The oldest team in the NBA gave the youngest a lesson.
Tanking Brooklyn — deep into a youth movement — got spanked by the venerable Clippers 121-105 on Friday at Barclays Center.
With a record five first-round rookies — all but one of whom played — the Nets learned some valuable lessons against Los Angeles. They just weren’t easy ones.
James Harden put on a show with a game-high 31 points, getting to the rim at will with 10-of-13 shooting. The future Hall of Famer had 15 points in the first quarter alone, when he helped put Brooklyn in a 16-point hole.
Kawhi Leonard, questionable with a sprained right ankle, added 13 of his 26 points in the fourth quarter. And even with 40-year-old Chris Paul sent home, the Clippers put on a clinic in cutting up what had been a stout Brooklyn defense.
“It’s just a new challenge,” head coach Jordi Fernandez said. “And it goes at the experience and gamesmanship and all that stuff. Obviously we have a couple of Hall of Famers there that our guys have never defended before…We’ll see a lot of iso, a lot of pick-and-roll, and going through those coverages is very important.
“[They’re] a team that plays a little bit different, a team that doesn’t play with all our pace. But everything they do, they do with a lot of purpose, because they’ve been there before. And it’s a great challenge. It’s a great challenge because we have to be (focused), communication has to be on point, effort has to be on point. Then we’ve got to win the 50-50 battles and the rebounds. So, that’s the next step for us.”
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The Nets were found wanting.
They coughed up 59.2 percent shooting and 58.3 percent from deep, diced up by the Clippers.
Rebuilding Brooklyn averaged a league-low 23.7 years per NBAage.com, while the Clippers were the only team in the league at 30.
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Lottery pick Egor Demin led the Nets with 19 points and three steals on 5-of-10 from deep. Michael Porter Jr. added 18 points, six assists, five rebounds and four steals, but had a rare off night shooting just 0-of-9 from behind the arc.
The Nets (11-24) are fifth in the lottery standings, but were closer to ninth than they were to fourth. Brooklyn stayed two games behind the fourth-seeded Wizards, who lost to the Pelicans The Nets are ½ game ahead of the Hornets, and one ahead of the Jazz.
The Clippers are 8-2 after a 6-21 start.
Brooklyn coughed up a 16-2 run to fall behind by 16 midway through the first quarter.
Then they conceded 14 unanswered points in a Clippers blitz that spanned from the end of the first well into the second.
Even Brooklyn’s all-time leading scorer came back to haunt them. Rookie Danny Wolf drove the baseline late in the third, but got his shot blocked by 37-year-old former Net center Brook Lopez.
