


Shorthanded after making a couple of deals before the NBA trade deadline, the Nets played red-hot Cleveland with just nine players.
And that skeleton crew gave up the ghost.
Brooklyn got hammered 118-95 before a crowd of 17,304 at Barclays Center, running out of steam in the third quarter as the game got away from them.
The Nets (20-31) were down just eight at intermission, but came out of the break and coughed up the first 21 unanswered points of the second half.
Dorian Finney-Smith (left ankle sprain), Cam Johnson (left adductor tightness), Day’Ron Sharpe (left knee hyperextension), Lonnie Walker (left hamstring tightness) and Dariq Whitehead (shin stress reaction) were all out injured.
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The Nets traded away Spencer Dinwiddie and Royce O’Neale, and waived Harry Giles as well as incoming Thad Young and Jordan Goodwin, sources told the Post.
Newcomers Dennis Schroder and Keita Bates-Diop weren’t yet available.
Schroder, the biggest incoming name, watched in street clothes. He saw an ugly one, the Nets trailing by as much as 31.

Mikal Bridges had 26 points, but got little help from his threadbare team.
Donovan Mitchell led five Cavs in double figures with a game-high 27.