“Definitely not fun” is how Nets forward Mikal Bridges described the team’s ongoing slump, which has resulted in 15 losses in the last 19 games. AP Photo by Marcio Jose Sanchez
The Nets appeared poised to complete an impressive sweep in Los Angeles Sunday afternoon.
Instead, they dragged themselves back to Brooklyn to host the East River rival Knicks Tuesday following one of their most embarrassing losses of the season.
“We were stuck, didn’t know what to do or how to break it,” Nets forward Mikal Bridges ceded after he and his teammates squandered an 18-point lead before absorbing a hard-to-swallow 125-114 defeat to the Clippers in front of 19,370 fans at crypto.com Arena.
Brooklyn (17-25) was coming off Friday night’s exhilarating 130-112 rout of LeBron James and the Lakers in Los Angeles, which snapped its four-game slide.
The Nets took a comfortable 99-84 lead into the final period two days later, only to watch former teammate James Harden and the Clippers (27-14) close the contest on a startling 22-0 run.
Brooklyn was outscored by a whopping 41-15 count over the final 12 minutes.
“They came out and punched us in the mouth and in that fourth quarter we played Clipper basketball, got some stops and the rest is history,” said Harden, who finished with 24 points and 10 assists while handing Brooklyn its 15th loss in 19 games.
Bridges led the Nets with 26 points and Cam Thomas added 20 off the bench, but Brooklyn bowed under the pressure of putting L.A. away.
The Nets misfired on their last eight shots after Bridges scored with 5:33 remaining to give them a 114-103 advantage.
“Just got to be better for the whole 48,” Bridges added.
It might not get much better at home, where the Nets have lost five of their last six games.
Brooklyn once again dipped a season-worst eight games below .500 after climbing as high as three games above the break-even mark on Dec. 13.
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