It started off so promising. But the Cleveland Cavaliers are just too good, and the Nets too… some combination of out-of-the-playoff-race, under-athletic, and discombobulated on both ends of the floor to maintain a lead against the hottest home team in the NBA.

As bad as the loss was, you could argue that this was a better performance than their slogging seven-point victory over the Philadelphia 76ers last week. Even though the Nets never stood a chance in the second half, the Cavaliers are remarkably talented and fighting to control the second seed in the Eastern Conference. The Nets, who just seem to have a dearth of top-tier talent and spatial understanding depending on what lineups are on the floor, still put together some semblance of an effort in spite of that.

But the bad part is that with every loss comes another tick off the team’s “tragic number,” or the number of their losses + 8th-seed wins left before the team is mathematically eliminated from the playoffs. The Nets can’t afford to lose near any games on their docket. But some teams produce, and some teams get produced on. The Cavaliers just took care of business against an inferior team.

Brook Lopez

C+

The stats: 10 PTS, 4-10 FG, 8 REB, 5 AST, 2 BLK

His signature infa-moment came in the first half, when he went up for a dunk on a fast break and got swiped by J.R. Smith on what should have been an easy dunk. The Nets announcers contended that there should have been a foul, which could have been called as Smith swiped the arm. But the ball ended u on the other side of the court in a flash, and LeBron James threw down a proper dunk on the other end to give the Cavaliers a ten-point lead.

But beyond that, he was good. Some great defense in the first half protecting the rim — there were moments during that early stretch of hope where the Cavaliers just avoided going near him for fear of alteration, deflection or rejection. He’s still on fire on the offensive glass.

He barely touched the ball on offense for the first four minutes, which led to him walking through an entire possession, and then taking two bad turnaround shots. Got more involved as the game progressed, even kicking for a few assists, which isn’t the norm for the seven-foot scorer. But didn’t get his own offense going.