NJ Nets' Devin Harris to have MRI on wrist

The Nets' Devin Harris, left, drives to the basket as the Warriors' Anthony Tolliver falls to the ground during the game Friday.

SALT LAKE CITY – It’s hard to find a legitimate reason to sound the alarm for a 3-40 team, but the Nets aren’t ready to make any definitive statement about Devin Harris’s status for the week.

And perhaps there’s good reason for that: The Nets point guard, who injured his wrist during a tumble at Golden State Friday night – he calls it a sprain, the team just calls it “sore” – said that treatments didn’t help him much.

Hence, he’ll be given an MRI Sunday, which should give him an idea whether a Wednesday return is realistic.

“There’s a lot of little ligaments we’ve got to take a look at,” said Harris, who wore a brace on his wrist in the pregame locker room Saturday. “Hopefully it’s encouraging.”

Harris, whose X-rays were negative, said his range of motion was fine, but that flexing it caused pain.

And if the term “MRI” still sets off alarm bells, Kiki Vandeweghe made it sound merely precautionary.

“You do it for a variety of reasons, just to make sure ligament, bone, everything is OK,” the coach said.

Vandeweghe started Keyon Dooling at the point against Utah, and used Chris Quinn and Terrence Williams in reserve.

Forty-three games does not a season make, but the Nets are already part-owners of the worst 43-game record in history.

And they are now one loss away from standing alone: The 1993-94 Dallas Mavericks also were 3-40 before winning their 44th game (the infamous 1972-73 Sixers were also 4-40), so if the Nets lose to the Clippers Wednesday, they will be the first team in NBA history to start 3-41.

The oligarch is just days away from getting the keys to the crumbling kingdom, and Andrei Kirilenko has been monitoring the Nets’ ownership transfer fairly closely.

The Jazz forward, who played for Mikhail Prokhorov’s team in Moscow when he was a teenager, suggests a mutually beneficial relationship could develop when he becomes a free agent in the summer of 2011.

“I’m pretty sure if I was a Russian owner,” Kirilenko told the Salt Lake Tribune, “I would be interested to get a Russian player.”

Though Kirilenko added that his first preference would be to stay in Utah, the only team he has played for in his nine seasons.

Of all the awful aspects to the Nets’ 32-point loss at Golden State, this probably bugged management most:

The Nets had their usual lineup healthy and ready to go, and were still blown out by a Warriors team that was propelled in large part by two guys on 10-day contracts – specifically, Anthony Tolliver and Cartier Martin, who had career nights.

“They had guys who are trying to stay in this league, without guaranteed contracts who were out competing for their lives,” Vandeweghe said. “And that is the way you have to play this game.”

He didn’t mention whether this gave him any ideas.