Nets in decline as trade deadline looms

Now that they’re done with Reunion Week at Downtown’s Barclays Center, the Brooklyn Nets hope to get back to some normalcy and, even more importantly, winning in their own building when they host the red-hot Cleveland Cavaliers Thursday night.

That is, if they don’t undergo a roster overhaul or at least a tweak ahead of the looming NBA trade deadline.

Losers of nine of their last 12 home games, including happy homecomings by superstars Kevin Durant and Kyrie
Irving, the Nets hope to avoid falling a season-worst 11 games below .500 when they take on one of their potential suitors for a deal before 3 p.m. Thursday.

Cleveland (33-16) visits the corner of Atlantic and Flatbush with the second-best record in the Eastern Conference, thanks to a 15-1 mark in its last 16 contests and an NBA-best seven-game winning streak.

Donovan Mitchell scored 14 of his 40 points in the fourth quarter Wednesday as the Cavaliers roll into Brooklyn off a 114-106 victory at Washington.

“I keep saying it, it’s February 7th,” Mitchell said of his team’s hot streak, which includes a 111-102 triumph over Brooklyn in the 2024 NBA Paris Game on Jan. 11.

“This is great, we’re in a great position,” he added. “But at the end of the day, we’re trying to play until April, be in the best position (then). Definitely not satisfied with where we’re at.”

Cleveland reportedly has interest in Nets power forward Dorian Finney-Smith, whom Brooklyn acquired last February in the deal that sent Irving to Dallas. Finney-Smith is currently out with an ankle sprain.

Also, Nets center Nic Claxton, who will be an unrestricted free agent after this season, is on plenty of teams’ radar as the contenders try to separate themselves from the pretenders by giving up expiring contracts and draft picks for immediate…