Deron Williams rises and fires, but he and the rest of the Nets kept shooting blanks. (D. Clarke Evans/NBA/Getty Images)On some level, it's fitting that the Brooklyn Nets capped their disastrous December by setting a franchise record for offensive failure.

After all, a month that began with boundless excitement over a red-hot 11-4 start — excitement that has completely disappeared thanks to a monthlong meltdown spurred by a foot injury to Brook Lopez, a complete devolution on both sides of the ball, the franchise point guard complaining about the offense, the super-famous power forward getting benched, the stalwart small forward calling out his too-casual teammates and a million other things that led to Avery Johnson's firing — has to end with a bang, doesn't it? Or, perhaps more accurately, with a brick. Eighteen of them, on 20 tries, over the space of 12 minutes on Monday that turned what had been a tight game at halftime into an absolute laugher before the fourth.

Playing without injured spark plug Gerald Wallace, the Nets scored five points in the third quarter in a 104-73 loss to the San Antonio Spurs on New Year's Eve. They missed seven of their eight tries at the rim, all six of their 3-pointers, and made just one of six midrange attempts; their shot chart for the quarter, captured by Devin Kharpertian at The Brooklyn Game, is a sea of red with one brief sliver of green. They turned the ball over seven times, leading to 12 Spurs points. Only one Net — point guard Deron Williams (2 for 6, all five points) — hit a shot in the third; seven Nets posted ohfers. On successive possessions midway through the quarter, Regge Evans (who had taken all of three shots from further than nine feet away all season) shot a midrange jumper that bounced over the backboard, Andray Blatche threw a scoop layup out of bounds and Deron Williams put a jumper off the side of the backboard. Yep: That bad.

It wasn't the lowest-scoring quarter in NBA history — the Dallas Mavericks and Golden State Warriors both have two-point frames in their record books — but it was the lowest single-quarter scoring output in the 46-year history of the Nets franchise. After the game's merciful end, interim coach P.J. Carlesimo looked back on his Nets' 10 percent shooting in that awful third quarter and told Raul Dominguez of The Associated Press, "I'm actually surprised it wasn't worse."

Kemba Walker and his fellow Bobcats guards sliced through the Bulls D on Monday. (AP/Charles Rex Arbogast)How did you celebrate the end of 2012? Raising a glass of champagne, putting on a sweet hat and blowing into a noisemaker, maybe? That sounds pretty sweet, but I'm guessing it wasn't quite as sweet as getting your first taste of victory in more than a month, like the Charlotte Bobcats did with a 91-81 win over the Chicago Bulls at the United Center on Monday afternoon. After all, snapping an 18-game losing streak gives you the same buzz without that meddlesome hangover.

Yes, the 36-day drought is over, and Charlotte's head coach doesn't want to hear anything else about it, according to Dave van Dyck of the Chicago Tribune:

"What streak do you mean? One win in a row?" Bobcats coach Mike Dunlap asked.

That's right, Mike. When positives are present, you have to accentuate them, and for the first time in quite a while, there were a lot of bright spots for the Bobcats.

After weeks of ineffective offense bogged down by turnovers and poor execution, Dunlap said he decided to "put the playbook in the freezer and just let our guys go at them," eschewing standard sets in favor of a freer-flowing motion-heavy style. Perhaps Dunlap should keep it in the deep freeze; against the league's No. 4 defense, guards Kemba Walker, Gerald Henderson, Ramon Sessions and Ben Gordon combined for 64 points on 45 field-goal attempts, giving Chicago's backcourt — which was without Kirk Hinrich, who missed the game due to "a compilation of things," according to Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau — fits with their quickness and ability to penetrate off the bounce.

Rick Carlisle is out of answers (Getty Images)

A lucky 13 years ago, almost to the day, Mark Cuban purchased the Dallas Mavericks. In the seasons since, save for a trip to the lottery a few months after he bought the club, the Mavericks have continually rung the 50-win bell while grabbing one championship out of two NBA Finals appearances. At no point, even during the team’s frustrating Finals defense in 2011-12 or the struggles that met Cuban when he took over during the 1999-00 season, has the team lost six straight. In fact, Cuban’s first week as an NBA owner saw his new squad end a five-game losing streak under Don Nelson.

Under current coach Rick Carlisle, the Mavs had no such luck on Sunday in snapping a five-game swoon. Instead, though the Mavs showed signs of competing, the team was blown out by the San Antonio Spurs in a 111-86 embarrassment. And Carlisle, according to the Dallas Morning News’ Eddie Sefko, has had it up to here.

(Points to his forehead.)

“I [have] to be inventive and find ways,” he said. “I don’t have a better answer than that. The last week, I’ve had to literally scream in the face of two guys in practices and shootarounds to get the point across. And I will continue to do that.

“If I have to start suspending guys for not doing things they’re supposed to be doing on the court, I’ll do it. And Mark and I will get into it about that. But somehow, things have got to change and it can’t just be about that it’s a tough schedule. It just can’t.”

Gregg Popovich considers reaping the whirlwind again. (Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)

It's been just over a month since San Antonio Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich decided, mere hours before a marquee nationally televised matchup with the defending NBA champion Miami Heat, to send four of his top five players back to Texas so that they could rest up after a long road trip rather than suit up to entertain TNT-watching audiences. You remember what happened next: David Stern got super mad, the Spurs reserves played great and would've won if not for Jesus Shuttlesworth, we all got an awesome game to watch with (in all likelihood) way more interest than there would've been previously, and yet still the commish slapped the Spurs with an unprecedented $250,000 fine for doing "a disservice to the league and our fans." (It was a whole big thing.)

Now, you might be asking yourself: "Dan, we're on the brink of a new year. Why are you bringing up the past? The future, that's what counts, you history-obsessed dork." To which I say: Hey, take it easy. We're all friends here.

