MINNEAPOLIS — It appears $189 million doesn’t go as far as it used to.
In a season already full of lows, the Nets sank to a new one Friday night.
The Nets were destroyed from start to finish by the younger, faster and, frankly, better Timberwolves, losing 111-81 inside Target Center in a game that was over almost as soon as it began and sent Brooklyn to its fourth straight loss and seventh in its last eight games.
“We can talk about it, but the actions have to kick in at some points, and we’re not doing that on either end,” Nets coach Jason Kidd said. “We’ve written [it] on the board. We’ve talked about it. The coaches have talked about it. As players, at some point they have to accept it … maybe our message isn’t clear enough.”
If the message from Kidd and the coaching staff isn’t clear enough, perhaps taking a look at the standings will be. Remarkably, after their expensive makeover this offseason, the Nets are now 3-9, still missing Deron Williams, Brook Lopez and Andrei Kirilenko due to injuries and are alone in last place in the Atlantic Division, the worst division in basketball.
“We’ve created this monster, and we’ve got to deal with it,” Kevin Garnett said when asked how to keep the negativity surrounding the team’s rough start from permeating the locker room. “It is what it is.
“You’re going to have the business of basketball come into play, I’m sure, and management is probably going to do what they’ve got to do, and that’s out of our hands. We control our destiny, who we are as individuals and players, so you’ve got to, again, for the fifth time I’m saying this, you have to look at yourself and try to fix this thing.”
After Garnett, the greatest player in Timberwolves history, made his first shot of the game, Minnesota (8-6) immediately responded with a 9-1 run and never looked back, beating the Nets in virtually every facet of the game.
By the time the first quarter had come to an end, Brooklyn was already trailing 30-14. The combination of Kevin Love (17 points and 16 rebounds in 28 minutes) and Nikola Pekovic (15 points and seven rebounds in 26 minutes) pounded the Nets on the boards and in the paint, where Brooklyn was powerless to stop its opponents once again with Lopez sidelined.
A look across the stat sheet after 12 minutes was beyond ugly: The Nets shot 4-for-19 from the field, committed nine turnovers that led to 10 Timberwolves points and were destroyed in the paint on both points (Minnesota held a 14-2 advantage) and second-chance points (15-3).
Things didn’t get much better from there, with the Nets finishing the game shooting under 40 percent from the field, committing 20 turnovers and ending up with just seven assists on 31 made field goals.
“They are good enough,” Kidd said when asked if he believed his players were good enough to follow through on the messages he and his coaching staff are giving them. “We believe in those guys.
“There are teams that go through spurts of not playing well when the ball is not bouncing their way, and right now the ball isn’t bouncing our way. We’ve just got to stay together.”
The game was such a laugher the entire starting five for both Minnesota — all of whom finished the game in double-figures — and Brooklyn sat out the entire fourth quarter. The Timberwolves led 90-58 after the third.
Andray Blatche led the Nets with 16 points while Joe Johnson added 15, but Paul Pierce struggled again, going 2-for-11 from the field and finishing with six points.
“I’m just struggling right now, simple and plain,” said Pierce, who is 7-for-34 since sitting out last Saturday’s game against the Clippers with a sore left groin.
“I think I’m getting great looks. I’ve just got to be able to knock them down. I’ve got to be able to step up with these guys out and I’ve got to be able to play better basketball.”
The same can be said for the Nets as a whole who, while missing three of their six best players in Williams, Lopez and Kirilenko, have looked completely lost at times throughout their miserable start to the season, one that’s gone about as far from how it was expected to go as it possibly could.
“We’re trying to soul search right now and see who we are,” Garnett said. “Each individual has got to look themselves in the mirror and try and see what they can do better. Period. Point blank.
“We’re better than this, and we know it. I don’t know what it is … a broken record? We keep playing the same old song and we’re playing the instruments, so it’s on us.”