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The Nets left today for their longest trip of the season, liking their chances for success out west. It's hard to blame them considering home hasn't been where the wins are.

They have the same amount of road wins as home wins - 9 - and have played eight fewer games.

The opponents on this six-game, 10-night trip run the gamut from the best and worst teams to the best and worst offensive teams. Overall, there are several winnable games on this trip, depending on which Nets' team, which Vince Carter and which Richard Jefferson show up.

THE BREAK DOWN:

Los Angeles Clippers (11-23)
• 25th worst record in the league.
• Commentary: They're the worst offensive team in the league (92.7) and second-worst shooting team; yet out-shot and outscored the Nets last month.

Phoenix Suns (27-12)
• Best record in the West; Third-best in the NBA.
• Commentary: The highest-scoring team (109.7) and the best shooting team (48.9 percent) give up the fourth-most points (104.7). Former Sun Jason Kidd has yet to lead the Nets to a win in Phoenix. The Nets have lost 13 consecutive times here.

Sacramento Kings (15-22)
• 22nd worst record in the league.
• Commentary: They allow 102.2 points, seventh worst in the league, but held the Nets to 101 in a Kings' win at Izod. Maybe someone will guard John Salmons and Francisco Garcia in this game.

Golden State Warriors (23-17)
• Eighth-best record out West; would be No. 4 in the East.
• Commentary: They score 108.5 points, second to the Suns, and give up 107.2, which is the highest yield. The Nets held them to 95 in a win in East Rutherford after the Warriors had a few off nights enjoying all Manhattan has to offer.

Denver Nuggets (23-15)
• No. 7 team out West; would be No. 3 in the other conference.
• Commentary: They average the fourth-highest output (107.2) and they allow the sixth-most points (104.2). It's always an interesting game because of Kenyon Martin and there's more intrigue with former Nuggets GM Kiki Vandeweghe now with the Nets.

Minnesota Timberwolves (5-32)
• Worst team on the planet.
• Commentary: They score 92.9 points, which sadly is just a shade under the Nets' average, and give up 102.4. If the Nets lose this game, they may not want to come home.

PLAYERS TO WATCH
Kidd needs three triple-doubles for 100. He's shooting for it out here.

GAMES TO WATCH
Watch them all on YES, except for the Golden State game, which is on TNT. But the Suns' game should be fun, Kidd's return to the Bay Area, and the Nuggets' game with Martin and all the firepower the Nuggets.

KRSTIC WATCH
Nenad Krstic will take part in shootarounds and may do other some contact work for the first time since he was shut down in November. He's next expected to play on the trip, but if all goes well, shortly thereafter.

PREDICTION
The Nets went 3-1 on their last west trip. We're guessing they're going to have the same amount of wins this time.

QUOTEBOOK
"We have an opportunity here. We have six games. We didn't think we were going to do as well on that last trip. It didn't start off too well. We did quite well. We're full of surprises. Hopefully we can have a better trip the last time we went out West. If that's the case, we'll come back .500."
- Kidd

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WEDNESDAY, January 16: Posted at 11:54 p.m. ET

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Jason Kidd tried to be diplomatic after the Nets handed the Knicks a game last night. I'm not sure I would have been as kind and I won't here.

The Nets were up 16, in their building, on a team that Kidd has owned and in the last game before a long road trip. No way should it have been a nail-biter at the end, and no way should it have been the Nets that were fighting to get over the top.

Instead of the Nets closing out the Knicks, they closed out their homestand with an inexcusable 111-105 loss.

Sure, teams make runs and they come back. But the Nets are supposed to be the better team and should have made the plays to stop the proverbial bleeding. Instead, they let the Knicks go on a 47-25 run over a span just shy of 14 minutes. And then a 14-2 spurt over a 4:19 stretch.

Someone has to step up and hit a shot, get a stop, get a series of stops. No one did, but the Nets fought late and made a run late, and Kidd tried to focus on them.

"You can look at it two ways: that we gave it away or they took it," Kidd said. "We had a big lead. We had an opportunity to build on that in the first half and unfortunately we didn't.

"They came out with the energy and made shots. They got to the free throw line in the third quarter. We got to the free throw line, but we didn't make free throws. That's something we've got to look at too. We're down [15] with nine minutes left and we fight to tie the game up."