OK, now that we've established that, let's take a look at the schedule. San Antonio played on Sunday, taking care of the Dallas Mavericks for the second time in a week, and welcome the Brooklyn Nets — about whose coaching situation Pop has some thoughts — to the AT&T Center on Monday night. After an off day Tuesday, the Spurs take on the Milwaukee Bucks on New Year's Day and then head to Manhattan for a matchup with the New York Knicks on Thursday. By my reckoning, that's four games in five nights, with the final game coming in a high-profile contest against an Eastern Conference power.

I mean ... he wouldn't do it again, would he?

On Saturday, in the hours before his Milwaukee Bucks downed the Miami Heat in a nicely-tuned home win, Bucks guard Monta Ellis seemed curiously out of tune. When asked to compare himself to Dwyane Wade – the player that notched 24 points on 10-19 shooting later that night to Ellis’ 14 points on 6-18 shooting – Monta offered this answer:

This is what happens when you sit down for an interview with a local TV crew on a Saturday in December between two holidays, probably thinking that none of this will ever get out. At least, that’s what we hope from Monta when he points out that the only difference between him and Dwyane Wade is “more wins and two championship rings,” a pittance of course, before declaring that “Monta Ellis have it all.”

Surprisingly, though it hasn’t been the most consistent take, I’ve read some internet reaction that just about sides with Ellis. Pointing out that while his career’s work isn’t nearly on par with what Wade has contributed (he was a little-used rookie during Wade’s dominant and championship 2005-06 turn, after all), D-Wade’s declining health and Ellis’ potent scoring ways have evened the score some seven years later.

Which is an absolute joke, of course.

On Friday morning, DeMarcus Cousins was scowl-deep in a standoff with Sacramento Kings head coach Keith Smart, having been reinstated from an indefinite suspension yet kept on ice for reasons his coach wouldn't share, and feeling less than talkative about the subjects of when he'd actually return to the floor and how it'd all work when he did so. On Monday morning, he's coming off having contributed 27 points, 20 rebounds and 15 assists in consecutive Kings wins — the first an unlikely walk-off against the New York Knicks, the second a 22-point hammering of the Boston Celtics — and recording the first triple-double of his three-year NBA career.

What a difference three days can make, huh?

Check out the highlights of how DMC put up 12, 10 and 10 on the floundering C's, thanks to our friends at the National Basketball Association:

The 10 assists were a career-high, but to hear Cousins tell it, he had a bigger goal in mind. From Jason Jones of the Sacramento Bee:

The emphasis on finding open teammates has been a big part of practices lately. Cousins figured Sunday would be a good night to go for a big assist total.

"I kind of had an idea (a triple double was within reach), so I was like, I'm going to try and get 15," Cousins said. "I really didn't know what the exact number was, but I was going to try and get 15."

Oh, well. I'm sure Coach Keith Smart wouldn't mind if you kept passing like that in pursuit of dimes next game, too, DeMarcus.

Antawn Jamison considers his options (Getty Images)

Los Angeles Lakers forward Antawn Jamison is coming off of a 2011-12 season that saw him play all but one contest for a rebuilding Cleveland Cavaliers squad. Having served his basketball penance, he went for a quick, career-ending fix and signed up with the Lakers in hopes of earning his first championship. Jamison’s scoring gifts and ability to contribute without having the offensive sets tilted his way would see to work perfectly on a Lakers team full of punch in the starting lineup but without many threats off the bench.

Recently, though, Jamison hasn’t even been afforded the chance to get off of that bench. The hybrid forward hasn’t played a second over his team’s last five contests, taking in a series of Did Not Play: Coach’s Decisions along the way. When a blowout win over Portland on Friday didn’t even result in Jamison seeing action, the veteran vented, telling The Los Angeles Daily News that the Lakers were “pretty much telling me my services are no longer needed.”

On Sunday, after some reflection and a talk with Lakers coach Mike D’Antoni, Jamison took a calmer approach. From ESPN Los Angeles:

"I'm here for the long haul and I'm here to help this team win a championship. So, if the opportunity comes up again, I just have to be patient and be ready for that opportunity to present itself. Until then, we're winning. That's the most important thing and we're doing it at a pretty good level right now, so I'm just pulling for my teammates and smiling. It's tough not playing, but most importantly, the reason why I'm here is to win."

Heading into Sunday night's matchup with the Utah Jazz, Los Angeles Clippers small forward Caron Butler had struggled a bit with his stroke in the first quarter of games this season. According to NBA.com's stat tool, the 11th-year swingman out of UConn had connected on just 38.5 percent of his field-goal attempts in opening frames, and just 26.3 percent from long distance.

Clearly, Butler felt a bit warmer off the tip than normal at Staples Center on Sunday:

The 32-year-old wing was white-hot to start out, hitting six of his eight shots — including a perfect 5 for 5 mark from 3-point range — in the first quarter on Sunday, pouring in 17 points in 12 minutes to get the Clips out to an early lead over the Jazz. Unlike their Thursday night whitewashing of the Boston Celtics, though, the Clippers didn't ride the strong-shooting start to a comfortable, run-away-and-hide type of victory over Utah.

As they did in the Clips' hard-fought Friday night road win, Tyrone Corbin's Jazz battled throughout, staying within hailing distance of the team with the NBA's best record and actually recapturing the lead late in the third quarter. It took a late Clipper run behind some stiff defense (Utah didn't manage a field goal in the final 3:38) and — believe it or not — some timely free-throw shooting from DeAndre Jordan (the big man went 5 for 6 down the stretch) to seal a 107-96 win that extended their franchise-record winning streak to 17 games, pushed their NBA-best record to 25-6 and capped off just the third undefeated month turned in by any team in league history.