The game, like the season, already was beyond salvation. The Lakers, with Jerry West and Wilt Chamberlain among their 60-victory cast, were running roughshod over the Sixers, who were enduring the worst NBA season ever. Kevin Loughery and buddy Fred Carter, former Washington teammates, were now the Sixers’ last line of defense against the vaunted Laker fast break.
“They were blowing us away,” Loughery recalled. “We thought we were defending but they just kept running by us. Then Freddy and I were back and we looked up and found ourselves against another 4-on-2.
“We looked at each other and said, ‘Here they come . . . again.’ ”
From Philadelphia’s 1972-73 NBA record 73-defeat season, that image fills Loughery’s mind. He first recalls the bitterness of games the Sixers played as well as they could and lost. But for one moment, Loughery picked the hopelessness he and Carter experienced as the Lakers ran down their throats.
Loughery played 11 NBA seasons, coached another 20 in the NBA and ABA, winning ABA titles with the Nets in ’74 and ’76. With that dreadful Sixers team, he played in 32 games overall and had the title of player-coach for the final 31, going 5-26 after replacing Roy Rubin when the Sixers started 4-47.
The Brooklyn native who starred at Cardinal Hayes in The Bronx and at St. John’s, said he spent much of his coaching tenure scouting. There was no lottery and the Sixers knew early they would get the No. 1 pick. Loughery, though, never made the pick. He wound up coaching the Nets after his time in nine-win hell.
So, yes, he knows exactly what the current Nets are going through. And no, he is not sitting back, hoping they remove his club from the top of the infamy list. He still keeps a close eye on the Nets from his Atlanta home, watching them regularly on satellite TV.
“I’m shocked by the year they are having,” said Loughery, who will turn 70 next month. “They have more talent than we had. [Brook] Lopez has a chance to be really good. I didn’t think there was any way they would challenge the record — and I still think they will get to 10 wins by just playing hard. But I am surprised by all of this. The most discouraging part was playing your best and you get beat. I remember one game against Cleveland. We couldn’t have played better. And they still beat us.
“So it’s tough. I’ve seen it in Devin Harris’ body language,” Loughery added. “He’s their only guy to have been an All-Star, right? Now the last few games have been different, but I thought his body language has been bad. A team leader can’t do that.”
There was some good that came from the record mess for Loughery: He got the Nets’ coaching job. Er, Kevin? How exactly did “1972-73: Helped lead Sixers to Worst Ever Record” on the resume land you a head job?
“Dave DeBusschere got the [GM] job with the Nets, and we had been teammates my rookie year in Detroit,” Loughery said.
So he never made that first pick for Philadelphia — it turned out to be Doug Collins. Instead, he got to coach a guy named Julius Erving on Long Island.
“When I had Dr. J, I was a great coach, a brilliant coach. When I didn’t have Dr. J anymore, I became real stupid in a hurry,” Loughery said with a laugh.
Loughery will continue watching these Nets, a team he remains convinced will avoid the “worst ever” tag. He wouldn’t wish that label on anyone, but it’s not like he walks down the street and people shun him for being on that team. The worst 82-game NBA record before the Sixers death roll was 15-67.
“The circumstances were different,” Loughery said, stressing knowing the
No. 1 pick awaited helped. “We never talked about it. It never came up. We never even thought about it, thinking back.”
The Nets, with national media following them, are reminded about the record about 31 times daily. Or hourly. They can’t escape it.
“What was hard,” Loughery recalled of the Sixers team that yielded 116.2 points while scoring 104.1 (the Nets surrender 101.1, score 90.0 through 54 games), “was once you were out of the playoffs, things became individual. Guys had individual agendas.”
He sees the Nets playing together, competing hard and he pointed to this week’s win at Charlotte as cause for optimism.
“Harris was a leader,” Loughery said. “[Josh] Boone played very well, was very active. But he only comes in because Lopez goes over someone’s back [foul trouble]. You need freak games like that. They played well. If they lost that one, I don’t know what it would have done to them. That kind of loss really hurts.”
And helps you become the worst team ever.
fred.kerber@nypost.com