After years of lawsuits, the New Jersey Nets are finally officially on the road to becoming the Brooklyn Nets.

Current Nets Owner Bruce Ratner, Gov. David Paterson, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and partial-owner Jay-Z were among those that helped break ground on the Atlantic Yards project in Prospect Heights that will host the Nets starting in 2012.

As expected, the protests that have followed this project from the beginning were very vocal during the ceremony.  This time the crowd of residents and local businesses were holding a “funeral” for the “soul of Brooklyn”.  Their chanting could be heard throughout the ground breaking and police arrested several protesters.

But those protesters certainly didn’t dampen the spirits of Jay-Z.

“What I stand here and represent is hope for Brooklyn, New York City.  I’m a son of Brooklyn, I’m from Marcy Projects…  I think about growing up in Brooklyn… now to stand here as an owner of a team that is coming back to Brooklyn…  It brings me so much pride that I’mma get a little nervous about it, but I’m very happy, I’m very excited on this day.”

“We did it again, Brooklyn! Shout out to B.I.G.!” said the music mogul.

Check out Jay-Z’s entire speech here.

Crews have been working on the site since last fall and construction on the first apartment building is scheduled for the spring of 2011, but today marks the true first step towards a new day for the Nets.

And that new day will be in Brooklyn.

If they continue this amazing rate of winning, the Nets would finish the season with 15 victories, well past the infamous Sixers record of 9.

A few more nights of shooting like we saw at Madison Square Garden and New Jersey could quickly put any talk of history behind them.  The league’s second-to-last shooting team from three point range was good for nearly 60% against the Knicks.

With the season that Brook Lopez has put together, one of the biggest reasons for New Jersey’s terrible season has been their completely inability to stretch the court.  Against the Knicks they did just that with four different players sinking at least two shots from beyond the arc.

They keep up that kind of shooting and we might even see a — gasp — winning streak out of the Nets.

The problem with any thoughts of New Jersey improving their win rate is the upcoming schedule.  Four of their next five games are on the road with the Nets visiting Memphis, Dallas, Oklahoma City, Houston and Philadelphia.  Stuck in there is a match up at home against Atlanta.  Not a whole lot of winnable games in there.

Player of the Game: Courtney Lee

For what has to be the first time this season, you could make an argument for three different players to be in this spot.  Lee gets the nod because he is the one that put the Knicks away for good.

After the Nets had fought back from a 16-point deficit to take the lead from the Knicks in the second quarter and into halftime, New York came out in the third quarter with two quick baskets to get within 2 points.  But Lee would have no talk of New Jersey giving the lead back as he put up the next five points to help keep the Nets ahead the rest of the way.

The most shocking part of Lee’s night is that he kept getting open looks down the stretch.  When you are shooting at a 70% clip, usually you find a defender or two headed your way.  Lee was more than happy to take advantage of the open looks and help the Nets pick up their seventh win of the season.

Honorable Mention: Devin Harris

Judging from the post-game tweets and emails we received, it looks like most of you feel like Harris should be sitting in the big chair tonight and it’s hard to disagree.

He finished with 31 points, hit on 4 of 7 shot from three and delivered a highlight drive to the basket late in the game.  On that play he destroyed Danilo Gallinari and Al Harrington on his way to a circus shot that he made look effortless.

The more we see of this Devin Harris, the tougher decision new Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov will have when it comes to rebuilding this team over the summer.

Enemy of the State: David Lee

For some reason the New York Knicks have shown no desire to sign Lee to a long-term contract and I have to tell you, I just don’t get it.  Obviously covering the Nets I understand creating as much cap room as possible for the summer of 2010, but who wouldn’t want to play with Lee?  Even a big salary bump for Lee wouldn’t stop the Knicks from signing a max player plus one other second tier free agent.

I wondered during the game if maybe New Jersey could take a look at Lee.  The only question would be if Lopez and Lee could play together.  While Lee still has a ways to go defensively, he isn’t as bad as some people try to make him out to be while Lopez is good enough to make up for any shortcomings he does have.

There will be a lot of money to spend this summer and a lot of spots to fill.  There is a long way to go before then, but I hope New Jersey puts a call into Lee’s representatives if New York is going to once again try and push him to the back burner.

