NEWARK, N.J. – With each flick of one of the Cavaliers’ shooters wrists in the fourth quarter Tuesday night, the Nets moved further away from .500.

They might not see it again after falling to 2-5 following the 93-91 loss to Cleveland at The Rock.

We’re not trying to be an alarmist, but we told you here yesterday that perhaps the Nets’ last chance of being a .500 team this season would ride on this home-and-home with Cleveland. The schedule turns ugly after this with Orlando in on Friday and a West Coast trip after that.

The Nets needed to win last night at home against a Cavaliers team that no longer has LeBron James for many reasons and not just to climb back to .500.

Some people, yours truly included, may have overlooked the Cavaliers and the quality of players they have on their team. They’re not a championship contender by any stretch, may not even be a playoff team, but they want to prove they can survive without James and they play hard, which cures a lot of ills in the NBA.

They also have good shooters, and against the Nets good shooters often look great. That’s what happened in this game as the Cavaliers shot 9-for-17 from three-point range, including 5-of-6 in the fourth quarter.

We’ll find out later if the Nets learned from their mistakes when they complete the back-to-back in Quicken Loans Arena. The building has been sold out thus far without James and the fans still are loud.

So the Nets face another big test, but every game with this team, as constituted, is going to be a big test. Each one, however, presents different challenges.

In this game, it was whether the Nets could answer the bell and show the personal pride they needed to after being wiped out in Orlando and Miami. Versus the Heat in particular, the Nets’ toughness came under question because they let the Heat have whatever, whenever. They scored inside at will and the Nets did nothing about it.

We expected the Nets to play much differently after that, but the Cavaliers got easy baskets right from the start. Aside from two early blocked shots by Kris Humphries and one rejection from Derrick Favors, the Nets did not protect their paint in the first half.

When they started to in the second half -- a hard foul by the combination of Favors and Brook Lopez and three fourth-quarter blocks by Lopez -- the Nets left the perimeter wide open. And the Cavaliers made them pay.

They hit three threes in a row earlier in the fourth and back-to-back gut-wrenching treys down the stretch to go ahead by seven. Before the three-point barrage, the Nets led by five.

“There was just a stretch there where we gave up too many three-point shots,” coach Avery Johnson said. “We talked about it, we looked at it and we just didn’t execute.”

The Nets are going to have to improve their late-game execution because it seems they are going to be in plenty of close games, especially against some of the watered-down teams.

They were hardly a match in two games against Miami and one at Orlando as expected. The Nets' other five games were decided in the final moments.

The Nets had fourth-quarter comebacks and won the first two, against Detroit and Sacramento, thanks to timely late-game shooting by Anthony Morrow and Jordan Farmar and overall solid floor play by Devin Harris.

The Nets lost by two points in each of their other two losses, against Charlotte and Cleveland. In both games, the Nets had fourth-quarter leads and gave up too many threes.

Wednesday, the Nets probably will have a shot to win in Cleveland if they play hard and execute late. But they may not see .500 again until next season.

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Coach’s Corner

“In part. There were times we gave up some offensive rebounds to [Anderson] Varejao and [Antawn] Jamison got one or two on us. But if we can hold teams to 43 percent field goal shooting, do a much better job of guarding the three-point line and 93 points or less, that’s good basketball for us. We just have to do a better job on the other end with our offensive end with our execution."
 
- Johnson on whether he saw the toughness he wanted

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Follow me on Twitter: @Al_Iannazzone

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