Starting lineup woes have Nets all tangled up

Their latest brutal defeat clinched something they never envisioned after they were assembled.

The Nets, featuring their league-record $101-million payroll, have struggled so badly through their first 48 games that they'll be no better than one game under .500 heading into the All-Star break. And that's only if they win all of their games during this stretch of three in five nights, beginning tonight against the Pelicans.

Deron Williams certainly didn't see this coming in any kind of crystal ball or fortune cookie.

"No," Williams said in a hushed voice following the Nets' loss to the Pistons Friday night. "Not at all. Not at all."

But here the Nets are at 22-26, a dazed and inconsistent mess as they inch toward the final months of what was easily the most highly anticipated season in franchise history. Just when people want to wrap their arms around them, figuring they've finally arrived, they've looked flat.

Last week, they needed a few buckets late to put away the 76ers, one of the worst teams in the league. They also had to fight back from a 12-point first-half deficit to pull out a win against a Spurs team missing four of their main players. And don't forget that embarrassing, lackadaisical effort in Detroit on Friday.

Other than that great stretch in January, when they had a pair of five-game winning streaks and were the league's hottest team on the strength of a 10-3 mark, the Nets have been on a yo-yo. They have been a study in inconsistency.

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"It's tough," Joe Johnson said. "It's mind boggling because we dug that hole in a way that we couldn't find the rhythm, so to speak. I thought we would get over .500. But now it seems like we've taken back steps and, man, it's like starting over. It's confusing."

Almost as puzzling as continuously deciphering who's in and who's out.

As fans arrive at the Barclays Center and see the huge picture of the Nets' season-opening starting five of Williams, Johnson, Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Brook Lopez greeting them, it's probably somewhat depressing. That quintet played a grand total of 90 minutes in 10 games together, due in part to Lopez's season-ending foot injury. That's it.

The Nets already have utilized 19 different starting lineups and 12 different players have started at some point this season. So no doubt, the whopping 101 games they've lost to injury surely hasn't helped. But the Nets' teeter-tottering personality is getting rather nauseating.

"It's kind of how our season has been," Pierce said. "Not only with the way it's going up and down, but with the way our injuries and guys we have in there night-in and night-out. We probably have had more different starting lineups than any team in the league. It's tough to be consistent when you don't have a healthy team and a roster of guys, week-in and week-out to try to develop that chemistry."

That seems to be even more apparent on those nights when Kevin Garnett is forced to take a seat to rest. In the six contests he's missed, the Nets are 1-5, so it's going to be imperative for them to quickly find a solution to that season-long flaw.

"It's tough. It's tough," Williams said. "Different lineups, people being in and out. It definitely affects us. But by now, you feel like we'd be used to it, used to the changes and the things like that. But it's unacceptable for a team of our nature, a veteran team. Even if we did get in late, don't have KG, we still should put forth a better effort than that. So we've got to be conscious of that."

Living it up

What a bargain Shaun Livingston is turning out to be. He's certainly proved he's all the way back from that 2007 gruesome leg injury that derailed his career.

Seems like every game of late, he's either matching a career high or establishing a new mark in some category. His confidence is soaring and his stat line against the 76ers on Monday -- 13 points, eight assists, seven steals, six rebounds -- was a prime example of his all-around effectiveness. The Nets have won 14 of the last 19 games he's started and opposing coaches are noticing Livingston.

"Shaun's been good," Pistons coach Maurice Cheeks said. "The way he's playing, he's playing at a high level. He can post up, he can run pick-and-roll. He does a lot of things well and Shaun has been through a lot. So for him to be playing the way he's playing, good for him because he's been through a lot. He's stayed with it, teams have stayed with it and he's given himself a chance. Teams have believed in him."