LOS ANGELES — The Nets’ loss Wednesday blew right past horrific to historic.
Brooklyn may have been on the court but it never really showed up, taking a 126-67 beating at the hands of the Clippers at Intuit Dome.
It was the most lopsided rout in Nets history and the biggest win in Clippers history. It was tied for the 10th-worst in all-time NBA annals, and will surely be one of the most humbling in recent memory, even by the standards of a tanking team.
The Nets trailed by a mind-bending 64 points with 5 ¹/₂ minutes to play. They ended up shooting 30.5 percent and were 5-for-27 from 3-point range.
Only a late push got them past their lowest-scoring output in franchise history, 62 points against the Cavaliers on Jan. 28, 1997.
It was only fitting that the YES Network crew had to fill time and the discussion turned to the 1,400 toilets at Intuit Dome. The dad jokes write themselves.
The previous worst beating in franchise history had been by 52 points at the hands of Houston on Oct. 18, 1978, back when they were the New Jersey Nets. The Clippers almost ran them back to Jersey on Wednesday night.
Last year’s 50-point humbling in Boston was the last game before the All-Star break, and turned out to be the last one of Jacque Vaughn’s Brooklyn tenure.
Though rookie head coach Jordi Fernandez has done an exemplary job of getting this shorthanded rebuilding team to play hard, this was embarrassing.
After briefly taking a 25-24 lead early in the second quarter, Brooklyn lost contact and never fought back. They let the Clippers go on an extended 66-13 run to fall behind 90-38 with five minutes remaining in the third quarter. The only drama in the fourth was merely to see how historically-bad this beating was going to get.
The Nets played without Cam Thomas, Cam Johnson, D’Angelo Russell and Ben Simmons.
On the flip side, it was the biggest win in Clippers franchise history.
Kawhi Leonard had 23 points on 8-for-11 shooting and was a career-high plus-46 despite logging just 24 minutes. Those were more than enough.
Former Net star James Harden dominated his former team with 21 points and 11 assists. He had six assists in the first half — as many as Brooklyn had as a team.
Harden had broken up Brooklyn’s Big 3 when he demanded a trade to Philadelphia.
Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving followed suit a year later. And after an ill-fated season trying to contend behind Mikal Bridges, the Nets have started down this rebuilding path.
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