There were plenty of interesting -- to use Carmelo Anthony’s words -- sights last night when the Nets scored a 16-point victory over the Nuggets.

Far and away, the two best were the Barclays Center poster boards laid out in the hallway on the way to the locker rooms, and the dining room scene where Nets executives and Nuggets executives were a couple of tables apart and facing each other. The difference was that Nets general manager Billy King and assistant GM Bobby Marks looked comfortable, and Nuggets owner Josh Kroenke and GM Masai Ujiri didn't.

But it drew a good laugh from here because of all that has gone on and been written and said about the trade talks and negotiations, and ultimately because of Mikhail Prokhorov pulling the Nets back from the trade talks.

The Barclays

Carmelo Anthony came, saw placards of what the new arena in Brooklyn will look like, and the Nets conquered.

This was easily their most significant win of the season and how they beat Anthony and the Nuggets, 115-99 last night at the Rock, made it even more significant.

Brook Lopez, the only untouchable, had a strong game with 27 points. But it was everyone else, many of them involved or affected by the Anthony talks, that showed tremendous pride and desire and put forth some of the better efforts of the season.

It started with Devin Harris. The Nets’ captain was nearly traded to Denver twice and it definitely had an impact on him. After Mikhail Prokhorov said the Nets were out of trade talks for Anthony and cancelled a meeting with the Nuggets star, Harris’ game and focus

All eyes will be on Carmelo Anthony on Monday night and many ears will be listening to what he says pregame and to hear what kind of reaction he gets from the Prudential Center crowd.

Anthony never came out and said he didn’t want to play for the Nets, only the Knicks. But that seems to be the belief because of things that have been written and said throughout this long, drawn-out process that many think officially came to an end when Nets principal owner Mikhail Prokhorov instructed management to back out of talks for Anthony.

Believe what you want about whether the Nets are in or out. My feeling is they’re out until Denver brings them back in – with Prokhorov’s approval, of course.

There remains the chance that Anthony will re-sign with the Nuggets. They have

MILWAUKEE – You could tell the Nets had vivid memories, if not nightmares, of what happened the night before in Indiana. It’s hard to forget something like being beaten by 32 points.

But those memories weren’t enough for the Nets to shake their road cobwebs no matter how hard they worked last night against the Bucks.

The Nets definitely played with more urgency and passion than in Indiana – they couldn’t play with less – but weren’t efficient enough and didn’t make nearly enough shots to beat Andrew Bogut and the Bucks.

So another road game and another loss, this one a 91-81 defeat that dropped the Nets 20 games below .500.

Eventually, they’re going to have to figure out how to win some road games. At this point it could be as much

The Nets were within a stop and/or a make in the closing seconds against Dallas of taking a five-game winning streak into Indianapolis tomorrow. They’re probably kicking themselves now for that, but there is nothing wrong with a 4-1 homestand.

Not for this team that usually needs a few weeks to register four wins.

They got their fourth win of the season in their 10th game. Their eighth win came in their 28th game and their 12th win came in Game 43. So four-in-five and almost five-in-five is definitely an indication that the Nets believe in each other, their coach, the system and, more than anything, they’re finally executing.

“Right now the spirit of our team is at an all-time high, just in terms of all the things we're trying to implement and change this culture,”

This would have been a nice sendoff for Nets principal owner Mikhail Prokhorov, who flew back to Russia last night.

He already was seen as a conquering hero by the NBA community for swooping in Wednesday and announcing the Nets were done playing by Denver’s rules, done with the protracted trade talks for Carmelo Anthony that were played out in the public and taking back control of the Nets.

All of that may have had something to do with how the Nets have played on this five-game home stand. They played relaxed and carefree. They won the first two games on Prokhorov’s stay and came within six seconds of their first three-game winning streak since late January/early February 2009. But the Nets couldn’t close out the Mavericks and suffered a seemingly gut-wrenching

Mikhail Prokhorov’s impact on the Nets hasn’t been felt entirely yet. By now, many thought he would have been able to use his money to attract a top-flight NBA player, but he still has time and Carmelo Anthony is still out there.

Anyway, for some reason the Nets seem to like when Prokhorov is in the Prudential Center, sitting above the court in his luxury box and looking down upon them. He was up there last night for the sixth time this season and the Nets won for the fifth time.

More importantly, their 89-74 victory over the Pistons gave the Nets 12 wins. Some teams had that before Thanksgiving. But the fact that the Nets reached that mark while snow still is on the ground and some people still have their Christmas lights is a reason to believe this team is heading in a direction

Mikhail Prokhorov hasn’t spoken much since taking over as Nets owner last May, but when he has, the Russian billionaire has gotten everyone’s attention.

In his first comments, he said the Nets would make the playoffs in his first season as owner and win a championship in a maximum of five years. He also said he could convince the best of the best to join the Nets.

Even though the Nets didn’t get any of the best of the best free agents, Prokhorov still said the goal was to be a playoff team this season.

Now, he’s backtracked from that and obviously to this point he hasn’t delivered the best of the best, but he is still saying championship within five years and has everyone’s attention.

Everyone is talking about what he said yesterday, about him telling