There is losing. And then there’s playing like losers.
Sunday night Brooklyn looked like the latter.
For the second time in three games, the Nets embarrassed themselves, this one a 126-89 beating at the hands of the Clippers before 17,927 at the Intuit Dome.
It marked Brooklyn’s fifth straight defeat, and their tenth in the last 11 games. For a tanking team, losing the game isn’t a concern. But losing their competitiveness – becoming losers – is a grave one.
“We won the third quarter; we were competitive from those six minutes of the second. And outside of that, the other 30 minutes, we played like a losing team,” said Jordi Fernandez. “You can lose; and you can be a loser. So for 18 minutes, we lost and we were competitive. And for 30, we were losers. So we have to decide what we want to be and who we want to be.”
Brooklyn showed little fight, a horrid way to start a five-game road swing. But these problems started before their delayed cross-country flight.
While the worst defeat in team history – a 59-point caning – had actually come last Jan. 15 in this same building, the second-worst was Wednesday’s 54-point loss to the Knicks. After a brief bounceback Friday vs. Boston, the Nets backslid.
Brooklyn was flat from the start, down 38-14 after the lowest-scoring first quarter of the season. They fell behind by 40 and never fought back.
“It’s part of life and part of learning and part of finding the next Nets…we’re obviously going to need the right pieces on the floor that play and compete to a certain standard,” said Fernandez. “And right now, out of three games, one out of three as far as being competitive is not good enough. We should be 3-for-3 competitive, whether you win or lose.”
The tanking Nets have decisions to make, both by the Feb. 5 Trade Deadline and in the offseason. Players will be asked to acquit themselves and required to compete. None covered themselves in glory Sunday, about as ice-cold as the blizzard back home.
Michael Porter Jr. got held to single-digits with just nine points on uncharacteristic 3-of-11 shooting, and 0-of-4 from 3-point range. He has been dealing with a sprained MCL, and was off his game. Rookie Danny Wolf led the Nets with 14 points, seven rebounds and four assists off the bench, all team-highs. Egor Demin added a dozen points, but was 3-of-11 overall and 3-of-10 from deep.
The Nets had lost 121-105 to the Clippers on Jan 9, but this was far worse.
“They were just the better team. It wasn’t much to it. They just dominated us last game and dominated us (Sunday),” said Porter. “We’ve got to get back to competing every night. So from players to the guys on the bench to the coaches, we all just got to get back to competing. I could’ve definitely done a better job. Our starting unit could’ve done a better job. It was just an-all around bad effort.”
Brooklyn shot just 33.7 percent and 9-of-43 from deep. And they got torn to shreds on the other end by Kawhi Leonard (28 points) and ex-Net James Harden (22 points, eight assists and six rebounds).
The Nets trailed by 24 after one, and coughed up 18 unanswered points in the second.
Brooklyn was down 64-26 with 3:13 left in the half after a bucket by Jordan Miller.
The next play was even more embarrassing. Brooklyn ended up with a 5-on-4 possession, after Kris Dunn came up gimping. But the Nets missed four shots on the possession, before Dunn hobbled back into the play and grabbed the rebound.
The rest was garbage time, and that garbage stunk.
Brooklyn (12-32) is fifth in the lottery standings, 1 ½ games behind fourth-place Sacramento and just two out of the coveted Top 3 spots.
“They just played better than us,” said Porter. “They were obviously the better team tonight so that’s pretty much it. They were better than us.”
