Coming back to Brooklyn for some home cooking didn’t help the Nets.
They got run off their own court, blistered 136-109 by the visiting Pacers at Barclays Center.
Whether it was tired legs on the tail end of a back-to-back or just getting outclassed by a team that was in the NBA Finals two years ago, this game was as ugly as it was one-sided.
The Nets got humbled, with Indiana going full showtime mode. Unlike Saturday night’s thrilling comeback in a loss to Cleveland, this time there was no rally. Just lowlights.
The Nets offense went missing, shooting just 41 percent and 13-for-39 from 3-point range. Julius Randle, Michael Porter Jr. and Egor Dëmin — their only three double-digit scorers coming into the night — mustered just 23 points.
The trio combined for 7-for-27 shooting and 1-for-11 from deep, with Porter getting blocked at the rim on one play by Jay Huff. They were an aggregate minus-50, indicative of the kind of night it was for the Nets.
Meanwhile, Indiana star Tyrese Haliburton was at the heart of the humiliation. After a Randle turnover, Pascal Siakam got the ball upcourt to Haliburton, who bounced it off the floor to himself for a disrespectful breakaway dunk.
That left the Nets down 83-68 with the Pacers laughing on the bench.
The first half had actually been largely competitive.
Randle found Moritz Wagner for a 3-pointer that put the Nets up 51-49 with 2:45 left in the half.
But they allowed a 16-5 run the rest of the way, going into the locker room down by nine. Once they had let go of the rope, they never got it back.
Then came the highlights … and lowlights.
Haliburton had 24 points and was a plus-29, with his dunk making it 83-68.
The Nets were still down 88-74 with 5:40 left in the third on Nolan Traore’s free throw, but promptly conceded a dozen straight Indiana points.
Obi Toppin’s layup capped the blitz to make it 100-74 with 3:19 left in the period. The Nets trailed by 26, and unlike the night before — when they cut a 22-point fourth-quarter deficit in Cleveland down to just two — there was no comeback.
Coach Jordi Fernández emptied his bench, giving playing time to a number of Nets who had been out of the rotation.
Danny Wolf, Drake Powell and Ben Saraf — all 2025 first-round picks who had yet to get off the bench this season — finally saw action in the fourth quarter.