But as has been the case all season, it was that one pathetic quarter — the first — that the team could not recover from.  The Cleveland Cavaliers jumped out to a35-15 lead and never looked back on their way to a 111-92 victory over the lowly Nets.

However, unlike the Knicks, who just two days earlier completely rolled over for The King & Co. to the tune of a 49 point deficit, New Jersey tried to fight back throughout the game.

Other than keeping the effort level high after that terrible first quarter, there were other positives to take out of loss No. 54.  Not the least of which is some life out of their two youngest stars.  Both Terrence Williams and Chris Douglas-Roberts increased their aggressiveness to a point that should give Nets fans some hope that they just might see some progress from these guys this year.

CDR’s line of 3 of 10 (including 0-2 from three) from the floor for 10 points isn’t the story.  The fact he took that many shots is.  The last time Douglas-Roberts put up double digits shots was January 10th, a span of 23 games.  New Jersey’s search for offense will be a lot easier when the second-year wing gets his swagger back.

Williams, on the other hand, was clearly the star for the Nets when all the focus in the arena was on the Cavs superstar.

Player of the Game: Terrence Williams

We’ve talked about it before, but it bears repeating: when he doesn’t force shots and instead concentrates on facilitating the offense, Williams shows just how good he can be.  Too often this year he has shown terrible judgment when it comes to shot selection and that has carried over to his decision making with the ball.

While you like the turnovers (5) to be lower, it’s hard to argue with the game he played.  A career-high 21 points, team-high 7 assists and 5 rebounds.  On a night that Devin Harris put together a game as bad as New Jersey’s first quarter, Williams represented the next three.  By the time he hit the floor New Jersey was already in a 14 point hole, but played almost even during Williams’ time on the court.

It would be much more beneficial to this franchise if both Douglas-Roberts and Williams finished the rest of the season in the starting lineup with 30+ minutes a night.

Honorable Mention: Brook Lopez

With Shaquille O’Neal out of the lineup, there was no secret where the Nets were going with the ball.  Lopez has been the sole focus of the offense since Kiki Vandeweghe took over as head coach, but it was even more pronounced against the Cavs.  He took 18 shots for just the third time in the past three months.  Unfortunately for Lopez he only made 7 of those shots for his worst game from the floor since the first week in January.

Even with his shooting “woes” (I use that word lightly) Lopez still led the team in points and rebounds, continuing his incredible sophomore campaign that has been lost in the shuffle of a historically bad team record.

Enemy of the State: J.J. Hickson

The King is…  Well, King, but it was one of his servants that had a career game.  In just 27 minutes, Hickson put up a very impressive double-double of 20 and 13.  And he did his damage against the aforementioned Lopez who is from some scrub that bigs look forward to padding their stats against.

With more and more minutes about to come his way in Shaq’s absence, Hickson could turn out to be a huge factor for Cleveland down the stretch.

Logic would say there are at least 5 candidates: Tony Battie, Trenton Hassell, Jarvis Hayes, Chris Quinn and Bobby Simmons.  All of those players are veterans with expiring contracts that have little or no chance to still be in New Jersey after this season.

Unfortunately the Nets do not always deal in logic and that means you have to take Rod Thorn at his word when it comes to potential buyouts.

“I don’t have anything going on with any player right now,” he said.  “I have nothing at all; don’t anticipate anything either.”

How can he be serious?

Yes, a large part of a buyout is the player being willing to take less than they are owed and there’s no guarantee any of the Nets veterans would agree with that plan.  It comes down to how much a player will give up in their paycheck in order to have a chance at the playoffs.

It’s no secret that New Jersey is in no hurry to spend a dime more than they have to (Hello, Coach Vandeweghe!) so for each player they bought out they would have to save at least as much as each D-League replacement would cost.

That’s right, the Nets would rather take a chance at the all-time worst record in NBA history than spend a pro-rated version of the league minimum salary.

Who needs to give someone like Romel Beck or Reggie Williams (soon to be a Warrior) a chance when Bobby Simmons can sit on the bench for the remainder of the season.

This one easily could have been win No. 7 after they opened up a 14 point lead in the first quarter.  Unfortunately for the Nets, their opponent refused to be blown out by the worst team in the NBA.  Washington quickly chipped away at New Jersey’s lead and had it down to 7 by the end of the first quarter.

