going to knock them off. There's two chances for somebody else to knock them off.
"But I think the reality, for most of us, is that it goes through Miami. If you're going to win the East, you're going to have to go through Miami."
* Last night's game at the Rose Garden brought back many fond memories for Carlesimo, because Portland gave him his first NBA head-coaching job after hiring him away from Seton Hall in 1994.
Carlesimo coached the Trail Blazers for three years, making the playoffs in all three, and remembered the day Portland played its first regular season game inside the arena on Nov. 3, 1995, a 92-80 loss to the Vancouver Grizzlies.
"Every person in the organization had a screwdriver and a wrench and we were bolting seats down," Carlesimo said. "I think we played at 7 in those days, and [we were working on it] at 6:10."
tbontemps@nypost.com
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