CHICAGO — The Nets played the worst half in their history Friday night, en route to one of their worst beatings in years.
Coming out of the All-Star break, they played as if their minds were still on vacation and took a wire-to-wire thrashing by the Bulls, 131-87, before a sellout crowd of 21,286 at United Center.
It was a rout of historic proportions.
“We understand that we’re fighting an uphill battle in this, but we’re still pros and we have a job to do. You can’t make excuses. You got to go out there and play the game,” Spencer Dinwiddie said. “I don’t care if we just met yesterday, 40 points is unacceptable. It’s as simple as that.”
The Nets trailed by as many as 50 points in their most lopsided loss of the season. They were behind 63-29 at the break and shot just 24.4 percent for the worst first-half output by any team since the Clippers on Jan. 11, 2022, per Elias Sports Bureau. It was the Nets’ worst since April 26, 2012, versus Toronto, before they moved to Brooklyn.
Zach LaVine, who scored a game-high 32 points, goes up for a shot during the Nets’ 131-87 blowout loss to the Bulls. USA TODAY Sports
Yes, the game was every bit that one-sided. And the Nets (34-25) were every bit that bad.
“I’m looking forward to how they respond. I told them to own this thing. We got our tails kicked,” said head coach Jacque Vaughn, who took longer speaking to his assistants, then addressed his team for longer than usual.
“He took accountability,” Nic Claxton said. “We also have to take accountability coming back from the break. I just don’t think we were ready to play. We missed a lot of shots and we let them dictate the game. We just got to flush this one out and get ready for the next one. It’s definitely a frustrating loss, though.”
Cam Thomas led the Nets — who have not scored more than 116 points in a game since trading away Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving — with 22 points off the bench. Seth Curry added 19.
But Friday they got just 34 points from the starting lineup (two more than the 32 Chicago’s Zach LaVine scored by himself) and shot just 12-for-44 from 3-point range. The Nets have to find some scoring.
Cam Thomas, who scored a team-high 22 points, is stopped by Coby White as he attempts to drive to the basket during the Nets’ loss. APThe Nets — 3-5 since Irving’s trade demand derailed their title hopes — had their lead on the Knicks for the sixth seed in the Eastern Conference cut to a single game. The two teams will play at the Garden on Wednesday.
If they keep playing like this, they could be looking up, not down, at their cross-river rivals by then.
The Bulls scored the first 11 points of the night, and the Nets trailed by 50 multiple times in the fourth quarter.
But unlike their 43-point loss in Boston on Feb. 1 — after which Irving talked about finding a way to beat the Celtics, then proceeded to force a trade to Dallas — this one didn’t come against a potential NBA champion. This humiliation came against a struggling Bulls squad that had lost six straight coming in.
Jacque Vaughn screams out instruction during the Nets’ blowout loss. Getty ImagesThe Nets spit the bit right from the start. Five straight misses to open the game and three quick turnovers spotted Chicago an 11-0 lead.
The deficit swelled to 48-22 with 5:25 left in the second quarter as the Nets shot just 8-for-32 from the floor and 2-for-18 from 3-point range.
It only got worse from there.
Bulls center Andre Drummond threw down an alley-oop against his former team, leaving the Nets in a 101-51 hole with 11:04 to play.
Coby White’s driving floating bank shot made it 103-53 with 9:42 to play.
“Everybody had opinions on what went wrong,” Dinwiddie said. “I think Royce [O’Neale] spoke up, several guys spoke up, Mikal [Bridges], [Dorian Finney-Smith], myself: That’s part of it in any postgame.
“Just understanding the fact that a 40-point beatdown is unacceptable for certain, All-Star break or not.”
