Nets’ putrid skid continues with noncompetitive road loss to Pelicans

NEW ORLEANS — New Year. New Orleans. Same Nets. 

Whatever is wrong with Brooklyn is just getting worse. It suffered a 112-85 thrashing Tuesday night at the hands of the Pelicans before 16,253 at Smoothie King Center, a game that was a noncompetitive wire-to-wire evisceration. 

The Nets (15-19) have dropped four straight and nine of their last 11.

They haven’t beaten a team other than the historically horrible Pistons since Dec. 13. 

“I was very concerned how we responded. We’ve been a team to be able to step up to challenges and we didn’t do a lot of things well,” said Jacque Vaughn.“Now, they’re longer, they’re stronger. So therein lies the will to get it done and the will to do your part and get outside of yourself. And if you’re really desperate about winning, then you dive on the floor. You’ll do it all. You’ll get cuts and bruises and you’ll go home sore. We’re not there yet. It’s as simple as that.” 

Brooklyn has not been there for awhile.

But of all those defeats, Tuesday’s might have been the most concerning. 

Their 23-point loss to Denver came in a mile-high back-to-back at the home of reigning champions. Last week’s 22-point defeat against Milwaukee came when they essentially punted a game against a contender, and it was still close late. 

This? This was a beating, falling behind by 13 in the first 3 ½ minutes and immediately capitulating from there, with no fight shown.

Brooklyn trailed by 27 in the second quarter and 32 in the third. 

Cam Johnson had 17 points and Mikal Bridges 13, but the offense was putrid. 

Leading scorer Cam Thomas was held scoreless, 0-for-11 from the floor.

Dinwiddie and Royce O’Neale were each a scoreless 0-for-6. 

Brooklyn shot 35.7 percent overall and just 11 of 43 from behind the arc.

The Nets are just 39 of 149 in their four-game skid, a sure recipe for disaster.

A Nets team that lives and dies by the 3-pointer is doing the latter. 

The Pelicans (20-14) clearly had the book on how to beat them — not that it’s been hard lately. 

“You’ve got to take care of the ball,” said New Orleans coach Willie Green. “You’ve got to help yourself on the offensive end, take quality shots. When you get into the paint, you’ve got to make really good decisions with [Nic] Claxton being down there and his ability to block shots. 

“Offensively, for those guys, they play fast, they want to get up 3’s, so you have to keep them out of rhythm. You have to be physical with them early, make sure we’re in, so you can get out and contest shots. It goes back to finishing possessions. Don’t give them extra opportunities to score.” 

The Pelicans pulled their plan off perfectly. 

Brooklyn stumbled and took a headlong fall right out of the starting blocks.

It fell behind 16-3 on a Zion Williamson driving finger roll just 2:29 in. 

The Nets missed six of their first seven shots to fall into that 13-point hole, and things just kept getting worse. 

New Orleans defensive ace Herb Jones hit a 3-pointer to pad the Pelicans’ cushion to 59-32 with 2:50 left in the first half. 

Brooklyn went into the locker room trailing by 25 points, having shot 28.3 percent and just 6 of 22 from behind the arc.

Thomas was 0-for-7, Dinwiddie was 0-for-5 and the offense looked in disarray. 

C.J. McCollum hit a 3-pointer to make it 71-38. The clock read 8:25 left in the third quarter, but the game was over. 

Vaughn mercifully raised the white flag and emptied his bench for the fourth. 

“No one says that because you have individuals that have the ability to or history of being defenders [that it translates]. In order to collectively do it, it takes an understanding when you have people who’ve come from different defenses,” Vaughn had said before the game. 

“There are different styles that probably dudes on the team would pick to help themselves in the way they defend. That’s our challenge, to get a defense that’s geared towards all five guys being able to understand how to defend.”