A month ago, the Nets cruised past Indiana.
How quickly things change.
The Nets, with a roster stripped bare by injuries and trades, fell behind and couldn’t rally in a 113-99 loss to the Pacers before 16,088 at Barclays Center.
Robert Sabo for NY Post
The Nets (13-23) have dropped five of their past six and 10 of 13. They have the seventh-worst record in the NBA — a half-game better than the Trail Blazers — and are so injury-riddled they seem likely to get even worse.
They trailed by 24 before clawing within eight to open the fourth. But they got no closer.
“It’s a little bit of everything. I gotta find a way to help them. A lot of times it’s on me. I’ve got to be clean with calls, simplify things,” coach Jordi Fernandez said. “I’m not concerned with who’s playing. I’m just concerned with how hard we play because if we support each other, we have a good attitude, we make those runs.”
Playing without Cam Thomas, Cam Johnson, Ben Simmons and D’Angelo Russell, they shot just 41.8 percent overall and 30.3 percent (10 of 33) from deep.
The Nets played with a staggering $103 million in salary sitting out injured, the most in the league per HoopsHype. And it looked like it.
It’s hard to picture a way Fernandez can scheme his way past the fact that the Nets are threadbare and shorthanded.
“Use whatever sets are actions we could run to our strengths, and find the quality of the shots that we’ve taught and the ones that have worked very well for us,” Fernandez said. “You need to find it in different ways because you have different groups out there. So it’s not on the players. It’s on me and the rest of the coaches.”
Day’Ron Sharpe had season highs of 16 points and 13 rebounds. But when the bull-in-a-china-shop backup center is their best playmaker, with a career-high five assists, offense is hard to come by.
“For sure, that is my best game, it seems so far,” Sharpe said. “Physically, it is what it is. I feel like I can do it again, to be honest with you. I always had playmaking. My guys just hit more shots tonight or more cuts tonight, I just found them. I just always had that.”
Nic Claxton ended with just four points on 2 of 10 shooting.
“We just got to finish. I feel like we got some pretty good looks honestly. We just didn’t make enough shots,” Claxton said. “I don’t have the box score in front of me, but I don’t know if that was really on the coaches. I think it was more so on us. We got to make shots.”
While Johnson is on the market and there are reports linking him to these same Pacers — for a potential package featuring Obi Toppin (11 points), Aaron Nesmith (DNP, left ankle sprain), at least one unprotected first-round pick and other draft assets — a source told The Post that is “all noise.”
Tyrese Haliburton led the Pacers with 23 points and eight assists. The Nets had led this team by 21 a month ago en route to a 99-90 win — but these are different Nets.
The Nets trailed 55-39 at the break. Their season-low total for a half was worse than the 41 they’d scored on Dec. 27 against San Antonio.
Credit to their hustle and grit: The Nets crashed the boards like their lives depended on it. But their only offense was missing and hoping for putbacks. They outscored Indiana 33-8 on second chance points, posting a season-high before the end of the third quarter.
Sharpe single-handedly beat the Pacers, nine to five, on the offensive glass. He became just the fourth player in team history with at least 10 points, 10 rebounds, five offensive boards and five assists off the bench.
His offensive rebound to a cutting Tosan Evbuomwan pulled the Nets within 78-70 at the end of the third quarter.
But they never got over the hump in the fourth and fell back behind by double digits.