Harris was grimly ineffective for three quarters last night, Carter managed all of two points in the second half until a meaningless 3-pointer in the final seconds, and the lethargic Nets received the inevitable spanking - this time from the second-worst team in the Eastern Conference.

The Charlotte Bobcats took control of the game in the second quarter, held off a rally in the fourth, and scored a 95-87 victory at Izod Center in the front end of a home-and-home set.

Losses at home are now routine - the Nets are 5-11 at Izod - and there's no mystery to that, either.

"If I see the energy we come out with at home if I was the visiting team, I would come in here thinking we'd get a game," said the Nets' Jarvis Hayes, whose team trailed by as many as 15 in the third period.

"That's something we've got to change, because more and more teams are going to come here with the same mind-set if we don't change our approach and pick up the energy level."

That's going to be hard to do on nights when Carter (19 points) and Harris (14) shoot a combined 12-for-36, with only six assists between them. And doubly hard when they allow Raymond Felton (22 points) and Boris Diaw (16 points, seven assists) to take the paint at will, which led to 44 Charlotte paint points - most of them from Emeka Okafor (21).

An appalling number, considering that Larry Brown's Bobs are the worst offensive team in the NBA.

"Obviously we came out sluggishly tonight, especially on defense," said Josh Boone, one of the few who showed some consistent effort. "They're not one of the better offensive teams in the league, and we let them shoot 50 percent. And we didn't execute on offense the way we need to. We picked it up in the second half, but it's a little too late."

The Nets were trailing 78-67 two minutes into the fourth period, after one of Felton's countless dribble penetrations led to an Okafor layup. But Keyon Dooling (11 points, six assists) did the Bobs one better: He set up a Boone layup with his own drive-and-dish, then had another paint attack to help set up a 3-pointer for Bobby Simmons.

So the Nets were within six, the closest they had been since the 1:37 mark of the second quarter. And off a Charlotte timeout, they kept coming, as a Harris steal led to a Dooling breakaway jam to make it a 78-75 deficit at the 6:50 mark.

Their bubble nearly burst one minute later, when the Bobcats rebuilt their lead to 83-75 after a Gerald Wallace 3 over Hayes at the 5:23 mark.

But that's when Harris finally joined the game: Just 2-for-10 at that point, the Nets' catalyst scored six straight points - attacking Charlotte big men on each occasion - to get the Nets within 83-81 with 3:23 left.

"Obviously I figured it out in the fourth quarter - I got a couple of easy layups," Harris said. " I missed some chippies. I've got to make better decisions, get to the line. I've got to slow down a little bit. I think I was going a little bit too fast tonight."

Diaw got two points back on a drive against Simmons, and then the Nets showed some fight with a five-shot possession - which yielded nothing. That trip ended with an Okafor block of Simmons, followed by Okafor intimidating Simmons into shooting an airball.

"That one was rough, but one possession didn't win or lose that game," Boone said.

That's when Felton decided it with a play at both ends: He nailed a 20-footer with 1:37 on the clock to make it an 87-81 gap, and off a Nets timeout, got a crucial stop against Harris on a 12-foot leaner to protect the lead.

Wallace (16 points, 13 boards, six assists) then capped it by drawing a three-shot foul against Brook Lopez and hitting all three to make it a nine-point game.

"It's disappointing," Harris said. "We've been struggling with (energy) all year long, especially at home. The third quarter we came out with a little bit more (and) the fourth quarter, the guys fought hard. We just didn't have enough to finish the game."

This is a recording.