The Nets seem to relish in playing difficult games this season that go down to the final possessions. Maybe after winning so many close games in the last three years, this is a rapid regression to the mean: they’ve now lost three of four consecutive games that came down to the final possessions in regulation.

The Nets didn’t lack for opportunities. Nicolas Batum, 85 percent free throw shooter, inexplicably threw a pass out-of-bounds rather than take a foul from Brook Lopez with 20 seconds left. But Lopez turned right around and was called for a moving screen call in the backcourt, giving the ball right back. A few free throws later, and that was all she wrote.

The disappointing ending distracted from the game’s competitiveness. Throughout the night, I kept comparing these last three games to the first three games of the season, when the team’s chances seemed hopeless. Even when they led against the San Antonio Spurs for that brief, wild moment, there was never a strong sense that they had a puncher’s chance of winning any of those.

These three have been different. They’ve competed, even if it’s been against shorthanded squads. Their core players have played well. It was as if each quarter had a theme. For a few, wild moments in the first, it seemed like Joe Johnson had returned to Seven-Time All-Star Joe Johnson™ mode, hitting threes with a few extra inches of lift in his legs. In the second quarter, it was Brook Lopez going toe-to-toe with Spencer Hawes inside and out. In the third, it was Thaddeus Young, who should trademark the soft floater in traffic before Antawn Jamison files a lawsuit. The fourth was a bit more of an amalgam, but came down to Jarrett Jack, with the good and bad fully on display.

But there’s only so many ways the concept “the Nets lack three-point shooting, bench production, and defense” can be re-shaped.