A sellout crowd packed Barclays Center to watch what might have been LeBron James’ last game in New York.
They saw King James give the Nets a royal thrashing.
The Nets got beaten 125-109 by James and his Lakers before a crowd of 18,248 on Tuesday night. And it wasn’t as close as the score would indicate.
This was yet another desultory performance by a team getting all too comfortable with getting blown out and bullied around.
“Man, they just came out and punched us in the face, honestly speaking. Lobs, yeah, they just look like the Globetrotters out there,” Ziaire Williams said. “Honestly it was just pretty embarrassing.”
The Nets (13-36) had already suffered a 54-point loss to the Knicks on Jan. 21 and a 53-point rout at the Pistons on Feb. 1, only the fourth team in NBA history with multiple 50-point losses in the same season. They had a 37-point caning at the Clippers sandwiched in between, just for good measure.
Tuesday they trailed by 39 before at least trying to make it respectable, rallying rather than wilting. But it was too little and far, far too late.
“Yeah, more of the same. We got to figure something out,” Nic Claxton told The Post. “Like, this is not basketball. We’re supposed to be NBA basketball players. We shouldn’t be getting beat by this much. We shouldn’t get down by this much.”
Michael Porter Jr. led the Nets with 21 points and 10 rebounds.
Day’Ron Sharpe had season highs of 19 points, 14 boards and five assists off the bench, while Williams added 17 points on 7-for-11 shooting in his return from injury.
But Porter, their deadeye shooter, was 0-for-9 from deep. Egor Dëmin, their point guard, had a game-high six turnovers. And Claxton was a staggering minus-30.
The Lakers pulled out a zone defense, and the Nets offense went into abysmal disarray.
“They played zone. It’s kind of been a kryptonite I would say for the past couple years for us,” Sharpe said. “We had 20 turnovers and whenever you turn the ball over like that it usually doesn’t work out for you.”
James — who has been in the league longer than most of Brooklyn’s starting lineup have been alive — was the one that looked young and spry. He had 25 points, seven assists, three steals and sailed in for several highlight dunks before checking out with 8:05 remaining to loud applause.
If it was the 41-year-old’s final competitive game in New York — and he hasn’t made any declarative statements about how long he’ll play — it was a solid one.
“It’s LeBron James obviously,” Sharpe said. “But he bleeds just like we bleed, so just trying to beat him, for real.”
The Nets were the only ones bleeding, after the Lakers punched them in the mouth.
They trailed by as much as 39, at 83-44 when Luka Doncic (24 points, six rebounds, five assists) hit from behind the arc with 8:08 left in the third.
It was 111-83 when James checked out with 8:05 to play.
The rest was garbage time, and a crowd filled with purple-and-gold-clad Lakers fans cheering for James’ son, Bronny, who scored a couple of late buckets that sent them into a frenzy.
Brooklyn kept pace with Washington, tied for fourth in the lottery odds. They’re a game behind the Indiana Pacers and two clear of the sixth-place Utah Jazz.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
