"One of the Nets' offseason goals was finding a point guard to back up Devin Harris and Keyon Dooling, preferably one with experience. In Rafer Alston, they got more than that.

"He's run the gamut in terms of the different experiences you can have as a player," said Lawrence Frank, "from street ball legend, to playing in the D-League, to playing on the Bucks and the end of the bench to starting for the last six years on high, high-level teams. He knows how to run a team."

That's the good news for the Nets. The bad news? That Alston may actually have to run their team more than they'd like.

Harris has been injured three times already this preseason and will miss tonight's game against the Knicks. Dooling had hip surgery last spring and is still not fully recovered. He has yet to practice and the Nets don't know when he will return.

That means that tonight at the Garden, New Jersey's starting point guard will be a player who grew up playing on blacktop courts in Queens.

When he came to the Nets from Orlando in the Vince Carter trade in June, Alston seemed to be a throw-in, someone the Nets wanted mostly because his contract expires after this season. His experience was a bonus then; now it's exactly what the Nets need.

"You always need a guy to come in and really spell the starter, to also (get) the second unit going. I think every team needs that," said Alston, who played at Cardozo High in Bayside. "On this team that's me.""