Poor crowd, terrible defense and the bench was even worse. Add a game-changing run from the foe with no response from the home team and you get yet another Nets loss.
And about the only loud cheers were for the celebrities on hand — a rapper (Ja Rule) and present and former athletes (D’Brickashaw Ferguson, David Cone and John Franco) seated courtside for this beating.
Just change the dates on the calendar and the names on the other jerseys, because this game might as well have been on a loop.
The latest iteration was a 114-100 loss to Indiana, Brooklyn’s fifth straight. It was essentially a dour wire-to-wire defeat that saw the announced crowd of 13,311 boo the lack of effort as the final buzzer sounded.
Brooklyn never led after the first 2:25 of the game, but it was coughing up the first 10 points of the second quarter that saw the game get away from the Nets. It turned a 26-23 contest into a 36-23 hole that reached a 20-point deficit before the half.
The Nets (12-38) let Indiana shoot 13-of-18 in that second quarter, and not shockingly they never recovered.
“We just had a scoring drought and they got away from us,” said Brook Lopez, who had team-highs of 21 points and 14 rebounds, but had just three points in the second half. “We tried to fight back but couldn’t do it. [C.J.] Miles hit some difficult shots as well. But we just need to be confident, share the ball.
“We got ourselves into a little hole, and it’s always tough to play from that position.’’
Especially when you don’t get stops. The Nets let Indiana shoot 12-of-24 from deep — stopping behind the picks — and made Miles look like Stephen Curry. The reserve swingman had shot just 29 percent in his previous 14 games, but Brooklyn let him score a game-high 27 on 10-of-15 shooting.
Joe Johnson had 20 points and a team-high 11 assists, including 11 points in the third quarter to try and get the Nets back in it. They clawed within seven — at 78-71 on free throws by Thaddeus Young (16 points, 14 rebounds) and 80-73 on a finger roll by Donald Sloan (11 points, seven assists). But that’s as close as it got.
Asked about that defensive collapse, Johnson said: “I’m not sure, man. It just seems like every game we have a mental lapse, whether it’s turnovers or I have no idea. Honestly I don’t know. But we hurt ourselves from time to time.’’
The bench got outscored 58-14, and shot just 7-of-21.
“It kills us a little bit, because our starters battled back into the game,’’ said interim coach Tony Brown. “We’re not sustaining anything on a regular basis. … If I have to play my guys longer minutes just to stay in the game I guess I will. But I’m still looking for a few good men.’’
The Miami Herald reported the Heat would be interested in Johnson if he is bought out by the Nets, but the veteran said he hasn’t pushed to get out of Brooklyn.
As for Lopez, he reached 1,000 points, the fastest he had ever done so in a season and the first Net to do it in 50 games since Vince Carter in 2008-09.