At first, it was just a bad start. It quickly grew worse. And by the time Kawhi Leonard jogged into a pull-up three, extending the lead to 47-14 and forcing Jordi Fernández to call another timeout, it was officially ugly. The Los Angeles Clippers had dogged the Brooklyn Nets in less than 15 minutes of game-time, and the next three-ish quarters would be simply cosmetic for the Clippers, a botched botox for the Nets.

The Nets never let it get quite as bad as their 54-point loss to the New York Knicks on Wednesday, nor their franchise-worst 59-point loss to these Clippers about a year ago. But when you’re trailing by nearly 40 points in the first half, it feels about the same…

If the Nets hadn’t been blown out by the Knicks earlier this week, they could have used the injury excuse, as feeble as it would be. Noah Clowney (back soreness), Cam Thomas (ankle sprain), and Nolan Traore (illness) all missed this one; Terance Mann was re-inserted into the starting lineup and Ben Saraf saw his first NBA action since December 6.

But Brooklyn shot 20% from the field in the first quarter, trailing 38-14 after 12 minutes of play, quickly destroying any hope that Friday’s resilient performance against the Boston Celtics was a sign of things to come. The Nets had their issues in that game too — notably their crunch-time defense — but they took a formidable opponent right down to the wire. With a career-best night from rookie Nolan Traore (21 points), it was just about the perfect loss in a tanking season.

Sunday’s night’s loss to the Clippers just stunk. Ben Saraf scored six points with four turnovers, Drake Powell put up five points and four turnovers, and Danny Wolf shot 3-of-13, inventing new ways to miss layups. Egor Dëmin shot just 3-of-11, but he did hit three straight 3-pointers while getting fouled on another in the third quarter, giving the Nets fans bored enough to keep the game on for that long something to hold onto.

Not that the veterans did much better. In fact, Wolf and Dëmin were the only Nets to reach double-digits; the team shot 33.7% from the floor and a grotesque 20.9% from deep. However, all 12 Nets played and all 12 scored, including a triple from E.J. Liddell, so that’s something? The highlight of the game may have been Terance Mann getting a technical foul on Dëmin’s behalf…

Conversely, the Clippers shot 56.4% from the floor, including a tidy 12-of-25 from three. Like the Nets, all 12 of their guys scored, led by 28 points from Kawhi and 19 from James Harden.

“It’s part of life and part of learning and part of finding the next Nets,” said Jordi Fernández. “Because we know and believe that we have the right vision here of doing what we want to do and being successful as an organization with great ownership and management. And we’re obviously going to need the right pieces on the floor, the play-and-compete is a certain standard. And right now, out of three games, one out of three as far as being competitive is not good enough.”

Chris Carrino and Sarah Kustok did a much better job at filling space than I’m doing with the rest of this article, discussing the impending Super Bowl matchup and Kerry Kittles’ career. Carrino even closed with positivity, noting that Brooklyn shot 22-of-25 from the line in the formidable Intuit Dome, dropping a gem: “The Whammy beats The Wall.”

Fernández was not so cheerful in postgame: “I brought this up before: You can lose, and you can be a loser. For 18 minutes we lost, and we’re competitive. And for 30, we’re losers. So we have to decide what we want to be and who we want to be.”

The NBA has not yet announced the date of the 2026 NBA Draft Lottery.

Final Score: Los Angeles Clippers126, Brooklyn Nets 89

Nothing to see here. Move along.

The Nets continue their five-game road trip by paying a visit to old friend and Coach of the Year candidate Jordan Ott. Tip-off against the Phoenix Suns is scheduled for 9:00 p.m. ET.

• Boxscore: Los Angeles Clippers 126, Brooklyn Nets 89 – NBA
• Game Highlights: Los Angeles Clippers 126, Brooklyn Nets 89 (Video) – NBA
• Jordi Fernandez PostGame Interview (Video) – YES Network
• Kawhi Leonard, James Harden fuel fast start as Clippers rout Nets 126-89 – AP
• Nets take embarrassing beating from Clippers for fifth straight loss – Brian Lewis – New York Post
• Nets’ losing ways carrying into road trip that could help tanking cause – Dan Martin – New York Post
• From Knicks disaster to Clippers blowout, Nets can’t stop the bleeding – C.J. Holmes – New York Daily News
• Nets player grades: Danny Wolf drops 14 in 126-89 loss at the Clippers – Sharif Phillips-Keaton – USA TODAY