Battle of Boroughs Begins at Barclays

The Brooklyn Nets admittedly felt like road kill after traveling through five cities in a week, and losing all but one game on their extended West Coast swing.

Now, they’ll have a chance to begin feeling better about themselves and get their season back on track in Downtown Brooklyn Wednesday night.

But only if they can beat the New York Knicks at Barclays Center in the first of four regular-season meetings between the East River rivals.

“This trip took a toll on us, mentally and physically,” Nets coach Jacque Vaughn readily admitted after Brooklyn finished 1-4 on the trip following a demoralizing 125-108 loss in Utah Monday night.

“And so now, we’re 13-13, and we have to go home and regroup,” Vaughn added.

Regrouping may be the easy part as the Nets prepare to host an opponent on the corner of Atlantic and Flatbush for the first time since completing a three-game winning streak with a 124-97 rout of Washington here on Dec. 8.

It may be much more difficult for Brooklyn to get back to full health and begin defending and rebounding better.

“It’s hard on anybody when you play defense great for a full 20, 24 seconds or whatever they shoot at. Then when they get offensive rebounds, it’s kind of deflating,” Nets guard Cam Thomas admitted after putting up a team-high 32 points against the Jazz.

Brooklyn gave up eight offensive boards to Utah in the second half, as well as 71 points after intermission. The Nets also got scorched for 30 fast-break points while amassing only 10 themselves.

Whether it was fatigue, or the ongoing absences of regulars Lonnie Walker IV (hamstring), Dennis Smith Jr., (back) and Ben Simmons (back), none of whom will be available on Wednesday, Brooklyn has dropped back to .500 and ninth place in the Eastern Conference.

The Nets are also trying to avoid dropping their…