BOSTON — As bad as the Nets’ trade with Boston was in the summer of 2013 — and it was the worst deal since Faust — watching video of Friday’s humiliation by the Celtics will sting their pride even more. Every wide-open jumper will be salt in the wound, every too-easy basket a reminder of how they flat-out didn’t show up.
The Nets didn’t defend, they didn’t compete and they sure didn’t win, losing 120-95 to the Celtics before 18,361 at TD Garden in a game that was as much a capitulation as it was an evisceration.
“We just basically let them do whatever they wanted to do,” Thaddeus Young said. “Defensively we just played terrible at every position, including myself. We’ve just got to pick it up defensively. … We played terrible. We played terrible. That’s the only thing we can say right now.’’
Terrible doesn’t do this one justice.
Granted, the Nets are 2-11 with glaring holes, and talent-poor after selling their future to these same Celtics for what they hoped was a shot in their present. With Kevin Garnett, Paul Pierce and the other players from that ill-fated deal all gone — and Boston holding the Nets’ unprotected first-round picks in 2016, 2018 and the right to swap in 2017 — Brooklyn frankly isn’t that good.
But the Nets know they should be better than this. Better than letting Boston shoot 58.6 percent, and a ridiculous 85.7 percent in the second quarter. Better than letting the Celtics score 68 points in the paint — without even posting up.
“They got the looks they wanted. We didn’t have much weak-side help. The low man wasn’t there, lots of easy looks around the rim. Just a bad game,’’ Brook Lopez said. “We weren’t helping the helper. We weren’t there backing each other up at all.’’
And it showed. They let Avery Bradley score a game-high 21 points on 10-of-13 shooting and point guard Isaiah Thomas shred their defense for 18 points and nine assists, underscoring their need for a lead guard. Lopez and Young led the Nets with 14 each, but got precious little help.
“We’ve been in a lot of close games and this obviously wasn’t that close,” Young said. “They were ready and we weren’t. … There’s no excuse for how we played.’’
No, but there were reasons. Brooklyn trailed just 23-19 after the first quarter, but opened the second with the odd quintet of Lopez surrounded by backups Shane Larkin, Bojan Bogdanovic, Thomas Robinson and little-used Sergey Karasev.
Points to coach Lionel Hollins for creativity in trying something, anything.
It didn’t work out.
The Nets were run — and shot — right out of the gym and onto the Bunker Hill Bridge. They were outscored 43-23, and watched the Celtics shoot 18 of 21 from the floor. And this wasn’t that Villanova-vs.-Georgetown-in-1985 kind of shooting, contested, unconscious. This was all too easy.
The Nets wanted to control the tempo, play at a pace conducive to Lopez and Young working inside — and keep the young, athletic Celtics out of transition. But they committed 19 turnovers, seven by point guard Jarrett Jack. (There goes that lead guard theme again.)
“This was a disappointing loss; disappointing performance,’’ said Hollins, adding, “We turned the ball over, we missed shots, they got whatever they wanted. And they made shots.”
Lopez added: “It was tough. It wasn’t fun to watch from the bench. … We’ve got to learn what we can [Friday] and come out and show them it’s not going to be the same type of game the next time we play them.”
That will be Sunday’s rematch at Barclays Center, with Boston hoping to add another “L” to the Nets’ record and more ping-pong balls to their lottery hopes.
Apparently schadenfreude comes in shamrock green.