ATLANTA –- The Nets opened their three-game road trip here, but there really was no evidence that they showed up in Atlanta.

They trailed by double-figures for the final 42:32 in a 119-89 shellacking against the Hawks.

With the game over in the first period, the entertainment came from watching the “Kiss Cam” attraction where they scour the arena and get fans to smooch on the jumbo screen, and a feature about what the Hawks bought when they first started making NBA money.

Al Horford talked about the houses he bought, other players talked about their tricked out rides and former Net Jason Collins said he bought a bed. And then they had Collins’ likeness jumping on a bed.

Good stuff above the floor, but everything on the court was tough to watch from a Nets’

Trading season opened for the Nets on Tuesday night. They were minor, but represented their first roster moves they made since drafting Terrence Williams on June 25, 2009.

It may only be the beginning of a busy six-plus weeks for Nets’ management.

The Nets are in search of young players on good deals, expiring contracts and draft picks. They acquired all three last night before another embarrassing loss, this time a 98-76 blowout against Milwaukee, ending their seven-game homestand with a 1-6 mark.

Chris Quinn, a never-used point guard in Miami, was acquired along with a 2012 second-round pick and cash for a 2010 second-rounder that will never leave the Nets' hands. It’s protected 31-50 and the way things are going the Nets will own the No. 31 pick.

Before that was finalized

This streak started innocently, unlike some of the Nets’ streaks this season, and it's still going.

The start of the Nets’ record-setting losing streak to open the season was like a hammer crashing as they blew a 19-point third-quarter cushion and lost at the buzzer in Minnesota.

This latest streak started after another hammer came down when the Nets wasted a double-digit second-half lead despite out-rebounding the board-effective Bucks. That was the last time the Nets won the battle of the glass.

One game later, the Nets played the Knicks in Devin Harris’ return from a groin injury. The winning was supposed to start. Instead, the Nets lost again and New York held a slight edge in rebounds.

It was loss No. 13 in a row and also the first of now 21 consecutive games

When LeBron James rattled off the good, young players the Nets have he mentioned every starter but one -- Yi Jianlian. It wasn’t surprising.

James hasn’t seen the best of Yi. The previous four games, his first four since returning from a seven-week absence, Yi averaged 22.5 points and opened up some eyes with his aggressiveness. But he went back to being jump-shot happy against the Cavaliers on Saturday and shot 2-for-13.

So when James omitted Yi he probably was going on the games he played against Yi or his reputation, which is of someone who is inconsistent or lacks aggressiveness or can be taken out of games mentally.

Yi deserves a little more time, especially under this coaching regime, which will allow him to play through his mistakes, before he is judged. Kiki Vandeweghe

The situations are similar. The Oklahoma City Thunder were about to be sold, about to be moved and dumped players and salaries and tried to build through the draft, trades and free agency.

Sound familiar?

Now, they have had some major growing pains, but look at where they are now. In Kevin Durant’s third NBA season the Thunder have an opportunity to make the playoffs in the tougher Western Conference.

It helps, of course, when you have a player of Durant’s stature and talent. You can tell he wants to be great. He’s worked at getting bigger and stronger. He’s playing better defense, rebounding the ball better and making his teammates around him better.

Just a year ago, the Thunder were 3-28 after 31 games. The 2-29 Nets are just one game worse. Today, the Thunder

The Nets returned to their old ways on Monday night, and by that we don’t a few years ago when they would win games.

After two games in which they fought hard, and battled both the T-Wolves and Rockets to the final seconds, the Nets let Kevin Durant and the Oklahoma City Thunder run away with a 105-89 victory. The operative word is run.

Like the old days –- two weeks ago -– when the opposition made their run the Nets didn’t have a response and the game got away quickly.

"I don't know whether we ran out of gas or they turned it up," coach Kiki Vandweghe said. "We’ve got to find a way to push through that last 12-15 minutes when they make runs."

It was a little of both.

The Thunder, behind a season-high tying 40 points from Durant, turned up their game.

A two-day Christmas break looked like it was going to do the Nets some good. They played with passion and energy and seemed committed to breaking though and ending their second-longest losing streak of the season.

But on the court you make your own breaks.

It didn’t matter how hard they worked because the undersized Rockets know something about working for a win. They’ve done it all season in the deep West and did it to the Nets Saturday night, losers of a 98-93 nailbiter, their ninth in a row.

It wasn’t the Nets’ ninth nailbiter in a row, but their ninth loss. The first seven were lopsided for the most part, but the last two have come down to the wire. The 2-28 Nets just haven’t been able to make the key stop or hit the key shot that gets them over the

The Nets had one of their longer practices since the new regime took over. Kiki Vandeweghe said it was his first real practice with the Nets.

You certainly could look at it that way, since he had just about everyone take part except for Chris Douglas-Roberts, whose sprained right ankle kept him hobbled, and Eduardo Najera. Yi Jianlian was out there and Jarvis Hayes, too.

Slowly but surely, it seems the Nets are getting their regular players back. You can’t be entirely sure because it seems every time someone is about to return, someone else gets hurt.

But barring more setbacks or injuries, you’re looking at the possibility -– possibility -– that the Nets will have 15 players available for Saturday’s game against the Rockets or maybe Dec. 28 against Oklahoma

EAST RUTHERFORD -- All the words that were used in the locker room after Friday’s game in Toronto seemed to have struck a chord with the Nets.

We’re just talking about the ones they used to us. More colorful things probably were said among the players and coaches.

But to beatwriters after Friday’s debacle in Toronto, Nets players used words like “pitiful,” “horrible,” “inexcusable,” and “awful,” and one of them questioned very loudly where everyone’s pride was.

Less than 24 hours later, the Nets responded, playing with a passion they didn’t have at all in Toronto, an energy that was zapped from the start in Canada and a hunger that never made its way into the arena. They had all those things Friday and still