By FRED KERBER

You hate to talk about what might have been, but…

That’s exactly what we’re going to do here.

Richard Jefferson today was talking about how he has known nothing but the playoffs since he has been a Net. So many seasons saw down times. Several seasons saw the Nets reverse fields in late March, make a dash and secure a spot. Jefferson reminded how the Nets clinched the playoffs on the last day one season (2004-05) and last season moved up to sixth on the last day.

Might happen again.

And we all might hit the lottery tomorrow.

Remember, anything can still happen. Rod Thorn forecast 37 wins as being necessary. The Nets (26-37) then would need to win 11 of their last 19 games starting tonight against the Rockets (loss). So make it 11 of their last 18 starting against the Cavs Wednesday (loss). Okay, 11 of their last 17 starting with the Jazz Saturday (loss).

They have gone 11-5 in the past, you know.

Anyway, the point is, they should never be in this position. For whatever reason, there are 10 (actually more, but 10 is such a nice round number) games staring them in the face that they’ve lost they never should have. Make those defeats wins, they’re 36-27, same record as Cleveland and virtually locked into the playoffs.

The leaden 10:

Right off the bat, three games against the Knicks, two games against Memphis, two games against the Clippers. Bingo, 0-7. No excuse for those defeats. those three teams are a combined 53-133 (.285)

Then there was the first game against the Hornets. TWO four-point plays in the fourth quarter? You’re kidding, right? Did they lose a bet or what? There’s eight games.

Try the game at Minnesota Jan. 27. Yes, it was the end of a end of a long, hard and all-losing trip (lots of those this year, huh?) but these were the Timberwolves who have rampaged for 14 wins all season. The Nets WERE UP 15 in the fourth quarter but saw Minny scored the game’s final 10 points in the last 75 seconds. And despite all his recent proclamations to the contrary, anyone who watched Jason Kidd in the fourth quarter here and still believed he cared even an iota, was nuts. Kidd went public with his trade request the next day. There’s nine games.

And for No. 10, we’re picking the first meeting with Miami on Nov. 17, just because. The Heat have won 11 games. This was one of them. Dwyane Wade was coming back from injury but these still were the Heat who allowed their bench to go the free agent route while becoming a team that stunk on ice.

If ever the Nets needed a do-over, this was it. Actually, 10 do-overs.

* * *

Nenad Krstic wants to play the Hornets as much as possible. Krstic had 14 points and 11 rebounds in New Orleans Friday for his second double-double of the season. Guess who his first was against?

“I remember. It was the Hornets,” said Krstic who had 12 and 10 in that dreadful double four-point play loss. “I don’t know why against them.”

Krstic admits he is “almost 100 percent” in every way. In his last four games, he has shot 20-of-35 (.571).

* * *

Vince Carter is expected tonight. He had personal matters to attend to and flew home after the Dallas game. He wasn’t at shootaround.

* * *

Rockets have won nine straight games by double digits. The record is 10 held jointly by 46-47 Washington and…right, your New Jersey Nets in 2003-04. That run included the first nine games of Lawrence Frank’s tenure. The first game in the streak came when Byron Scott was ejected, Frank took over and Nets won. It was Scott’s last game.

“I think they’re beating better teams than we were. We weren’t in the wild, wild West doing that,” Jefferson said.

* * *

Jefferson insisted the Nets are still in position for a playoff run. Why? To quote Coach Cal, “Track record.”

“If you’ve never known anything but a certain level of success, why would you look otherwise? Again, this is a team like I said made the playoffs on the last day. We moved to sixth in the last game. So now when we’re struggling with 20 games to go and we might be 1/2 game out or two games away from being seventh, why would you all of a sudden go, ‘Ah, it’s over’ or ‘Here we go again?’ over, ‘Okay, down the stretch let’s get it done?'”

* * *

Lawrence Frank on the Rockets: “McGrady’s playing at an unbelievable level. Tracy’s one of those guys, he’s had different times during the season, he’s had it every year since he’s been here where he has a stretch where he plays like an MVP. Many times it coincides with Yao being out. Same thing happened when he was here with Jeff. He just took over because he can do everything in the book plus he’s an unbelievable passer with great size and he’s playing very, very determined basketball.”

He said other stuff, but basically it’s Vince’s cousin being great and being surrounded “with shooters, defenders and finishers.”

* * *

Frank is juggling the backup power forward position, getting different results each time. For shooting and scoring – and in small lineups – he uses Bostjan Nachbar. for defense and rebounding, it’s Sean Williams. It seems Frank really is hoping Stromile Swift can take over but so far has come up short.

“Stro’ has been given a little bit of an opportunity and it’s how much do you want to knock that door to make the most of it? That’s kind of where it’s at,” said Frank, who scored points for being diplomatic and not saying Swift has been awful at times.

* * *

Devin Harris had a chat with Jason Kidd in Dallas after the game Saturday.

“He just kind of gave me insights on a lot of different guys, the offense and what not, how to deal with some of the coaches, some of the things he’s gone through and trying to give me the best advice on the best approach to take to it,” Harris said. “It was some good stuff. A couple things I didn’t know, a couple things we kind of refocused on. He’s been here for a while so it was some good insights from him.”

Harris like Jefferson has known nothing but the playoffs. So this is sort of weird being on a team that is scrambling like Hades to make it.

“Well, it’s different,” Harris agreed. “Obviously, Dallas was like an automatic thing. It was just a matter of what seed we were going to be who we were playing. It’s a different situation and something I’ve got to get used to now. We need to play better…We’ve got to get together as much as we can. Nobody is going to feel sorry for us.”

* * *

In honor of the playoff race, even if it’s not so great:

Movie quote(s) of the day: Peter Falk (Max) “We gotta do something.” Jack Lemmon (Professor Fate) “Oh, don’t worry. Before this iceberg melts and we drown like rats, we’re going to do plenty.” (Max) “Yeah? What?” (Prof. Fate) “We’re gonna starve.” – “The Great Race”