Young Nets bullied by Clippers in loss full of tough lessons

The oldest team in the NBA gave the youngest a lesson.

Tanking Brooklyn — deep into a youth movement — got spanked by the venerable Clippers 121-105 on Friday at Barclays Center.

With a record five first-round rookies — all but one of whom played — the Nets learned some valuable lessons against Los Angeles. They just weren’t easy ones.

James Harden put on a show with a game-high 31 points, getting to the rim at will with 10-of-13 shooting. The future Hall of Famer had 15 points in the first quarter alone, when he helped put Brooklyn in a 16-point hole.

Kawhi Leonard, questionable with a sprained right ankle, added 13 of his 26 points in the fourth quarter. And even with 40-year-old Chris Paul sent home, the Clippers put on a clinic in cutting up what had been a stout Brooklyn defense.

“It’s just a new challenge,” head coach Jordi Fernandez said. “And it goes at the experience and gamesmanship and all that stuff. Obviously we have a couple of Hall of Famers there that our guys have never defended before…We’ll see a lot of iso, a lot of pick-and-roll, and going through those coverages is very important.