The game between the Nets and Raptors on Sunday had all kinds of lottery ramification. And both lineups showed it.
With the sixth seed in the lottery at stake, the Nets put forth a lineup that was half Summer League, half G-League, and all backups.
Bereft of their entire starting five, the Nets handed Drew Timme and Reece Beekman their first-ever starts. And they out-tanked Toronto, falling 120-109 before 17,007 at Barclays Center.
This is really Year Zero of the Nets rebuild, suffering for the chance at a high lottery pick next month.
The Nets (25-53) seem all but assured of going into the lottery with the sixth-best odds.
They lead the seventh-place Raptors by 3 ½ games with just four to play. Sixth appears a fait accompli.
If that’s the seed the Nets go into the lottery with, their most likely landing spots are overwhelmingly seventh (29.8 percent) and eighth (20.5).
But they have a 37.2 percent shot at a top four pick, and a nine percent chance to win the lottery and claim Cooper Flagg.
That’d be a great place to start this rebuild.
The Nets also have three more first-round picks, from the Bucks, Suns and Knicks.
“Very happy with how the season has gone, from the relationship with ownership, front office, the direction of the vision, the plan, the execution, where we’re at. … We have a very important summer in front of us, for obvious reasons,” coach Jordi Fernández said, in an understatement.
With starters Cam Thomas and Noah Clowney already out for the season, Cam Johnson, D’Angelo Russell and Day’Ron Sharpe were all hurt and Nic Claxton was simply rested.
The Nets were led by Timme, who was just signed from the G-League on March 28.
Standing in for Claxton and Sharpe at center, he had 13 points and seven rebounds. Beekman got the nod at point guard, and had 14 points and five assists.
But Timme was a minus-12 and Beekman a horrid minus-26.
The rest of the starting lineup — quasi-vets Ziaire Williams, Trendon Watford and Keon Johnson — were a combined plus-11.
“Just trying our best to figure things out on the fly and also build that chemistry. You can see a couple guys have chemistry, a couple don’t. We got thrown together, so we’re all just trying to figure things out on the fly,” Timme said.
“I thought [playing center] was a lot of fun. I enjoyed it … showing that I can handle different looks, different reads and stuff is big. I’ve just got to continue to keep doing that so I can keep getting minutes, because that’s the goal to stick around and to play.”
Meanwhile, the Nets got ripped for the second time in short order by the Raptors.
Toronto’s ball pressure unsettled them in a 116-86 loss on March 26, and it did so again on Sunday.
“They do a great job of trying to disrupt the plays, making it difficult throughout the whole game. It started with their ball pressure picking up full-court and just being physical,” Beekman said. “They pride themselves on that, and it disrupted us a little from the start with that and kind of lingered throughout the whole game.”
The Nets had trouble running their offense, just 10-for-35 from deep with 23 turnovers.
Beekman’s Raptors counterpart Jamal Shead was a plus-31 with 12 assists.
“We played against one of the best defensive teams in the NBA the game before [vs. Minnesota]. We had 12 turnovers. And [Sunday] we had 24. So, we didn’t handle that very well,” Fernández said. “We knew that’s one of their strengths, to pressure the ball. They did a great job, so credit to them. We have to be better.”
The Nets trailed by as many as 23. They allowed a 12-4 run in the first quarter, then allowed 12 unanswered later in the period.
The Nets watched Toronto put eight scorers in double figures — led by Jonathan Mogbo’s 17 points and 11 boards — including all five off the bench who saw action.
