NBA Brooklyn Nets point guard D’Angelo Russell / Soobum Im-Imagn Images
Tonight, the Brooklyn Nets will take on the Los Angeles Lakers, hoping to bounce back from being on the wrong side of history.
Against the Clippers on Wednesday, Brooklyn saw its worst loss in franchise history, losing 126-67 in low-effort fashion. All five of LA’s starters finished in double figures as the team coasted to the 59-point win.
As Brooklyn head coach Jordi Fernandez said following the game, it was more than just the team’s roster, which has been left more bare than it was a month ago.
“When you see a loss like this, a lot of things went wrong,” Fernandez said. “The energy and competitive spirit was not there, plain and simple. But right now, the only thing I can do is support my guys. It’s never a good experience to go through this, but analyzing the whole season, none of our guys work for this, and they’ve competed the whole time.”
It will be interesting to see which product the Lakers get. Will the team take its loss to heart, and bring the fire to LA? Or will the downward momentum stick around? As it stands now, the team sits at 14-27, good for the seventh-worst record in the league. Losing game here and there has somewhat been by design in order to garner higher ’25 draft picks, but the organization assuredly didn’t want to see a loss like the one to the Clippers.
“You just feel like you’re not doing your job, honestly,” Nets center Nicolas Claxton said to Lewis of the New York Post.“We’ve all got a lot of pride, so we’ve just got to be better. And we can’t lose like this, though. Definitely can’t happen.”
The Lakers themselves have lost three times in four tries, most recently beating the drama-centered Miami Heat just days ago.
Brooklyn should at least be getting some of its top-end talent back Friday night. Its injury report has been extensive in recent weeks, but it will be getting D’Angelo Russell back, and forward Cameron Johnson is questionable.
The two teams tip off 9:30 p.m. tonight.
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