The Nets two-game trip highlighted some of their strengths, but also showed many of their weaknesses, and the one that’s got to eat at coach Avery Johnson the most is the defense.

Kobe Bryant’s eyes are probably lighting up, knowing he won’t be guarded much tomorrow. The last three stars the Nets played have had a field day against them.

Last Sunday, Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen combined to shoot 11-for-16 against the Nets. On Tuesday, Josh Smith was 14-for-16 on Thursday, Dirk Nowitzki was 8-for-10.

Anyone want to predict Bryant’s line tomorrow, coming off a Lakers’ loss last night?

From the moment Johnson came to New Jersey, from his first practice of training camp, he stressed defense. The Nets probably worked on their transition defense in every

The Celtics were missing Rajon Rondo and lost Shaquille O’Neal in the first half. They could have been without Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett ande Ray Allen and Boston probably still would have beaten the Nets.

Playing uninspired and careless, the Nets were throttled by Boston in a game that brought back memories of last season. The final score was 100-75 this afternoon, but the game wasn’t nearly that close.

Avery Johnson has some work to do.

You’re going to have bad games like this, especially against a far superior foe. But the Nets just looked like they were beaten very early on, like they were feeling the effects of going triple-OT on the second game of a back-to-back Wednesday and then overtime on Friday before losing.

Regardless, there is no excuse for it. The Nets

The Nets have played this type of game plenty of times through the first 15 contests this season. They battle, put a bit of a scare into a good team, but in the end don’t have enough to pull out the victory.

This would have been a sweet victory for the Nets on Thanksgiving Eve if they could have closed out Boston. But the Celtics weren’t going to let it happen even on a night when their Big Three wasn’t at their sharpest and the fourth member of the talented quartet was in a suit.

Too much Shaquille O’Neal and not enough good possessions down the stretch led to an 89-83 loss that felt eerily similar to the defeat to Orlando two weeks back and in Denver last week.

The Nets played hard enough to win, if only they made a couple more plays, got a couple more rebounds

The Nets could be walking into a proverbial buzz saw tomorrow afternoon.

The game against the Celtics would be a difficult one for them to get anyway. The Nets haven’t beaten Boston since February 2007. This was pre-Garnett and Allen. It was during the era of the Nets’ big three, Jason Kidd, Richard Jefferson and Vince Carter. This also was the last season the Nets would see playoff basketball until who knows when.

But they’re making the trip in the snow to Boston where the Celtics were embarrassed last night against the Cavaliers in a game many of you who had power were able to watch.

Mine went out just before 8:00 p.m. and didn’t come back until 5:00 a.m. this morning so I had to wait until this morning to see what happened to the Celtics and formulate an opinion