#Nets ripped by Zion Williamson-less Pelicans in NBA bubble

After four months away from the game, the Nets didn’t look anything like the team that was red-hot when the season halted. Not their roster, and surely not their play.

On the court against another team for the first time since March 10, the Nets finally scrimmaged New Orleans on Wednesday in Orlando. And with as many players having tested positive for coronavirus as they had available — nine — Brooklyn looked predictably sloppy and outmatched.

Winners of four of five before the shutdown, the Nets began the restart with an ugly 99-68 scrimmage loss against the Pelicans, played in a surreal scene at Disney’s Wide World of Sports complex.

Between the socially distanced chairs (a reminder of the specter of COVID-19) to the social justice messages on the court (a reminder of the specter of social injustice), this was always going to feel different. But even they couldn’t have been prepared for how different.

“You can’t become numb [to it]. I’m sitting here talking, not near anybody, with a mask on talking to you guys. It’s still different,” Garrett Temple said via Zoom call. “It was weird. It felt kind of like a 2K atmosphere, like you were just put into a video game. … You felt different. Kind of a summer league feel, maybe because it was a preseason game or exhibition game as well, but it was very different.”

There were no fans in the stands, there was Black Lives Matter emblazoned on the court, and there was a sloppy summer-league vibe. The Nets shot just 35.2 percent, with 14 assists and 21 turnovers.

New Orleans had 12 assists and just half as many turnovers, without Zion Williamson. Of course, the Nets are without half their team. Interim coach Jacque Vaughn’s decision to rest Joe Harris left them with just nine available bodies.

Vaughn started three guards to try to ease the load on Caris LeVert, but he still shot 5 of 18 as the Nets’ only remaining reliable scorer.

Jarrett Allen (10 points, 10 boards) had a double-double, but Chris Chiozza — on fire before play suspended — shot 2 of 9 with four turnovers and a minus-27.

“Obviously the timing and the rhythm wasn’t where we wanted to be right now,” Vaughn said. “But mission accomplished: Got some minutes for guys and got some takeaways of what we need to improve on.”

They need to improve on hitting the open looks they got on one end (8 of 32 from deep) and communicating more on the other.

“It’s quiet out there so it’s obvious when we’re not communicating, and there’s really no excuse not to talk because we can hear everything,” Temple said. “We have to communicate a lot more than we did.”

The undersized Nets used Rodions Kurucs at backup center and Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot at stretch four, as they wait for Donta Hall to clear quarantine. They went scoreless for 5:50 to close out the first quarter, shooting 5 of 19 in the period to fall behind 23-14.

It just got worse from there. They missed nine in a row from behind the arc, an offense predicated on screens and cutting looking disjointed.

Brooklyn fell behind 56-35 at the break, and lost by 31.

“My legs are a little heavy. Obviously, first game back out there, practice time has been limited with the limited amount of guys we’ve had. It’ll get better each and every day, for sure,” said LeVert, who took encouragement from seeing the Black Lives Matter slogan on the court.

“It was cool to see that, definitely cool to see the NBA behind the Black Lives Matter movement,” he said. “It’s definitely huge because there’s a lot of people watching these games so the more recognition we can get the better definitely for the cause.”