It looked like the Wizards would run away with the game in the fourth quarter when they went up seven with just under eight minutes left in the game.  But the “New” New Jersey Nets managed to fight back to take the lead with under 4 minutes to go before the “Old” New Jersey Nets emerged to let the Wizards take the lead right back.

The Nets are beyond judging the opponent they lose to and instead just need to focus on their effort for each game.  So even though no one will mistake the make-shift Wizards for the Boston Celtics, the effort on both Saturday and Sunday is the kind that New Jersey needs to show every night.

If the effort is there, the wins will come… At least enough to break double digits.

Player of the Game: Yi Jianlian

This is the Yi the Nets were looking for when they brought him to New Jersey.  When he’s on, Yi has never had a problem putting the ball in the basket, but it’s his rebounding and defense that has been inconsistent.

Against the Wizards he was tenacious going after rebounds, finishing with a career-high 19.  And while he was on the wrong side of the final two plays, it wasn’t due to a lack of focus defensively.  He was there in Randy Foye’s face as the guard nailed the game-deciding baskets over the 7-footer.

Honorable Mention: Devin Harris

Though he missed too many point blank shots, Harris continued his solid play of late.  Over the past five games he is averaging 21 points, nearly 10 assists and less than 4 turnovers.  Sunday night at the IZOD Center, Harris only shot 7 of 24 from the field but he pulled down 7 rebounds and dished out 14 assists.

If he stays healthy through the end of the season and the Nets don’t win the lottery, they are going to be faced with a very difficult decision regarding Harris.  More on that to come.

Enemy of the State: Randy Foye

Andray Blatche may have notched a career-high 36 points, but with the game on the line it was Foye that put a dagger in the heart of the Nets.  Not once, but twice, the Newark native nailed corner jumpers to seal the deal for Washington.  The first was with 44 seconds left and broke an 83-83 tie and the second pushed the lead to 4, which was the final margin of victory.

If their performance in Boston is any indication, that’s exactly what happened as the Nets beat the Celtics 104-96 for their sixth victory of the season.  They are now only three wins away from tying the 72-73 Philadelphia 76ers record of fewest wins in a season.

The Celtics were without Paul Pierce for the third straight game and the Nets took full advantage with an aggressiveness they haven’t shown all season.  It’s that aggressiveness that earned them 41 trips to the free throw line.  Center Brook Lopez knows this is the type of play the team has been looking for all year.

“A lot of the season we’ve been settling for jump shots at very inopportune times.  Tonight we were very assertive in trying to get to the basket and get the best possible shot we could.”

Lopez led the Nets parade to the charity stripe with 14 attempts, 3 more than the entire Boston team.

Unlike their other wins where they had to play nearly perfect to win, New Jersey overcame two poor performances from two starters: Trenton Hassell and Yi Jianlian.  If they can compete this was down the stretch of the season then they will fall into more than enough victories to break the double digit mark.

Player of the Game: Brook Lopez

New Jersey’s MVP of the season continued his fantastic sophomore campaign with 25 points, 7 rebounds and 2 blocked shots to go along with his 14 foul shots.

Throughout this dreadful season, Lopez has never been part of the problem.  With a little help — like he got from Devin Harris and Courney Lee against the Celtics — he can be a huge part of ending any idea that this Nets team is the worst in NBA history.

Honorable Mention: Courtney Lee

Like most of the team, Lee has had an issue with shot selection this season.  But tonight 7 for 12 from the field along with 2 of 3 from long range.  Along with Keyon Dooling (3-5 3-point range), Lee stretched the floor enough to allow Lopez to go to work all day long.

With unprecedented turnover expected in the offseason, Lee could be one of the few players that sticks around to see the Nets play in Newark.

Enemy of the State: Kevin Garnett

He might be in the midst of the worst season of his career, but he looked every bit the KG of old.  Garnett poured in 26 points, pulled down 9 rebounds and had two steals.

During the three games the Celtics have played without Pierce, Garnett is averaging 17.3 points and 9 rebounds.  For fantasy purposes, if the trading deadline hasn’t passed you can probably get a solid return on your investment if you can steal KG.

