A season that began with high expectations but torn apart by inept play, infighting, and injuries reaches an end for the Knicks, who look to avoid a single-season franchise-record 60th loss as they play the Nets.

The Knicks will finish with the worst record in the Eastern Conference, a status they assured with Monday’s 98-91 home loss to the Charlotte Bobcats. New York can avoid sharing the worst record in the league with a win, or if Portland loses tonight to Phoenix.

“After this season, there should be a lot of regret,” Knicks assistant Herb Williams, who ran the team for a third straight game with Larry Brown out with a stomach ailment, said. “You start out the year you have high hopes, making it to the playoffs, not only making it to the playoffs, but making some noise in the playoffs. And when that don’t happen you have to be disappointed.”

Brown was one of the reasons of optimism heading into the season after taking the coaching job after leading the Detroit Pistons to the 2004 NBA title and 2005 NBA Finals. But the Knicks never fully grasped Brown’s constant demands of defensive accountability and committed a league high 1,431 turnovers offensively.

Knicks point guard Stephon Marbury drew the brunt of Brown’s criticisms after losses, and the two often decided to express their differences in withering he-said, he-said disputes that were inevitably splashed all over the New York press.

Promising rookie Channing Frye has been sidelined since March 22 with a knee injury, and Marbury, Jalen Rose, Steve Francis, and Quentin Richardson all did not play in Monday’s loss and are questionable due to injuries.

“Each loss was frustrating, going though each loss and seeing how far we have dropped,” said Knicks guard Jamal Crawford. “Because we know we’re not this bad. It was a rough year for us, but next year will not be like this.”

The Knicks have lost five in a row,14 of its last 17 and trying to avoid its first season sweep to New Jersey since 2001-02.

The Nets, winners of the Atlantic Division for the fourth time in five seasons, will be the third seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs. New Jersey completed a home-and-home sweep of Boston with a 95-93 win Sunday. Nenad Kristic scored 18 points and Richard Jefferson added 15 as coach Lawrence Frank rested Jefferson, Jason Kidd, and Vince Carter the final six minutes of the game.

“Of course, you want to win the game,” Frank said. “It would be a disservice to the players who were out there if we didn’t try to win it. But we’ve earned the right to play this way. Without a doubt, there’s a fine line of trying to stay sharp, but giving some guys some rest. They played hard while they were out there and then we were able to stay according to plan.”

Carter, who had only 13 points in Sunday’s win, needs 15 to surpass Bernard King’s single-season team record of 1,909 points established in the 1977-78 season.