The Nets, dizzy in their own fantasy last season, raced to their first N.B.A. finals with enough time only to congratulate themselves before the Los Angeles Lakers stomped them four games later into a footnote of basketball history.

The Nets of this season are grounded by memory, not content to celebrate even their second straight Eastern Conference championship.

After routing the Detroit Pistons on Saturday night in their second consecutive series sweep, the Nets won their 10th straight game of these playoffs and earned a 10-day break before they go to Texas - either San Antonio or Dallas - for the start of the finals on June 4.

The Nets will have plenty of time to contemplate what they have been thinking since last June, what they questioned during the March doldrums and what they have felt since they started the playoffs with a victory on April 19:

"We believe we can win a championship," Nets Coach Byron Scott said, flush from the 102-82 triumph at Continental Arena on Saturday night. "That one-hit-wonder stuff is gone. We have something special here and we're just going to keep trying to build on it."