The New Jersey Nets are not most teams.

So there is nothing wrong with liking what they showed Tuesday night against the Blazers: late fight.  Even if the Nets ended up on the wrong side of the score — for the 52nd time this season — it’s something we have seen so rarely that you have to feel good about this weekend’s games against the Celtics and Wizards.

When the Nets nightly ho-hum performance hits early in the game it usually means a 30 point blowout.  But there they were putting together a 33-21 third quarter, putting the Blazers on warning that they would not go quietly into the night.

During a season that is still on track to make history for the least amount of wins, it’s not the losses that are hard to take.  It’s the deflating losses.

Show some emotion.  Refuse to lay down.  Give some glimmer of promise.

That’s exactly what the Nets showed, led by Courtney Lee, Devin Harris and Brook Lopez.

Player of the Game: Courtney Lee

I don’t expect to get 28 points from Lee on a regular basis, however when he is feeling it the way he was against the Blazers he needs to fire at least the 18 shots he took.  In fact, I would have gone so far as to let him play the entire 48 minutes.  You can’t run your players into the ground on a nightly basis, but when you have someone as hot as Lee on a team so desperate for offense you just let him go without a leash.

Honorable Mention: Devin Harris

We’ve talked about it before, but the Nets offense works best when Harris puts in a well rounded game.  Sure, he tied Lee for the game-high with 28 points, but he also had 5 assists, 4 rebounds and only one turnover in just 35 minutes on the court due to foul trouble.

Making his night that much more impressive, Harris played with the foul trouble for the entire second half.  He picked up his fourth foul late in the second quarter and didn’t get the fifth until the final minute of the game.

Enemy of the State: Andre Miller

Talk about a near flawless game.  Brandon Roy and LaMarcus Aldridge were both fantastic, but it was Miller keeping the whole team involved all without turning the ball over.  He also knocked down a huge 3 for Portland with about 3 minutes left in the game and New Jersey within five points.

Your two best players completely disappearing in the second half?

Showing bits of fight late just to fall short?

Losing to a team that had been 2-8 in their last 10 games?

All in a night’s work for the New Jersey Nets.

The Nets 104-94 loss to the Memphis Grizzlies was best described by guard Keyon Dooling.

“This has been the story of our year,” Dooling said.  “We have been good in stretches but not long enough to sustain 48 minutes, and if you don’t play 48 minutes in this league, you will lose.  We’re not good enough to take possessions off, or have a few bad possessions.  We can’t make up for it in the talent department or the experience department that good teams do.  We don’t have that luxury.  We have to be near flawless to win.”

New Jersey looked flawless in a 36 point first quarter that nearly ran the Grizzlies out of the gym.  But unfortunately for the Nets you have to play all four and their 18-point lead was down to 11 at half and gone by the end of the third quarter.

It would have been great to hear from the Nets center after the game, but much like his game in the second half, Lopez disappeared from the New Jersey locker room without meeting with reporters.

Player of the Game: Yi Jianlian

Though he sat early due to foul trouble and late due to Kiki Vandeweghe, Yi had a solid game when he was on the floor.  Playing on “An Evening of Chinese Culture”, Yi had 15 points and 4 rebounds in only 21 minutes.

Honorable Mention: Josh Boone

While Chris Douglas-Roberts remains stuck in DNP-CD world, Boone has now played in the last four games.  Against Memphis he scored 8 points and grabbed a team-high 9 rebounds including 5 on the offensive glass.

There was talk that Boone would be shipped out at the trade deadline, but now that he is in Jersey for at least the rest of this year he seems to be a part of Vandeweghe’s rotation (for now).

Enemy of the State: Rudy Gay

The restricted free agent-to-be said he would consider the Nets this offseason no matter what their record is, which is nice considering he was a big reason they now have loss No. 51 instead of win No. 6.  Along with OJ Mayo, Gay led an attack late in the third quarter and into the fourth that New Jersey had no answer for.

Gay is from Baltimore and played his college ball in Connecticut, so he knows all about life in the northeast which I imagine is part of why he would consider playing for the Nets.  The other (much bigger) part of his interest is that he hopes to convince some team — any team — to give him a max contract.  With only so many players available, there will be a team scurrying around after missing out on LeBron James, Dwyane Wade & Co. that will gladly overpay Gay.

