IT'S NOT A NIGHT TO REMEMBER NEW JERSEY 109, LAKERS 103.

Byline: Ross Siler Staff Writer

Memories of the 2002 NBA Finals were gone for the New Jersey Nets long before they dressed eight players for Friday night's game at Staples Center.

Now the Lakers safely can say the same.

The Nets played a lineup of four guards, two of whom admittedly were Jason Kidd and Vince Carter, plus a rookie center for much of the night and still handed the Lakers a 109-103 defeat, the most humiliating of the season.

Not only did the Lakers lose their third consecutive game, they fell to 4-4 without Kobe Bryant and dropped out of the top eight in the Western Conference standings as their season reached its midpoint.

``It hurts,'' Lakers coach Rudy Tomjanovich said. ``It hurts bad.''

They had clung to the sixth spot for most of January, only to slip to seventh Thursday and ninth Friday. Minnesota is sixth, Houston seventh and Memphis eighth.

The Lakers, meanwhile, are on the outside looking in, with half of a season still to play, most of it on the road. The last time they missed the playoffs came more than a decade ago, during the 1993-94 season.

New Jersey (17-26) entered Friday as the worst team in the NBA's worst division. They also were the league's second-lowest scoring team before torching the Lakers for 109 points, 30 by Carter.

The Nets shot 53.1 percent, enabling them to win a game in which they were outrebounded by an astonishing 55-28. It was the fourth consecutive game the Lakers gave up 100 points or more.

``That's where it starts, the defense,'' forward Caron Butler said. ``Our defense converts to our offense. We got to start on the defensive end and start making things better.''

Lamar Odom echoed those sentiments: ``We did not lose the game because we played bad offense, we lost the game because we are not committing ourselves to team defense.''

Butler finished with a season-high 31 points as he and point guard Chucky Atkins took care of nearly two-thirds of the Lakers' offense in the second half. Atkins totaled 22 points and six assists.

The Nets shot 59 percent in the second half and connected on six 3- pointers in the fourth quarter. Rodney Buford scooped up a pass at his feet and buried a shot from beyond the arc over the 6-foot-10 Odom's outstretched arms with 2:30 remaining.

Jacque Vaughn did one better some seven minutes earlier, firing from the left corner and watching as the ball caromed off the rim, kissed the top of the backboard and settled in the basket.

``The ball bouncing around on top of the basket and going in for a 3 wasn't a gift either,'' Tomjanovich noted.

Newly signed Billy Thomas, most recently of the CBA's Dakota Wizards, also hit a 3-pointer in the fourth quarter for the Nets, and Kidd buried three of his own.

When forward Brian Cook missed from the left block and Atkins' layup bid was blocked from behind by Jabari Smith in the final two minutes, the Lakers were doomed to another defeat.

``It was a special win because we had the great eight tonight,'' New Jersey coach Lawrence Frank said.

Carter turned in the highlight play of the game, spinning a full 360 degrees around Cook on a third-quarter drive before finger-rolling a layup.

``The move was incredible, but he did it with no stress on his body,'' Kidd said. ``Just a special player making a special play.''

With Bryant's severely sprained ankle keeping him out indefinitely, the only starter on the court Friday who was there in the 2002 Finals was Kidd. Vaughn, Buford, Carter and center Nenad Kristic rounded out the Nets' five Friday.

``When we saw that lineup, we knew that they had to go small and play a lot of guards,'' Tomjanovich said. ``We're young, we're inexperienced. We've been trying to get by with playing forwards.''

Not so long ago the Lakers (22-19) swept the Nets in four games to win a third consecutive world championship for Bryant, Shaquille O'Neal and Co.

Ross Siler, [phone]

ross.siler(at)dailynews.com

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Photo:

(color) The Lakers' Tierre Brown attempts to drive past New Jersey's Nenad Kristic during Friday's game at Staples Center.

Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer

Box:

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