[Lewis] James Harden on the matchup with Suns: "Mеasuring stick fоr whо? Fоr y’all? Nоt for us. If anybоdy is looking at Saturday as a statеment game, it’s nоt the Nets. It’s 20 games into the seasоn. We let y’all, the mеdia, blоw it up and talk about it. It dоn’t give you more wins or mоre lоsses.”

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“Measuring stick for who? For y’all? Not for us,” Harden scoffed. “If anybody is looking at Saturday as a statement game, it’s not the Nets.

“Nah. It’s 20 games into the season. That’s not no measuring stick. We’re still trying to find ourselves and our identity. We don’t measure — we let y’all, the media, blow it up and talk about it. It don’t give you more wins or more losses.

“Obviously, we want to play well, but we want to play well every game. … They all count for the same. For us, we focus on ourselves and get better, and that’s all we can control.”

The Nets (14-5) think they’ve gotten better since the last so-called measuring-stick game, Nov. 16 versus league-leading Golden State. That night, the Nets took a 117-99 caning from the Warriors, and, frankly, the final score flattered them. It wasn’t that close.

Now, having won four straight since, the Nets have improved. The Suns (15-3) provide a golden opportunity to gauge if those improvements have stuck.

“We’re gauging each and every day. We gauge who you are every day,” Kevin Durant said. “We understand that these teams are coming in, and teams are playing well. But it’s November. Every team wants to be rounding [into] shape. … I’m not saying we want to give away any games. But win or lose, I don’t really think this is going to tell us that much about where we’re headed as a team.