After weeks of close losses, the Nets got blown out Monday.
Trailing wire-to-wire, the Nets were on the receiving end of 120-101 beatdown by the Mavericks before a crowd of 16,434 at Barclays Center.
The Nets never led, trailed by as many as 22 and had a string of 10 straight games decided by single digits snapped — eight of which had been defeats.
The Nets (23-49) moved half a game ahead of Philadelphia for fifth in the lottery standings, pending the 76ers’ result later Monday, and two games ahead of seventh-place Toronto.
Monday was a huge day in the tanking world, with the 76ers facing the Pelicans (fourth in the lottery odds) and the Raptors beating NBA-worst Washington.
Playing without injured point guard D’Angelo Russell (sore right ankle), a lack of ballhandling came back to haunt the Nets.
They got outscored 31-14 in points off turnovers.
Nic Claxton had a team-high 19 points and Cam Johnson added 17.
The Nets stumbled right out of the gate, down 21-8 on a pull-up by Naji Marshall (game-high 22 points) less than seven minutes in.
The Nets allowed nine unanswered points later in the quarter, Brandon Williams’ jumper leaving Brooklyn in a 32-15 hole with a half-minute left in the first.
His free throws pushed the deficit to 19 early in the second.
Brooklyn mounted a 12-4 run, but they couldn’t get enough stops or protect the ball enough to ever get any traction.
The Nets were outscored 12-0 off turnovers in the first half, and fell behind 94-72 on Williams’ basket with 42.1 seconds left in the third.
The rest was garbage time.