NBA

Nets embarrassed after 44-point loss to Trail Blazers

PORTLAND, Ore. — The Nets arrived here for Wednesday night’s game against the Trail Blazers after spending two days in the Southern California sunshine. Then they went out and played like a team that had spent that time sitting on the beach instead of in the gym.

The Nets were beaten in all phases by the Blazers, as Portland cruised to a 124-80 win in front of a sellout crowd of 20,015 inside Moda Center.

“It’s too late in the goddamn season to be playing like this,” Kevin Garnett said. “We have to be better, and hold each other accountable.”

The Blazers were missing All-Star power forward LaMarcus Aldridge, as well as his backup, Thomas Robinson, and were coming off a taxing game Tuesday night in Denver at altitude against the Nuggets.

But none of that seemed to matter against the Nets, as Portland had their way from the opening tip.

“Man, we could’ve played against the Eastern Conference All-Stars … we shouldn’t lose by 40, regardless of who is out there, even if they’re missing their best players,” Pierce said. “I don’t know if it was just one of those nights, but at this point in the season, second half of the season, with so many games left, there’s no way we should come out and play this way.”

It was a lost opportunity for the Nets (26-29), who had a chance to become a .500 team again for the first time since early November with wins against the Aldridge-less Blazers Wednesday and the Nuggets in Denver Thursday, who have lost eight of their last 10 games.

Instead, the Nets were dominated by Portland (40-18) to the point where Nets coach Jason Kidd put in his end of the bench unit halfway through the third quarter and seemingly waved the white flag with his team trailing by 29, saving his starters to try and salvage the second half of the back-to-back in Denver.

“You look at it, and it’s unacceptable,” Shaun Livingston said. “We’re in a stretch run and trying to make a playoff seed and trying to get into a good flow going down the stretch, so a loss like this is unacceptable.Whether it’s one or 40 it’s still a loss, but it’s unacceptable.”

Deron Williams led the Nets with 12 points, while Joe Johnson had 11 and Mason Plumlee had 10, all of which came in second-half garbage time. Mo Williams led Portland with 21 points off the bench to go along with six rebounds and seven assists, and Nicolas Batum had 19 points, six rebounds and six assists.

The game was over by the end of the first half, as the Nets could do nothing right on their way to falling behind 58-34 at halftime.

Offensively, the Nets were overwhelmed by the length and athleticism of the younger Blazers, which forced Brooklyn into making a series of poor decisions on drives that resulted in either awkward, off-balance shots that had little chance of going in or wild passes that either went out of bounds or straight into the hands of a Portland defender.

The Nets finished with 14 turnovers, shooting just 32-for-81 from the field (39.5 percent) and 4-for-22 (18.2 percent) from 3-point range.

Defensively it was just as ugly, as the Blazers had their way both behind the arc, where they went 13-for-31 (41.9 percent) and in the paint, where they outscored the Nets 56-44. They also finished with a 17-8 advantage in second-chance points.

“You have to give them credit,” Deron Williams said. “When someone beats you by 40 points, you have to give them some credit somewhere. They outplayed us on both ends of the floor tonight, and we have to go to Denver and get one tomorrow.”

The Nets left immediately after the game for Denver, where they will play Thursday before heading to Milwaukee Saturday to finally end their two-plus weeks away from Brooklyn. They hope to put this dreadful showing behind them and finish the six-game trip with a pair of wins, which would give them a 4-2 record.

“The good thing about it is we can still salvage this trip,” Pierce said. “One in Denver, one in Milwaukee, and we have to take them one game at a time.

“Everyone knows how tough it is to go into Denver and win on back-to-backs. We have our work cut out for us, but that’s the only way we can salvage this, if we can get tomorrow and Milwaukee.”