Lakers Face Nets Off Franchise-Worst Loss

On By Littum

Tonight, the Brooklyn Nets take on the Los Angeles Lakers, hoping to bounce back from being on the wrong side of history.

Against the Clippers on Wednesday, Brooklyn suffered its worst loss in franchise history, losing 126-67 on a low effort. All five of LA’s starters finished in double figures as the team cruised to the 59-point victory.

As Brooklyn head coach Jordi Fernandez said after the game, it was more than just the team’s roster, which has been left more exposed than it was a month ago.

“When you see a loss like this, a lot of things went wrong,” Fernandez said. “The energy and the competitive spirit weren’t there, quite simply. But right now, all I can do is support my guys. It’s never a good experience to go through this, but when we analyze the whole season, none of them work ​​our guys for this, and they’ve been competing the whole time.”

It will be interesting to see what product the Lakers get. Will the team take their loss and bring the fire to LA? Or will the downward momentum continue? As it stands now, the team sits at 14-27, good for the seventh-worst record in the league. Losing games here and there has been somewhat by design to gain higher ’25 draft picks, but the organization certainly didn’t want to see a loss like that to the Clippers.

“You just feel like you’re not doing your job, honestly,” Nets center Nicolas Claxton said to Lewis of the New York Post.“We all have a lot of pride, so we just have to get better. And we can’t lose like this though. It definitely can’t happen.”

The Lakers themselves have lost three times in four tries, most recently beating the drama-centric Miami Heat a few days ago.

Brooklyn should at least get some of its top talent back on Friday night. Its injury report has been extensive in recent weeks, but it will have D’Angelo Russell back and forward Cameron Johnson is questionable.

The two teams tip off at 9.30pm tonight.

Want to join the discussion? Like Nets on SI on Facebook and follow us on Twitter to stay up to date on all the latest Nets news. You can also meet the team behind the coverage.