NEW ORLEANS — This wasn’t a fight.

This was the Nets rolling over. 

They got hit, and never bothered hitting back. 

Brooklyn got humiliated, 112-85, by the Pelicans before 16,253 at Smoothie King Center on Tuesday night, a wire-to-wire evisceration.

And the most embarrassing part of the loss was just how quickly and easily the Nets quit. 

“We’ve just got to keep our heads up. When times get tough, you can’t just let up. When they make a run, it should boost us even more, and I felt like we lacked that,” said Mikal Bridges. “I’ve got to be better just as leader and player, just to be more vocal and do my best to lead this team. But I felt like I’ve done a poor job. 

“We got punched in the mouth and just sat back. We didn’t keep going forward after. And that’s on players, right there. It’s going to be like that. They might make a run … you’ve got to have accountability on ourselves to get back up and fight, and besides just lay down.

“Like I said, I’ve got to do better just personally being more vocal and be more physical and being on both ends. You just can’t let up.” 

The Nets (15-19) have dropped four straight, and nine of their last 11.

They haven’t beaten a team other than the historically horrible Pistons since Dec. 13. 

But of all those defeats, Tuesday’s might have been the most concerning. 

This was a beating, falling behind by 13 in the first 3 ½ minutes and immediately capitulating from there, with no fight shown.

Brooklyn trailed by 27 in the second quarter and 32 in the third. 

“I did tell the group, for me it’s how we responded. I was very concerned how we responded. We’ve been a team to be able to step up to challenges,” said coach Jacque Vaughn. 

“It really is like a boxing match. When you get hit, how are you going to respond?… Now, they’re longer, they’re stronger, so there lies the will to get it done and the will to do your part and get outside yourself. And if you’re really desperate about when and then you dive on the floor, you will do it all, you’ll get cuts and bruises and you’ll go home sore.

“We’re not there yet. It’s as simple as that.” 

Cam Johnson had 17 points and Bridges 13, but the offense was putrid. 

Leading scorer Cam Thomas was held scoreless, 0-for-11 from the floor.

Spencer Dinwiddie and Royce O’Neale were each a scoreless 0-for-6. 

Brooklyn shot .357 overall and just 11 of 43 from behind the arc.

They’re just 39 of 149 in the four-game skid, a sure recipe for disaster.

A Nets team that lives and dies by the 3-pointer is doing the latter. 

“And a lot of them are good looks. But that’s the game, and I don’t think it rewards a sense of passivity. I don’t think it rewards not being the aggressor,” said Johnson. “So I think the only way to get that to turn around and look at other areas of the game and where we can be the aggressor. 

“It becomes on us to go back and watch and just figure out how a sense of just grit and toughness can get us out, and not just hoping the game turns our way. Sometimes you just got to make things happen, rather than just kind of playing along and hoping things happen. So it’s a gut check. It’s a gut check. This stretch is a gut check.” 

Brooklyn stumbled and took a headlong fall right out of the starting blocks.

It fell behind 16-3 on a Zion Williamson driving finger roll just 2:29 in. 

The Nets missed six of their first seven shots to fall into that 13-point hole, and things just kept getting worse from there. 

New Orleans defensive ace Herb Jones hit a 3-pointer to pad the Pelicans’ cushion to 59-32 with 2:50 left in the first half. 

Brooklyn went into the locker room trailing by 25 points. 

C.J. McCollum hit a 3-pointer to make it 71-38.

The clock read 8:25 left in the third quarter, but the game was over with the Nets on to Houston to meet the Rockets on Wednesday.