CHICAGO –- The Nets had their shot at what was unthinkable several weeks ago.

They were staring at a three-game winning streak and the tenth win that would have created an ability to avoid any reference to the worst team of all time. All the Nets had to do was play hard for 48 minutes, defend, take good shots and convert layups. Essentially, they had to do what they did to register their only winning streak of the season.

The Nets did none of those things last night in a 106-83 loss to the Bulls. All good things must come to an end.

“We did not come to play,” interim coach Kiki Vandeweghe said. “We did not have the energy we had the past few games, the drive, the intensity. It showed in our legs. It showed in the layups we missed early. I’m disappointed because we had been playing very well, playing with heart, a lot of energy and drive and did not play that way tonight.”

No, the Nets were nothing like the team that beat the Kings on Wednesday and Pistons on Friday. They said they were tired. Yes, they played three games in four nights, but being fatigued isn’t something you want to hear from a team that is trying to make sure they don’t stay tied with the NBA futility kings, 1972-73 Philadelphia 76ers, with nine wins.

The Nets have plenty of time to rest. They now play two games in the next six nights and their season will end in Miami on April 14. Some of them can stay down there and lay on the beach, hang out, cruise to wherever they want. They have to somehow find the energy now.

So the wait begins. They have nine games to get that tenth win. Those nine games are home for San Antonio, Phoenix and New Orleans, at Washington and Milwaukee, home for Chicago, at Indiana, home for Charlotte and at Miami. There is at least one win in there if the Nets don’t play as lackadaisically on defense as they did against the Bulls and move the ball and work for better shots.

The Nets don’t play today, but you can get a glimpse of their soon-to-be owner and see what the future might be like.

After the NCAA Tournament games Sunday night, tune into “60 Minutes” on CBS for a profile on soon-to-be Nets’ owner Mikhail Prokhorov. He’s seen playing basketball in a sleeveless Nets’ shirt; he even hits a couple of shots, something I don’t know if Bruce Ratner could do.

Prokhorov also says something that probably wouldn’t have been uttered by Ratner: “I am real excited to take the worst team of the league and turn it to be the best.”

Circumstances, of course, are different.

In fact, when Ratner took ownership of the Nets, they were arguably the best team in the East. And as he exits in the next month or so, the Nets are the worst team in the NBA.

It’s not all Ratner’s fault. There were some bad draft picks and pickups. And it’s not that Ratner didn’t spend. He approved the Vince Carter acquisition and later his lucrative signing. Ratner also approved some other free-agent signings, including a full midlevel exception for Shareef Abdur-Rahim several years back.

The Rahim deal was later rescinded, but the point is Ratner, at times, was willing to do what he thought needed to be done to improve the Nets. But he wasn’t always willing the way a Jim Dolan or Mark Cuban might be.

In Prokhorov, the Nets seem to have a competitive owner, in the mold of Cuban, who will use his riches to improve the situation and make sure that a two-game winning streak isn’t the highlight of your season.

Al Iannazzone covers the Nets for The Record (Bergen County, N.J.)