It marked Detroit\u2019s largest margin of victory in franchise history.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t just a typical blowout. <\/p>\n
The Nets appeared to silently quit.<\/p>\n
This brand of losing is starting to take a toll.<\/p>\n
\u201cMan, we just got to learn from it. We just can\u2019t keep getting beat by 50 though,\u201d Nic Claxton said after the loss. \u201cIt\u2019s really demoralizing as a group for us. We got to come together and figure out ways to, at least, keep the games closer.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Nets are in another rebuilding season with a young squad after using a league record five first-round picks in the 2025 draft. <\/p>\n
The front office has made its tanking mission known from the beginning.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe spent all of our [2025] picks \u2014 we had five first-round draft picks this past summer. We have one pick in 2026, and we hope to get a good pick,\u201d team owner Joe Tsai said in October. \u201cSo you can predict what kind of strategy we will use for this season.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Brooklyn](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/brooklyn-nets-head-coach-jordi-120232532.jpg\")
Jordi Fern\u00e1ndez looks on during the Nets\u2019 Feb. 1 loss to the Pistons. Imagn Images<\/p>\n
Losing has not necessarily been the problem during their 13-35 season. <\/p>\n
They currently find themselves fourth in the race for the bottom, with the hope of having favorable odds to land the No. 1 pick.<\/p>\n
However, what the Nets have done the last two weeks is a different level of losing.<\/p>\n
Prior to their humiliation in Detroit, the Nets were embarrassed by the Knicks at Madison Square Garden on Jan. 21, losing by 54 points, 120-66. <\/p>\n
It was the biggest margin of victory in Knicks history while the Nets earned the lowest-scoring effort in the entire NBA this season.<\/p>\n
![\"Three](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/33-forward-danny-wolf-2-120222520.jpg\")
The Nets attempt to grab a rebound during their Feb. 1 loss to the Pistons. Imagn Images<\/p>\n
Four days later, the Clippers beat Brooklyn by 37 points.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s losing and then there\u2019s this \u2014 utter embarrassment.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not just that you don\u2019t play consistently hard, it\u2019s then you quit and we cannot allow that,\u201d coach Jordi Fern\u00e1ndez said. \u201cIt starts with me, gotta create habits, we\u2019ve done it. We\u2019ve done it well. Even in this game you can say the way we started playing basketball, we were trying to match their physicality and play the right way and find ways to score. From there, it was a complete fall down. So, obviously this one hurts. Gotta help them be better.\u201d<\/p>\n
After a 5-0 run in the final seconds against the Knicks bench, the Nets were spared from the worst defeat in franchise history \u2014 a 59-point thrashing at the hands of the Clippers last season on Jan. 15.<\/p>\n
Going into the season, the second-worst Nets blowout loss was by 52 points in Houston on Oct. 18, 1978.<\/p>\n
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The losses to the Knicks and Pistons, however, have surpassed the mark to make up the top three of the Nets worst losses in franchise history.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe found ways to get good shots early on and then we couldn\u2019t. We couldn\u2019t match that, and then it was from frustration to whatever you want to call it,\u201d Fern\u00e1ndez added. \u201cIt\u2019s forgetting what you\u2019re supposed to do. So, we\u2019ll run it back. We\u2019ll hold [our team] accountable, we\u2019ll give them a hug, whatever the case may be. [We have to] go out there and play better than this.\u201d<\/p>\n
For a team that was 7-4 in December with the top defensive rating across the league (105.4) during that span, this is likely not the kind of tank job the Nets leadership had in mind. <\/p>\n
It will be on Fern\u00e1ndez to guide his young team after a shameful two weeks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"D\u00e9j\u00e0 vu hit the Nets like a truck Saturday. To end their five-game road trip, the Nets looked…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":578423,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3767],"tags":[7,670,247,3803,248,6,671,2728,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-578422","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brooklyn-nets","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-brooklyn","10":"tag-brooklyn-nets","11":"tag-brooklynnets","12":"tag-jordi-fernandez","13":"tag-nba","14":"tag-nets","15":"tag-nic-claxton","16":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116003876114909154","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=578422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578422\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/578423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=578422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=578422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=578422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}