Nets allow final 22 points in brutal implosion against James Harden, Clippers

LOS ANGELES — As implosions go, this one was nuclear.

The Nets turned a double-digit lead over the Clippers with just over five minutes left into a 125-114 defeat, a sad on-court capitulation before a sellout crowd of 19,370 at Crypto.com Arena that included team owner Joe Tsai.

The e-commerce billionaire saw his team allow the final 22 points in a collapse that wasn’t just horrible, but historic.

If his mood had been dampened over the past month or two, Sunday sure won’t help.

“Lessons to be learned,” Cam Thomas said. “That first half and the third quarter, that’s how we want to play. And in the fourth quarter, we can look at it like this is not how we want to play, because they just turned up on us. It was like 41-15. It was crazy. It was a crazy run. But it’s always gut-wrenching when you give up a lead like that in just one quarter.”

The Nets had never trailed, and led 114-103 after a Mikal Bridges layup off a Thomas feed with 5:33 to play.