NEWARK, NJ -- This is how far the Nets have come in a short period of time: they opened the season 2-2 and are upset that they aren't 3-1.

Everyone knows where the Nets were last year after four games. Everyone knows where they were after 18 games. They have their name at the top of the list for worst starts ever.

But the Nets were thinking 3-1, and they were on their way to 3-1 until they exhaled on defense and lost, 85-83, to the Bobcats on Wednesday night.

“It could’ve easily been 3-1,” head coach Avery Johnson said. “Guys played hard. We had a couple of come-from-behind victories, and it’s better than 1-3 and 0-4, because it easily could’ve been that way.”

Johnson is right on all counts. The Nets very easily could have been 0-4, but they made the plays late against the Pistons and Kings that they didn’t make last night against the Bobcats. Charlotte scored on its last eight trips, scored 19 points in the last 5:11 and hit three 3-pointers over five trips that changed the momentum of the game.

This was a game the Nets led by 10 because of Devin Harris' shaking off the effects of a sprained left shoulder and leading his team to a 76-66 lead by accounting for the first 15 points of the fourth period.

“It’s tough, but we’ve got to be a little bit better,” Harris said. “We’ve got to really lock in at that point. Knowing the offense is going, that fourth quarter, we’ve really got to lock down defensively, especially when we’re making a run and we kind of sense that point in time the game can change for us.

“We’ve got to learn to get that killer instinct and really put teams away.”

The Nets are a young team, still learning how to play in these situations. They looked good late against Detroit and Sacramento, but not against a Charlotte team that definitely is better than the two teams the Nets have beaten. Gerald Wallace, Stephen Jackson and Boris Diaw make plays, and that’s what they did against the Nets.

This was a night where Harris needed some help down the stretch, but he didn’t get it. Brook Lopez had a big bucket late, but was 1-for-5 in the fourth. The Nets need him to be a go-to guy. Travis Outlaw made a big 3-pointer in the fourth but misfired on two jumpers in the waning seconds.

In all, the Nets missed four chances after D.J. Augustin’s two foul shots put the Bobcats up for good with 30.9 seconds left. The sequence went like this:

Harris missed a pull-up, out of bounds on Charlotte.
Outlaw misses a baseline jumper
Ball batted around and Lopez misses a tap
Ball rolls out to Outlaw, who misses a jumper
Ball hits the floor, most of the players pile on and time expires.

“We were just hoping we could get possession of the ball after Outlaw shot his shot, so we could call a timeout,” Johnson said. “Outlaw thought he had something good. He’s made that shot a hundred times and we’ve just got to live with it.”

Johnson also said it shouldn’t have come down to that, and he’s right. The Nets should have closed this game out when they had the chance, and they should be 3-1. They’ve come a long way in a short period of time, but they still have a long way to go.

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Harris and Lopez hurt their shoulders. Both said they should be fine.

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Troy Murphy made his Nets’ debut. He had two points and two rebounds in 18 minutes.

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Coach’s Corner

“The 10-point lead that we had, we gave up two threes in that segment to Stephen Jackson and Diaw, and, if nothing else, twos don’t beat you in that situation. We should have done a better job of defending the 3-point line. This team, as a whole, is new to these situations ... great material to get on film and analyze and evaluate and teach and hopefully learn from it.”

- Johnson on where it went wrong

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Follow me on Twitter: @Al_Iannazzone

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