Nets Have Learned One Big Lesson

Dear Shaquille,

Hope you’re enjoying your vacation. We’re fine. We hear Nick Van Exel still recommends Cancun. And there ‘s always Tahiti, Cannes or Maui.

Anywhere but here.

Much love,

The Nets.

Appropriately enough, the challenge of representing the Little East goes to the New Jersey Nets, who were in the NBA Finals last spring too, if only for the four games it took the Lakers to sweep them in what has become the traditional West walkover.

Of the 20 Finals games since the Bulls folded their dynasty in 1998, the West has won 16. Only one East team -- the Indiana Pacers -- has won two games, and that was after the Lakers led, 3-1, in 2000.

Officials from East teams insist that O’Neal exaggerated the difference between conferences, which was undoubtedly true.

It’s also true that differences remain, with the West possessing almost all of the best big men, so it’s appropriate too that the Nets prove themselves against the game’s No. 2 giant, San Antonio’s Tim Duncan.

Ten consecutive playoff victories show that the Nets are as ready as they’ll ever be, and five playoff losses in which the Spurs blew double-figure leads show that if you take Duncan away, they’re beatable

The Spurs remain favorites. The Nets may be good enough to beat the new over-under of one win by the East team but must do more to make this a real series.

At this level, experience is important and especially Net Coach Byron Scott’s experience last spring, when, according to the teachings of his mentors, Pat Riley and Larry Brown, he tried to single-cover O’Neal.

This is another difference. East teams -- such as the Nets, Riley’s Miami Heat and Brown’s old Philadelphia 76ers -- dare to try that with O’Neal, although no one in the West does, having learned the hard way that it doesn’t work against someone as dominant as Shaq.

Scott learned too, as O’Neal averaged 37 points and shot 60%. This spring, Scott says, the Nets will bring as much help as they need to contain Duncan.

“I’m definitely not waiting until Game 3 to start changing up on him if I have to,” Scott said. “But you can’t give him a steady diet of one thing.”

Scott’s challenge is having to change his straight-up regular-season defense, yet another East problem.

In 2000, Indiana Pacer Coach Larry Bird quickly grasped the futility of trying to cover O’Neal with one man, which was how Indiana had played all season, and tried switching to double-teaming, rotating on the fly.

That didn’t work, either. O’Neal averaged 38 that spring and shot 61%.

There may come a day when the East has tall stars too, but its biggest and most promising teams, Indiana and Chicago, are young and in their infancy, respectively.

Meanwhile, the current two-time East champion is good but smallish, with 6-8 3/4 Kenyon Martin at power forward going against the 6-11 Duncan, and 6-10 1/4 Jason Collins lining up on the 7-1 David Robinson at center.

Also appropriately, the Nets are perpetual darkhorses, orphans in their own Gotham hinterland. Posting their second successive stellar season, they were still No. 23 in attendance and, even as their postseason winning streak climbed, they sold out only three times. Guard Lucious Harris suggested selling tickets door to door, “like the Girl Scouts.”

Of course, this is a different time in New York, with the Knicks comatose, the Yankees and Mets struggling and local pride held up by only the Nets and the NHL Devils, Jerseyites both.

If the Nets don’t prove how untenable the Meadowlands is, the Devils do. An authentic power with two Stanley Cups since 1995, the Devils still draw so indifferently, goalie Martin Brodeur recently suggested finding a smaller venue.

“I don’t like that we have 13,000 die-hard fans,” Brodeur told the Washington Post, “but we still have a reputation that this is the worst place to play hockey. With a smaller rink, they’d get more credit for how they support us. We have to realize we’re in over our heads a little bit.”

NBA Commissioner David Stern, betraying his impatience with the black hole in his backyard, told the New York Times that he’d grade the Nets’ game operations -- special effects, cheerleaders, etc. -- as “Needs improvement,” adding if no arena deal with Newark was forthcoming, “Clearly there is no shortage of boroughs in New York.”

Clearly, there is no shortage of challenges for the Nets, who must seize the momentous opportunity that presents itself.

No less than George Steinbrenner, who has a titular stake in the Nets from their partnership in the YankeeNets broadcast partnership, recently told USA Today’s Ian O’Connor, “I think we’ve got a real shot to win it all.”

By “we,” he meant the Nets, as opposed to his own Yankees, whom he has recently taken to referring to as Manager Joe Torre’s team.

Steinbrenner is rarely seen at Net games and, if he concentrates, may be able to remember if a basketball is blown up or stuffed. Of course, he’s typically full of advice, although in this case, he may not be able to fire everyone who ignores it.

He wants Scott to play old, creaky but 7-foot Dikembe Mutombo, perhaps missing the fact that he was so inept in the Nets’ motion offense with his bad hands and slow reads, Scott has played him 33 minutes all postseason. It may be news to Steinbrenner, but parts in basketball are not as interchangeable as in baseball

On the ominous side, and there’s always one, there’s a backstage tug-of-war going on within YankeeNets between the Net owners and Devil boss Lou Lamoriello, the autocrat who was put in charge of both teams, making him the one who now must explain why they still can’t draw flies.

Steinbrenner is backing Lamoriello, a leader in his own image, suggesting he’d even take him into the Yankee organization. That would be just dandy with the Nets, who must have a player-friendly face when Jason Kidd reaches free agency July 1.

Kidd, who used to speak at length whenever these teams met about playing alongside Duncan, now maintains a no-comment posture, but that doesn’t mean the issue has gone away, any more than the Nets’ tradition or their problems.

For the next two weeks, or less, it will just be about basketball. The Nets are the underdogs, but when you’ve endured all they have, this is a relief.