The Brooklyn Nets all knew it.
Their performance in Sunday night's 107-86 blowout loss to the rebuilding Orlando Magic was absolutely inexcusable.
They were outplayed by an inferior opponent in every facet of the game.
"They just looked like they wanted it more than us tonight, and that's unacceptable," point guard Deron Williams, who went 4-for-12 in 27 minutes and is clearly not back to his old self just yet, told reporters in Orlando.
"We should be pissed off."
Jason Kidd's head-coaching debut couldn't have gone any worse.
"They made plays and they made shots, while we struggled to make shots," Kidd told reporters. "We can't let our offense dictate our defense."
The Nets (1-2) came out flat following Friday night's impressive victory over the two-time defending champion Miami Heat. Offensively, they settled too often, and as Kidd pointed out, "We can't live and die by the jump shot." Defensively, they failed to contain Orlando's fabulous rookie Victor Oladipo, who scored 19 points in just 21 minutes.
The stats pretty much told the story: The Nets shot just 38.2 percent from the field, went 4-for-17 from 3-point range, were outrebounded 54-42 and scored just 26 points in the paint.
"We're definitely better than this team, but we didn't show it," center Brook Lopez (21 points, 6 rebounds, 5 blocks) told reporters, according to Newsday.
Clearly, the Nets can't afford to take anyone lightly.
"We talked about it before the game that we're probably gonna get everyone's best game, and that's part of it," shooting guard Joe Johnson (1-for-5, 2 points) told reporters. "We have to be geared up night in and night out, regardless of who we're playing against."
If the Nets are serious about contending, they need to put bad teams away. Not play like them.
"These are tough games to get up for, but good teams do," Williams told reporters. "We want to be the best team in the league … and we've go to be better in these types of situation."