The late-game run was impressive. The Nets actually led. But where was the Nets' killer instinct before that? It shouldn't have come down to Kidd shooting a game-tying three with 39 seconds left.

OK, the Nets let the Knicks have a run to end the first half and get within three. But not too long ago, the Nets would have jumped on the Knicks early in the second half and as if to say, you're not winning this game.

Instead, the Knicks' big men took over until Jamal Crawford decided it was his turn to hit every tough shot and every big one, including the three with 59.9 left that gave the Knicks the lead for good.

"The Knicks didn't wilt," coach Lawrence Frank said when asked where the Nets' killer instinct was. "I don't think it was a lack of putting them away."

I certainly do and many of the people in IZOD not chanting "New York Knicks," felt the same way.

STATS OF THE GAME
• Kidd was responsible for 12 of the Nets' first 13 field goals with 10 assists and two baskets.
• The Nets' 33 first-quarter points were a season high for a first period. They had 12 in the first Monday against Portland.
• The 33 points in the first were one fewer than they scored in the first half last game.
• There was a 31-point swing in the Knicks' favor and a 16-point swing for the Nets.
• The Nets were outscored 93-72 in the final three quarters.
• The Nets are 0-3 against the Knicks, and lost the season series for the first time since 1999-2000.
• The last time the Nets lost both games here to the Knicks was the 1994-95 season.

STAR OF THE GAME
Crawford scored 21 of his 35 points in the fourth quarter and 29 in the last 28 minutes.

QUOTEBOOK
"We came out with the right energy. We came out with the right intent. Then Jamal Crawford got hot, started hitting some very big shots. Their bigs got into a groove. They've been playing well of late. It's never been for a lack of talent. No one's ever said the Knicks don't have enough talent. People question their teamwork. Last few games they've been playing together. They're tough when Jamal's 6 of 10 on three, hitting some tough shots and their bigs got it going. They're tough to contain."
— Richard Jefferson the game

"We slowed down. We didn't keep the pace. So in that sense we didn't score like we did in the first quarter. They started getting confident there at the end of the second quarter. All of a sudden we found ourselves down. We had some great shots that didn't go in and they made some tough shots. You make some. You miss some. But you just keep playing. I had a great look there at the end that I thought was in to tie the game up. They made shots and we didn't. That happens."
— Kidd on what happened after the first quarter

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MONDAY, January 14: Posted at 5:38 p.m. ET

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — The Nets should have been done with the slow starts, where energy and effort are their problems.

They should have been focused after their disappointing loss to the NBA's best team, the Celtics, on Friday and tried to take it out on the NBA's hottest team, the Blazers, on Monday.

The Nets, instead, took a step backward. They reverted back to the Nets of several weeks back. They were down 11 less than eight minutes into the game and were blown out 99-73 by the Blazers.

If you want, you can't say it's just one loss. But there is definitely danger in that since after winning seven-of-eight, the Nets have lost three times in four games. The Nets knew the Blazers are a young team, that plays zone, and plays hard, and is having fun sneaking up and surprising everyone.

The problem is the Nets should not have been snuck up on or surprised. This team won 17-of-19 coming in, and should have had the Nets' attention. This was the type of game the Nets had to be ready for from the beginning.

But this game mirrored some of the Nets' earlier season losses. They started 2-for-11 and let the Blazers shot 9-for-15. Before we go on, chew on this: the Blazers played a double-OT game Sunday in Toronto. The Nets were off Saturday and were down practicing by noon yesterday.

They should have been rested and ready. Now, that doesn't mean they necessarily would have won the game. But the effort wasn't there and if not for Malik Allen's 17 points on 8-of-14 shooting, this would have been a little worse than the Nets' third-most lopsided loss of the season.

As a team, the Nets shot 26-for-77 and no starter had more than three field goals. The first unit was 12-for-47.

"It's hard to explain," coach Lawrence Frank said. "I'm going to take responsibility because obviously we were not prepared. We didn't come in [ready].

"First step is coming into compete. Second step is we were inept against their zone. Third step is we were very, very poor defensively. Outside of Malik, Boki [Nachbar], was 3-for-7, but to start the game we weren't ready to play.

"We were poor against the zone. We were poor defensively. We struggled guarding high pick-and-rolls. We allowed guys to get in the paint. This was a poor performance on everyone's part."

