The Nets are home after a winless West Coast trip – and winless in 2010 – and open a homestand that includes some winnable games.

(Pause for dramatic effect and then repeat it for the magnitude of the statement:)

This homestand includes some winnable games for the 3-40 Nets.

If the Nets don’t show any improvement during this four-game stay you probably could write in magic marker that the NBA record for losses in a season will belong to the this team.

The Nets open Wednesday night against the Clippers, play the Wizards and Sixers this weekend and then the Pistons next week.

The Clippers are playing much better lately, but the Wizards, Sixers and Pistons – probably in that order – are the most disappointing teams in the NBA. The Nets aren’t a disappointment

The Nets are doing something never thought possible when they were 0-18. They’re getting worse.

They’re much healthier than they were when they were losing every night earlier this season and they’re worse now. That’s not an easy thing to do.

They returned early this morning from the West Coast just totally beaten, believing there is no hope in sight and honestly there is no reason for hope. You know the numbers: 40 losses in 43 games. Even more distressing is how far they have fallen, how much they have regressed not only since Dec. 30, but since Lawrence Frank was replaced after 16 games.

But here's looking at a small sample of games before we go big picture. Over the four-game trip, the Nets allowed the opposition to shoot 55.4 percent and average 112.8 points

The Nets game started a little after 9 p.m. last night, and if you just came back from dinner or were putting your child to bed and turned on YES at about 9:25 p.m., you missed all you needed to see.

A 21-1 first-quarter Jazz run all but ended the game. There was plenty of time left, but 21-1 is tough to come back from, even if it’s in the first quarter. A 2-1 run sometimes can be hard for the Nets to answer.

But 21-1, for a team that scored 14 points in the fourth quarter the night before at Golden State and had more than 21 in just one period against the always charitable Warriors, is insurmountable and it was.

The Nets ended their four-game West trip with another demoralizing setback, No. 11 in a row and No. 40 in 43 games. The Jazz ran all over the Nets and sent them back to

Forty-one down, and with 41 to go there is little reason for hope for the Nets. But here are six things to look forward to:

1. Russian billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov should take over soon: Let the spending begin

2. Proky will want to make a big splash: Could mean a big deal if he’s here before the trade deadline

3. The season will mercifully end at some point -- with the futility mark or just an awful record

4. The Draft Lottery: When you’re this bad you have to get the No. 1 pick. If the Nets don’t after this    season the system really needs to change.

5. The Draft: Could be a great day if they get John Wall and don’t rule out a trade since they usually are active on this day

6. Free Agency: Could be successful, but also could turn out to be

The Nets got the message that their effort needs to improve, but even when they played harder and with more energy than they have in almost two weeks they still were blown out.

This isn’t good for their self-esteem or confidence that if they do the right things they can win another game. Of course, you have to take into account the opponent.

The Nets played at Phoenix, and the Suns needed a win. They had lost four straight and didn’t want to extend the skid against the worst team in the NBA. No one wants to be the team that losses to the Nets.

The Suns didn’t need to worry because their star power and execution were far too much for the Nets to handle and resulted in a 118-94 rout.

If the Nets play this way in their next game, at Golden State, maybe they can pull out

Imagine what the Phoenix Suns are going to do against the defensively challenged Nets unless they show some resistance.

Phoenix, the NBA’s highest-scoring team, is the Nets’ next opponent on this four-game trip. There are worse defensive teams than the Nets, but the way they’ve played the last three games on that end of the floor shows that they’re not giving any type of effort toward stopping teams.

The latest example was a 106-95 loss to the Clippers that wasn’t as close as the score would indicate. The Clippers opened the game with a season-high 39 first-quarter points, registered 61 points in the first half, and the 106 points Los Angeles scored was their fifth-highest output this season.

Over the last three games, teams have shot 54.3 percent and averaged

The Nets played another game that was over in the first half, which is embarrassing considering the team they faced.

This wasn’t the Celtics or the Hawks -- some teams that have recently run the Nets out of the building. This was Indiana. Granted the Pacers are now healthy with Danny Granger, Troy Murphy and Mike Dunleavy, Jr., and they have some good players.

But after what happened against Boston the other night, after the Nets were down 36 at halftime, you expected a better performance. But the only things anyone should come to expect from the Nets are bad offense and worse defense.

The final of this one was 121-105, so it may seem that the offense wasn’t bad. But it was.

Over a 5:44 stretch in the fateful second quarter, the Nets were 2-for-11 with three turnovers and

The Nets were being crushed by 36 points Wednesday night when Devin Harris did something it never should have taken almost 40 games to do. He went off.

What took so long?

The way the season has gone for the Nets it’s surprising more players haven’t lost their cool and there aren’t more holes in the locker room walls, or broken dry erase boards or urinals lying on the floor.

No one is condoning destroying public property - certainly not me. Every person and player has a different way to show his frustration, but it’s good that someone has gotten emotional. A general malaise as the Nets often have shown can be mistaken for them not caring.

It is a tough situation – the losing, the fact that the organization has made moves and will continue to make moves with

The Celtics didn’t have Kevin Garnett or Rasheed Wallace, but the Nets were minus Keyon Dooling and Tony Battie so it all evened out. Not really.

Boston would have had to be without Garnett, Wallace, Big Baby Davis, Paul Pierce, Rajon Rondo, Brian Scalabrine, Ray Allen and Kendrick Perkins for the Nets to have had a chance Wednesday night and that might be pushing it.

This one –- a 111-87 Boston rout -- was over early as the Nets failed to defend and rebound and let the Celtics' aggressiveness take them out of the game right away. It was a double-digit deficit about six minutes into the game and surpassed 20 with just under two minutes to go in the first period.

There’s no truth to the rumor that recently acquired Shawne Williams, who was exiled from the Mavericks since