In one of those facts that now seems stranger than fiction, the Brooklyn Nets awoke on the morning of Dec. 6 to find themselves a half-game behind the New York Knicks and in 12th place in the Eastern Conference standings.
The Nets had just lost their eighth straight game, coughing up a 23-point lead in the fourth quarter of a grueling 114-112 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder to fall to 8-18 on the season. The Knicks, idle the previous evening, were at 8-17.
One would be hard-pressed to find two teams that have sprinted in opposite directions as far and as fast since then as have the Nets and Knicks.