Young Nets bullied by Clippers in loss full of tough lessons

The oldest team in the NBA gave the youngest a lesson.

Tanking Brooklyn — deep into a youth movement — got spanked by the venerable Clippers 121-105 on Friday at Barclays Center.

With a record five first-round rookies — all but one of whom played — the Nets learned some valuable lessons against Los Angeles. They just weren’t easy ones.

James Harden put on a show with a game-high 31 points, getting to the rim at will with 10-of-13 shooting. The future Hall of Famer had 15 points in the first quarter alone, when he helped put Brooklyn in a 16-point hole.

Kawhi Leonard, questionable with a sprained right ankle, added 13 of his 26 points in the fourth quarter. And even with 40-year-old Chris Paul sent home, the Clippers put on a clinic in cutting up what had been a stout Brooklyn defense.

“It’s just a new challenge,” head coach Jordi Fernandez said. “And it goes at the experience and gamesmanship and all that stuff. Obviously we have a couple of Hall of Famers there that our guys have never defended before…We’ll see a lot of iso, a lot of pick-and-roll, and going through those coverages is very important.

“[They’re] a team that plays a little bit different, a team that doesn’t play with all our pace. But everything they do, they do with a lot of purpose, because they’ve been there before. And it’s a great challenge. It’s a great challenge because we have to be (focused), communication has to be on point, effort has to be on point. Then we’ve got to win the 50-50 battles and the rebounds. So, that’s the next step for us.”

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The Nets were found wanting. 

They coughed up 59.2 percent shooting and 58.3 percent from deep, diced up by the Clippers.

Rebuilding Brooklyn averaged a league-low 23.7 years per NBAage.com, while the Clippers were the only team in the league at 30.

Lottery pick Egor Demin led the Nets with 19 points and three steals on 5-of-10 from deep. Michael Porter Jr. added 18 points, six assists, five rebounds and four steals, but had a rare off night shooting just 0-of-9 from behind the arc.

The Nets (11-24) are fifth in the lottery standings, but were closer to ninth than they were to fourth. Brooklyn stayed two games behind the fourth-seeded Wizards, who lost to the Pelicans The Nets are ½ game ahead of the Hornets, and one ahead of the Jazz.

The Clippers are 8-2 after a 6-21 start.

Brooklyn coughed up a 16-2 run to fall behind by 16 midway through the first quarter.

Then they conceded 14 unanswered points in a Clippers blitz that spanned from the end of the first well into the second.

Even Brooklyn’s all-time leading scorer came back to haunt them. Rookie Danny Wolf drove the baseline late in the third, but got his shot blocked by 37-year-old former Net center Brook Lopez.