NBA

NETS HIT THE ROAD

SALT LAKE CITY – For the Nets at the moment, the present isn’t too swell, the past is even worse and the immediate future isn’t looking too rosy.

Oh yeah, happy Thanksgiving week.

Saddled with a five-game losing streak and the league’s worst scoring offense, the Nets head west for their annual Thanksgiving week road trip, starting tonight against the Jazz. Last year, the Nets pitched an o-fer on the trip, losing all four games. Since Jason Kidd came to New Jersey, the Nets are 8-20 on their Thanksgiving time adventures and are 36-87 all-time.

The last two defeats, a drubbing by Orlando and a discouraging turnover-plagued mess that the Nets still could have salvaged against Miami, caused Kidd to leave without talking to the media. He has avoided comment in the past, but not in back-to-back games. Kidd obviously was upset. If he goes south, the Nets are dead. So far, Kidd’s silence hasn’t hurt his play. He had a triple double against Orlando (with 19 rebounds) and had 15 assists against Miami.

The 4-6 Nets, who were looking to get off to a strong start with eight of their first 10 games at home, are looking to ignite their season. They start the trip tonight against the Jazz, who should be in a real peachy mood after a 20-point loss in Indiana.

The Nets still await the return of Vince Carter, whose sprained right ankle-induced absence has crippled a struggling offense even more. Maybe Carter plays tonight.

“Going on the road sometimes is the best thing for a team that’s struggling because all you have is each other,” said coach Lawrence Frank, who juggled his lineup against Miami, starting Sean Williams and Jamaal Magloire over Jason Collins and Nenad Krstic.

Sometimes, it’s not. Here was Antoine Wright’s take on the timing of the trip that also brings games against the Blazers, Sonics and Lakers.

“It’s horrible. Horrible,” Wright said of the timing. “Nobody’s going to be naive about that. Losing all these games and then going west, it’s horrible but we have to just stick with it.”

Williams seems a safe bet to start again, but after that Frank is taking it game-by-game. Without Carter drawing double teams, there are fewer open shots for the Nets. Richard Jefferson, for example, shot .484 (45-of-93) in games Carter played. Since Carter sat out, he’s at .375 (27-of-72).

The Nets are coming off a discouraging 91-87 loss to Miami, in which Jefferson missed a layup with 5.9 seconds remaining with a chance to tie. Replays showed he was hit and possibly Miami’s Udonis Haslem hit the rim as well. But no call and the fact the Nets were even there at the end was remarkable. They committed 20 first-half turnovers.

“We’re a little more upbeat about it. We’re right there. RJ makes his shot, we get a couple free throws to drop, we win,” Wright said, noting a stinging loss to New Orleans, too. “We win those two games and it’s a lot different.”

fred.kerber@nypost.com