The Nets dipped below .500 again with this loss, their third in four games. Perhaps it was fitting since they looked like the team that sat under .500 for most of November and December.

STATS OF THE GAME
• Jefferson, Carter and Kidd combined to shoot 7-for-33 and score 29 points.
• Before Kidd hit a three with 2:05 left in the first half, the Nets' Big Three were 0-for-12.
• Before Kidd hit that three, the Nets went 16:40 without a starter making a field goal.
• The Nets shot 4-for-19 in the first and were outscored 25-12. Going back to the fourth period against Boston, they were 7-of-38 and outscored by 27 points in those two periods.
• The Nets' starters scored 16 points in the first half - the same as Blazers' forward LaMarcus Aldridge.
• Portland's starters outscored the Nets' 56-41.

STARS OF THE GAME
Aldridge and Roy got the Blazers rolling scoring 18 points to the Nets' 12 in the first period. They finished with 20 and 16 respectively.

QUOTEBOOK
"We didn't execute and execution falls on me because we played around that zone a lot. We never got in the middle. But just for us to come out like that, it starts with me. I don't want to take anything away from Portland who's played as well as anyone in the league, but that was an unacceptable performance."
• Frank on the game.

"I guess they came out with a big punch, a lot of energy from beginning to end. They shoot the ball extremely well. Their bigs, they run a lot of misdirections, get Aldridge the ball in different situations on the floor. He shot the ball well. James Jones of course is a great shooter. Brandon Roy is an emerging star who is playing with a lot of confidence and they put that all together in the first quarter and kept going from there.
• Carter on the Blazers' attack

"I just look it as one game. I think it's a very, very disappointing game in the sense that we never gave ourselves a chance. To have a home game, despite it being against a very good team, you at least want to give yourselves a chance. We were out of that game [early]. It's hard to take when were non-competitive, basically, and that we never really put ourselves in position to win the game. So for this game, not looking at the stretch prior or ahead, it was a very, very poor performance.
• Frank on whether the Nets are slipping

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Al Iannazzone covers the Nets for The Record (Bergen County, N.J.)

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SUNDAY, January 13: Posted at 5:38 p.m. ET

EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — The Nets drafted Josh Boone out of necessity in 2006, but he wasn't the first big man on their wish list.

They wanted his college teammate Hilton Armstrong and tried to move up to get him. Their second choice was Cedric Simmons. Armstrong went 12 and Simmons 15 so at 23 the Nets filled their need and grabbed Boone.

This season, Boone has filled the Nets' need for scoring and rebounding inside with Nenad Krstic rehabbing from left ACL surgery. And Boone has passed Armstrong and Simmons in his development.

Boone, coming off a 14-point, 16-rebound game against Boston Friday, has 82 more points and 70 more rebounds than Armstrong and Simmons combined on the season.

You may have seen some of the stories today and what Richard Jefferson said about his young teammate.

When we asked Josh if he knew, he joked, "Do I want to? Probably not."

It was good, Josh.

"Josh, in the next year or two, should develop into one of the best rebounders in the NBA," Jefferson said. "He should.

"Yes, he has been playing great over the last few games but Josh should be a double-digit rebounder for the most part for the rest of his career. And if he continues the work, stays healthy and continues to play hard, he should be a double-double guy."

Boone, who worked on his free-throw shooting with new Nets' executive Kiki Vandeweghe on Saturday, sounded flattered to hear that, and now has the challenge and added pressure to live up to Jefferson's high praise.

In his first 12 starts of his NBA career, Boone has had three double-doubles, nearly is averaging one, and has helped the Nets to an 8-4 record those games. He takes a 10.3-point and 8.8-rebound average as a starter into tomorrow night's game against the Blazers.

Boone has made some significant strides, especially considering he missed all of training camp last season and part of this season with different injuries. And his numbers are significant when you consider what the Nets usually get from their big men.

Last season, the Nets had eight double-doubles from a big man. Krstic had five in 26 games before tearing his ACL. Mikki Moore had two and Boone had one off the bench. The year before, Krstic had 12 in 80 games. In those two seasons, no Net big grabbed more than 14 boards.

"I know that I can rebound," Boone said. "I know that I can get in there and mix it up."

The Nets need that.

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