On any other day, in any other season, I would have savored Wednesday night's victory against the Nets.

But, as I was watching it, I just noticed alot of things that soured the experience.  Things that I was looking forward to seeing, but didn't.  And when the game was over and we had survived another 4th quarter collapse, I came away thinking that it's nice to win once in awhile.. but this was the definition of a meaningless victory.  And, worse than that, we're headed in the wrong direction again.

• Don Nelson said he would rest the vets and give some experience to the young players for the rest of the season, so we have a better idea of what we have going into next season.  Crawford played 46 minutes and Jackson played 45 minutes each.  Belinelli, Morrow, and Randolph got just 30 minutes combined.  Not too mention that he didn't bench any vets this time either.
  
• Don Nelson said he would start playing a bigger lineup (so we could defend and rebound for a change).  He trotted his signature smallball lineup (4 guards and one "center") for more than 75% of the game.  We couldn't defend for beans.
• Don Nelson made it known that Jamal Crawford wasn't in our future plans, because Monta is our feature guard, which suggests that we want Crawford to opt out.  Giving Crawford 46 minutes, leaving him in at the end of the game (and benching Monta), and putting the game in his hands seems to send a different message.  Why is Crawford, who isn't supposed to be here next year, taking the big shots?  Why is Monta on the bench during crunchtime?
• I need to mention this again.  The win was truly meaningless.  And Nelson sacrificed many things just to get it.  If we had played the young players regular minutes, experimented with Monta at the point during crunchtime, experimented with a traditional "non-small-ball" lineup, and not given 46 minutes to Crawford; and happened to get the win too, then I would not be so irked about it. 
  

You know what it feels like?  This feels exactly like the beginning of the season.  We're taking steps backward.  The only difference is the Nets are a horrible team and they gave us the game in the 4th quarter.  Any average NBA team would have capitalized on our usual "4th quarter collapse due to Jackson's 40+ minutes tired legs", as the average NBA teams usually have this season.

Does this win just feel really wrong to anyone else?