MIAMI –- The Nets’ season ends here, fittingly. It’s one of the places their season ended before it really began.

Miami ranks right behind Minneapolis in that regard. Both places are where the Nets saw their season and any chance having success blow up. Both games ended in last-second shots.

If the Nets beat the Wolves in the opener, they don’t set the record for most losses to start a season. If Dwyane Wade doesn’t bury them in Game 10, then Lawrence Frank still would be coaching, which cannot be minimized.

Honestly, the young players would have gotten more out of this season if they had a coach coaching them. But if it means the Nets wind up with the No. 1 or No. 2 pick -– John Wall or Evan Turner -– then fans and members of the organization won’t care about those losses or the decisions that helped them get there.

It doesn’t mean much to Frank or some of the players who went through the most difficult professional seasons of their lives, though. Especially since many of them won’t be back and be able to reap the benefits of playing with an improved team.

But just think for a second how different this season would have gone if the Nets won one or both of those games. Here’s one thing you can take as a guarantee –- they wouldn’t have finished with the worst record in the NBA. The Timberwolves would have.

The fact that the Nets lost to them twice should be reason enough for them to win the Lottery. The NBA should up the Nets’ chances. Twenty-five percent isn’t enough.

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The Nets won’t have Keyon Dooling or Jarvis Hayes tomorrow. The two classy professionals are out with groin and ankle injuries, respectively.

You wish their season, and likely their Nets’ careers, didn’t end this way. But it’s also fitting since their absences -- due to injury during the formative stages of this season -- left the Nets devoid of quality players and leadership. If Hayes and Dooling were healthy from the start, the Nets wouldn’t have had as bad a season as they did.

Hayes will be an unrestricted free agent and if Dooling is waived by June 29, the Nets would save $3.3 million and be able to use it on LeBron, Wade, Boozer, Amar'e, David Lee or Rudy Gay, depending on who takes it.

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There really is no significance tomorrow other than the Nets want to avoid a 70th loss.

That said, guys like Bobby Simmons, Tony Battie and Trenton Hassell -– veterans who have been nothing but professional -– should get some court time. They deserve it.

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A final note on the Nets’ last game at the Meadowlands last night: We enjoyed the video of the Nets’ first win and thought the montage of spectacular plays was great. We also thought it was classy to give the long-time NJSEA employees a video tribute.

But the Nets should have tried to bring back some former players and they should have had more of those montages. Aside from the third quarter when the Nets tried to make sure they didn’t end on a losing note, the montage -– particularly with Springsteen’s “Born to Run,” playing over it –- was the best part of the game.

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