The penalty for leaving their home since 1981 is $4 million dollars over two years, the result of breaking their lease.

The Prudential Center — known as “The Rock” — is located in downtown Newark and will house the Nets, Devils and Seton Hall basketball.

New Jersey Nets executive Brett Yormark praised the move to The Rock in a statement.

“Our planned interim relocation to the Prudential Center in Newark represents one of the many positive steps to take place for Nets Basketball during the next few months.  This temporary move not only gives our fans a state-of-the-art arena with the first-class amenities common in most NBA buildings, but also provides our players with a great atmosphere in which to play.

“Additionally, before we make our permanent move to Brooklyn, this interim relocation to Newark enables us to continue our goal to further regionalize the team, not only in Essex and Union Counties, but also in New York City due to the direct mass transit access available between Manhattan and the Prudential Center.  We are confident that the NBA family will see this as a positive move, as we do.  We look forward to being part of the community in Newark and will continue our extensive community outreach in the area.”

The News had previously played two games at the Prudential Center with both easily drawing more than their games at the IZOD Center.

Not of the Charlotte Bobcats have anything to say about it.

The New Jersey Nets picked up their fifth win of the season Tuesday night in Charlotte bringing their record at the start of the second half to 5-48.  But against the Bobcats they are now 2-1, with wins 1 and 5 coming at the expense of Larry Brown’s squad.

If soon-to-be Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov can pull enough strings, maybe New Jersey can just play out their remaining schedule against the Bobcats.  I know the Nets players wouldn’t have a problem with that move considering they seem to click in a different way against the Bobcats, who if the season ended today would be a playoff team.

We saw a new second unit that featured both Josh Boone and Chris Douglas-Roberts and was without Chris Quinn (DNP-CD) and Tony Battie (Illness).

While the Nets second unit has spent most of the season giving up the few leads New Jersey could muster, they mostly held their own against the scuffling Bobcats.

The Nets led almost wire-to-wire but were met with runs at the end of the first half, during the third quarter and at the end of the game.  And there were the New Jersey Nets — yes, THOSE New Jersey Nets — answering each Bobcats run and building the lead back up to 8 or 9 points.

I know this is the fifth time I’m saying this, but maybe this team has finally reached a tipping point and is ready to quickly wash away the idea that they will challenge the all-time record for futility in a season.

Maybe.

Player of the Game: Devin Harris

Can we bottle up this Devin and use him in games like against the Bobcats when Brook Lopez gets in foul trouble?  Harris showed just how good he can be, getting to the rim at will and getting everyone involved.  Unlike most of the year, he was rewarded for his efforts with 9 assists to go along with his 17 points and 6 rebounds.

Obviously the Nets need Lopez to show if they have any hopes to win, but they are their best when he and Harris are both playing at a high level.  It makes life much easier for players like Jarvis Hayes and Courtney Lee.  Most teams can start a trickle-down effect of solid play with three or four different players, but with the Nets it all begins and ends with Harris and Lopez.

Honorable Mention: Josh Boone

Not the most intimidating line: 7 points, 8 rebounds and 1 block.

But it was one of those rebounds that just may have saved this win for the Nets.  With just over a minute left and the Nets lead down to 5, Courtney Lee missed a long jumper.  But there was Boone getting a hand on the ball, pulling down the offensive rebound and kicking it out to Devin Harris.  New Jersey ran the shot clock down again and Jarvis Hayes put up an excuse me-three pointer to put the Bobcats away.

If Boone doesn’t grab that rebound and Charlotte turns it into a one possession game, I think most of us know the game would have ended much differently.

Enemy of the State: Gerald Wallace

The do-it-all forward for the Bobcats came into Tuesday’s game averaging over 42 minutes per game, but got into early foul trouble and was limited to 36 minutes.  Wallace hasn’t played that low of a minute total in nearly a month and still almost managed to bring his team all the way back.  His free throws in the final minutes closed the gap to 5 and on a night the Bobcats weren’t their strongest on defense, Wallace pulled down 10 rebounds and swatted 3 shots.

Charlotte hasn’t been able to solve the Nets, but it’s not for a lack of trying on Wallace’s part.