Start with the bad news for the Nets: With just about 80 percent of their season complete, they sit at 27-39, a dismal 12 games under .500.
Now for the good news: Despite being 12 games under .500, the Nets are 2.5 games out of the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
It’s hard to believe the Nets haven’t been eliminated with the way they have scuffled through this season, playing far below even the modest preseason expectations. But they haven’t, and now they enter into what easily is the most important week of their season.
Over the next seven days, the Nets will play the teams in sixth, ninth, eighth and 10th place in the Eastern Conference: home against the Bucks Friday, at the Pacers Saturday, home against the Celtics Monday and at the Hornets Wednesday. (The Celtics and Pacers have identical records at 30-37, and the Celtics currently own the tiebreaker for eighth place.)
The stretch will determine whether the Nets make a run at a playoff spot or spend the final three weeks playing out the string.
“Everything is in our hands, and we’re fighting for our playoff lives,” Thaddeus Young said after Wednesday’s loss in Cleveland. “We have to go out there, be aggressive, stay focused and try to get wins.”
The Nets had been feeling better after victories over the hapless Sixers and Timberwolves, but things quickly came back to Earth against the Cavaliers, who blew out the Nets with a brilliant second quarter behind an excellent performance from LeBron James.
But there isn’t a LeBron James on any of the Nets’ four upcoming opponents. The Bucks and Pacers are missing arguably their best players in Jabari Parker and Paul George, respectively, due to injury.
Both teams are also reeling. The Bucks have lost four in a row. The Pacers, who play the Cavaliers on Friday in Cleveland, likely will have lost four in a row by the time they meet the Nets.
The Nets are aware they control their own destiny to some extent.
“We kind of do,” Deron Williams said. “Even Milwaukee … it would be tough to catch them (the Bucks are six games ahead), but they’re in front of us.
“These games are huge games for us, and I hope we realize that.”
If the Nets can take advantage of matchups with their direction competition, the Nets could still find a way to salvage a playoff berth, a small blessing in a season that hasn’t had many of them.
“This is the stretch run for us,” Joe Johnson said. “We have two important games back-to-back, with Milwaukee and Indiana.
“Those are games we can’t lose if we’re going to try to do something. … Those are games we cannot lose.”