James Harden was ruled out for the Nets’ home game against the Boston Celtics on Tuesday due to his lingering hamstring injury, leaving an undermanned squad without a single member of the Big Three to take on a surging Celtics team that has won 12 of its last 16 games.
Things got out of hand in a hurry at the Barclays Center, as Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum and Al Horford led the Celtics on a dominant 28-2 run to open the game.
The Nets failed to score over the first four minutes of the quarter and allowed Boston to build a 14-0 lead before Blake Griffin hit a shot with 7:49 to play. Brooklyn then went another 3:09 of game time before scoring again as the Celtics saw their advantage balloon to 26 points.
To the Nets’ credit, the team responded with an 11-0 run of their own to cut the deficit, but the Celtics ended the quarter with a 35-16 lead.
With a ninth consecutive loss looming for the Nets, Twitter roasted the team: