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MILWAUKEE – You could tell the Nets had vivid memories, if not nightmares, of what happened the night before in Indiana. It’s hard to forget something like being beaten by 32 points.

But those memories weren’t enough for the Nets to shake their road cobwebs no matter how hard they worked last night against the Bucks.

The Nets definitely played with more urgency and passion than in Indiana – they couldn’t play with less – but weren’t efficient enough and didn’t make nearly enough shots to beat Andrew Bogut and the Bucks.

So another road game and another loss, this one a 91-81 defeat that dropped the Nets 20 games below .500.

Eventually, they’re going to have to figure out how to win some road games. At this point it could be as much

The only good thing for the Nets is they can move on to the next one pretty quickly, while this putrid performance still is fresh and still stings a little.

And if it’s not, coach Avery Johnson will show them film of the Nets missing a defensive assignment, not closing out on a shooter or just not moving their feet and letting the offensive player blow past them.

Since that happened on most of the possessions of the 124-92 beating the Pacers laid on the Nets, it could be the longest video session of the year. Shame on the Nets if they don’t come out and play with a different mentality and effort level Saturday in Milwaukee.

“Nobody likes to get their butts kicked like we did tonight so hopefully tomorrow we’ll come out with a lot more enthusiasm and a lot more

The Nets know exactly how the Cavaliers feel.

The 2010-11 Cavaliers are the closest thing to the 2009-10 Nets. The Nets can empathize, but they didn’t want to be the ones to lift the Cavaliers’ spirits.

It was close to happening, but the Nets executed down the stretch and Brook Lopez’s short turnaround with 1.4 seconds to go carried them to a 103-101 victory last night.

Lopez was to the Cavaliers last night what Damien Wilkins and Dwyane Wade have been to the Nets. They delivered dagger baskets that contributed mightily to the Nets’ 0-18 start. Lopez’s score extended the Cavaliers losing streak to 17 consecutive games.

The Cavaliers had a chance to win, but Daniel Gibson back-rimmed a corner three at the buzzer. If this was 2009-10, Gibson would

This would have been a nice sendoff for Nets principal owner Mikhail Prokhorov, who flew back to Russia last night.

He already was seen as a conquering hero by the NBA community for swooping in Wednesday and announcing the Nets were done playing by Denver’s rules, done with the protracted trade talks for Carmelo Anthony that were played out in the public and taking back control of the Nets.

All of that may have had something to do with how the Nets have played on this five-game home stand. They played relaxed and carefree. They won the first two games on Prokhorov’s stay and came within six seconds of their first three-game winning streak since late January/early February 2009. But the Nets couldn’t close out the Mavericks and suffered a seemingly gut-wrenching

Mikhail Prokhorov’s impact on the Nets hasn’t been felt entirely yet. By now, many thought he would have been able to use his money to attract a top-flight NBA player, but he still has time and Carmelo Anthony is still out there.

Anyway, for some reason the Nets seem to like when Prokhorov is in the Prudential Center, sitting above the court in his luxury box and looking down upon them. He was up there last night for the sixth time this season and the Nets won for the fifth time.

More importantly, their 89-74 victory over the Pistons gave the Nets 12 wins. Some teams had that before Thanksgiving. But the fact that the Nets reached that mark while snow still is on the ground and some people still have their Christmas lights is a reason to believe this team is heading in a direction

The Nets’ season has been like the movie Groundhog Day.

Every game seems to be similar and every day there seems to be more reports and rumors about Carmelo Anthony. If you want something to look forward to, here it is: There’s just one more game to go – on this trip and probably for some Nets, too.

That doesn’t mean the Nets won’t suffer more losses like Saturday night’s 96-89 outcome in Portland. But if the three-team trade with the Nuggets and Pistons goes through and the Nets get Anthony, Chauncey Billups and Richard Hamilton, you have to believe they will handle themselves better in games like this one.

Of course, the Nets may need to convince Anthony to join them, but all signs point to an agreement being reached between the teams at some point

This is the way Brook Lopez should play every night. If the long-awaited trade for Carmelo Anthony gets done next week, the Nets center should have more opportunities to have games like last night.

The Nets didn’t beat the Lakers in Los Angeles -– did you expect they would? -– but at least Lopez responded after hardly playing in the fourth quarter and overtime Wednesday in Phoenix. And it was clear Lopez wasn’t happy about that.

But the third-year center, the lone player not made available in trade talks for Anthony, had 35 points, on 13-for-19 shooting, in the Nets’ 100-88 loss to Kobe Bryant and the two-time reigning champion Lakers.

Lopez still didn’t grab 10 rebounds –- he finished with six. But he played with a different attitude as he looked

The Nets tried to play a game of don’t-break-this-up last night. Even if they won, it wouldn’t have mattered - they’re not staying together.

But the way they lost was another example why Nets executives were prepared to trade more than half their roster in a deal for Carmelo Anthony. You wonder if there will come a point where they’ll be willing to give up more.

Closing time usually turns out to be losing time for the Nets and that’s what happened in Phoenix as they opened the four-game trip with a 118-109 overtime loss to the Suns.

There’s no point quantifying this one. It was just another bad loss in a season filled with bad losses for a team that’s going nowhere as is.

But this one had to hurt the Nets because they really needed this and