TORONTO — The Raptors were on the longest losing skid in the NBA.
Then the Nets showed them how losing is done.
Brooklyn got thoroughly outplayed by a Raptors team that had been playing arguably the worst basketball in the NBA, taking a 130-113 thrashing before 19,104 at Scotiabank Arena.
Even 22 points and eight assists off the bench from D’Angelo Russell in his (second) Nets debut couldn’t save them.
It’s a loss that will make a segment of their tank-happy fans very pleased.
The Nets, who came into Wednesday with the seventh-worst record in the league, fell to 12-21.
And they did it against a toothless, tanking Raptors team that to all the world seemed like easy prey.
Toronto (8-26) was on an NBA-worst 11-game losing skid after being dominated 125-71 by Boston.
It was the biggest loss in team history and worst in the league all season by any team.
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The Raptors came into Wednesday having given up 555 points in their past four games, averaging 138.7 points allowed — the most conceded in a four-game stretch by any team since the Denver Nuggets in 1991.
That’s the sad-sack team Brooklyn just got routed by.
But on the upside, they closed to within 4 ½ of the Raptors in the lottery standings and a half-game of Portland for the sixth-best odds.
Cam Johnson led the Nets with 24. Russell was stellar with no real practice time, while starting point guard Ben Simmons was a team-worst minus-18.
Scottie Barnes had 33 points, and Toronto dominated inside late, aided by an injury to Nets starting power forward Noah Clowney.
It was Clowney who knotted the game at 67-all on a 3-pointer less than a minute into the second half.
But the Nets allowed seven unanswered points and never recovered.
Barnes had a couple of rebounds and a pull-up 3-pointer in the run, hitting from deep to leave Brooklyn down 74-67 with 9:31 left in the third.
The deficit swelled to double figures multiple times and was 86-76 midway through the period.
Clowney went up for a rebound and hit the floor hard.
He was down for awhile, flat on his back, being attended to by Nets personnel with 26 seconds left in the third quarter.
The forward eventually was helped up and walked off very gingerly under his own power, holding his back.
He didn’t come back the rest of the night.
And the Nets didn’t come back, either.
The deficit swelled to 21, and newcomer Maxwell Lewis was forced off with an injury as well.
He got tangled up with Jakob Poeltl and went down clutching his left knee.
He was carried off with 2:47 left, not putting any pressure on it.