There’s lazy, there’s lackadaisical, there’s uninspired, and then there’s whatever the Brooklyn Nets put out on the court Saturday against the Indiana Pacers.

The Nets put forth as disappointing an effort as you could imagine in a 125-116 loss to a Pacers team on the back end of a back-to-back without Myles Turner. Brooklyn’s non-existent defense allowed Indiana to shoot 23 of 46 from three and score 33 fourth-quarter points. The Pacers' 23 three-pointers tied for the most allowed in a game in Nets franchise history and broke Indiana's previous franchise record of 22. Brooklyn head Coach Steve Nash did not hold back when describing his team’s defense postgame.

“It was a disaster,” Steve Nash said. “I didn’t see the will, the desire, or the connectivity necessary to get stops and get rebounds.”

Through six games, Brooklyn ranks 29th in defensive rating while allowing 122.2 points per game. When asked postgame if the coaching staff's message on the defensive end is getting across, Kevin Durant pointed to the players' need to take individual accountability.

“That’s on the individuals. We got to take pride individually,” Durant said. “Coach could do so much, he can tell you what to do, but he’s not playing for us. At the end of the day, coaching matters, chemistry, all that stuff matters, but at the end of the day we’re individuals. So we got to be better as individuals, and then we’ll bring that to the group and figure it out. But each guy’s just got to dig down deeper and be better.”

Brooklyn’s effort in the loss was alarming, and the hustle numbers tell the story. The Pacers grabbed 16 offensive rebounds to the Nets’ 6 while winning the second-chance points battle 16 to 3. They also outscored the Nets 19 to 9 on fastbreak points.

The loss drops Brooklyn to 1-5. And for a team that came into the season with several question marks following Durant’s trade request this summer, the performance will do little to slow speculation surrounding Brooklyn's commitment to making things work this year. The 12-time All-Star’s August ultimatum to owner Joe Tsai calling for Steve Nash and General Manager Sean Marks to be fired summer was an unprecedented move. Tsai refused both and Durant walked back his trade request. The former MVP said at training camp that Brooklyn's true test would come at the first sign of adversity during the regular season.

“The vibes [at training camp] have been straight,” Durant said. “But who knows what the vibes will be if we hit a skid or we’re not playing well or somebody gets injured. I think that’s what makes a team how we stick through those times. It’s easy to be cool and everything is positive right now but we’ll see as the season goes on.”

Well, here the Nets are at 1-5 off a loss to a team many expected to be in the Victor Wembanayama tank conversation. And through six games, the resilience and response to adversity Durant spoke of has been nowhere to be found.

“When things don’t go our way, we haven’t had enough resilience to push through,” Steve Nash said after the loss. “And that’s what we’re looking for right now.”

“We have to look deep, deep inside ourselves to decide what we want to do,” he continued. “What do we want to accomplish? Do we want to give up on this because it's been difficult early? Or do we want to stay the course and start to build something?”

Ben Simmons said postgame that the team held a players-only meeting to welcome an open dialogue about the best way to move forward. When asked about the mood in the locker room, Durant offered an honest response:

“Whatcha think? We lost four games in a row? I must be excited about that? Of course we're pissed,” he said. “We enjoy basketball. We like to win though. Of course when we lose the game, it's going to be a somber mood in the locker room. It'll change once we start playing some good basketball. We got a lot of basketball to be played.”

Kyrie Irving led the way for Brooklyn with a game-high 35 points on 13 of 22 shooting. Despite the strong performance, it was the recent controversy surrounding Irving's social media posts that was the story of the night. The fourth-year Net's posts linking to a film many consider anti-semitic drew widespread criticism and a statement from the NBA.

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Despite this, Durant responded promptly when asked if the situation affected the team's focus.

“Absolutely not,” he said. “Only impacted you guys and everybody outside the locker room.”

The development is the latest in a string of distractions surrounding the Nets over the last two seasons. Irving's refusal to comply with New York's workplace vaccine mandate caused him to miss over half of last season. The decision, along with a midseason injury to Durant, subsequently led star guard James Harden to force his way out of his second team in two seasons. And then came Durant's trade request and ultimatum over the summer.

Despite one of the more talented rosters in the NBA, many around the league had serious doubts surrounding Brooklyn's ability to survive the wave of unprecedented events. And those doubts were justified in an emphatic fashion Saturday.

The Nets will look to bounce back in a rematch with Indiana Monday before matchups against Chicago, Washington and Charlotte.