With just a quarter of the season remaining, area basketball fans have seen a strange sight of late – the real New Jersey Nets. Unseen since last April, these Nets replaced the impostors that had been wearing their uniforms for the first 60 games and have won six straight games, all but clinching the Atlantic Division title in the process.

New Jersey had been clinging to a small lead over Philadelphia in the race to win the Atlantic, but even that was built on smoke and mirrors. At the 60-game mark, the Nets had given more points than they scored on the season, and were sitting above .500 mostly by sheer luck. But in the five games before last night’s 112-100 win in Washington, the real New Jersey Nets won by a combined 51 points, including tough road wins in Oklahoma City and Houston and Sunday’s win over the mighty Mavericks.

During the streak, a lot of the attention has gone to the improvement of post player Nenad Krstic, and with good reason. After showing promising signs as a rookie last season, Krstic seemed stuck in neutral for most of this campaign. But in the six contests heading into last night, Krstic averaged 19.5 points and 8.3 rebounds and shot 57.8% from the floor.

Not only does that give New Jersey another scoring option to help the “Big Three” of Jason Kidd, Vince Carter, and Richard Jefferson, it also gives the Nets a low post scoring option – something they’ve lacked for at least half a decade. If Krstic can just do something about that strange patch of fur on his face that he’s trying to pass off as a beard, he’ll be all set.

But there’s a deeper reason we can tell the real New Jersey Nets are back – they’re playing defense. Throughout the Jason Kidd Era, that’s the one thing on which the Nets could count. Most people don’t know this, but New Jersey actually was about as good offensively with Stephon Marbury as it was with Jason Kidd.

The difference is that the Nets went from being horrendously bad to hellaciously good on defense. In the past four years, New Jersey has finished second, first, fourth, and seventh in Defensive Efficiency – my rating of a team’s points allowed per 100 possessions. Without that defensive production, they wouldn’t have even made the playoffs, let alone won two conference titles and three division banners.

But the Nets haven’t been nearly themselves in that department this season. Even after showing improvement in February, they had a distressing relapse as recently as two weeks ago – giving up at least 100 points in five straight games and losing four of them. At the 60-game mark, the Nets ranked only 11th in Defensive Efficiency. But heading into last night’s contest, they had moved up to no. 8 and were within a whisker of no. 6, putting them back near their accustomed level of defensive excellence.

It’s been heartening to see, because despite the brilliance of Carter, the Nets’ identity is as a defensive team. Moreover, Lawrence Frank’s identity is most definitely as a defensive coach. Any playing time decision between two marginal players almost always goes to the better defender in Frank’s system – that’s why Jason Collins, Clifford Robinson, and Jacque Vaughn play while Lamond Murray, Scott Padgett, Zoran Planinic, and Marc Jackson (prior to being traded) sit. You could tell it was absolutely driving him crazy watching opponents get wide-open 3-point looks night after night during the season’s first half.

I have to admit, however, that at first I was skeptical that the real New Jersey Nets had returned. The first three wins of the streak were against New Orleans/Oklahoma City, Houston, and Portland, which isn’t exactly a Murderer’s Row of great offenses. The Hornets rank 26th in the league in Offensive Efficiency (my rating of an offense’s points scored per 100 possessions), the Rockets 27th and the Blazers dead last among the NBA’s 30 teams. So watching the Nets hold those three to 84, 77, and 65 points, respectively, shouldn’t have come as too big a shock.

But this past weekend, against the Lakers and Mavs, was another matter. The Lakers rank eighth in Offensive Efficiency, while Dallas is second only to Phoenix. These two provided a much sterner test of the Nets’ defensive mettle, and they passed with flying colors.

Against the Lakers, Jason Kidd took on the assignment of guarding Kobe Bryant, and the combo of Kidd and some outstanding team defense held Bryant to 9-of-24 shooting and seven turnovers – perhaps his worst game of the season. A good example of the team defense portion came on the game’s final play, with the Lakers looking for a tying 3-pointer. Carter and Kidd switched on a pick, forcing Bryant to come several feet past the 3-point line to catch the ball and shoot a desperation heave.

The effort against Bryant was encouraging on another level too: Opposing wing players have been torching the Nets all season, but perhaps Kidd can be used as a stopper against Net-killers like Dwyane Wade in the playoffs.

The Nets used the opposite formula in the Dallas game. Dirk Nowitzki abused them for 37 points, but the other Mavs shot only 16-for-46. Even that number was inflated by some late cosmetic scoring, as New Jersey held the Mavs to 10 points in the opening quarter and maintained a double-digit lead the entire second half.

The real New Jersey Nets chose a good time to come back, because several more potent offenses are on the way. Sunday and Monday features a back-to-back against Detroit (no. 3 in Offensive Efficency) and Phoenix (no. 1), while no. 5 Miami visits in early April.

Even if the Nets can’t win those games, their defensive revival eases the creeping worry that they were going to wallow in mediocrity all season. Ten days ago it seemed the Nets might end up as the no. 8 seed in the East, or even if it won the division it wouldn’t have home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs. Instead, they’ve opened up plenty of breathing room and look like a safer bet to make a playoff run too. So after nearly a year of waiting, it’s been good to see the real New Jersey Nets again. Let’s hope they stay for a while.

Mr. Hollinger is the author of the 2005-06 Pro Basketball Forecast. He can be reached at jhollinger@nysun.com.