New low for Celtics

And you thought Thursday’s 20-point loss to the Cavaliers was bad.

The Celtics [team stats] showed that their struggles may run deeper than anyone expected when they were beaten 104-96 by New Jersey yesterday at the Garden.

That’d be the same Nets team that is on pace for the worst record in NBA history. The win “improved” New Jersey’s record to 6-52.

“I feel disgusted,” Kevin Garnett said after the game.

Granted, the Celtics were without Paul Pierce [stats], who missed his third straight game with a sprained right thumb. But that hardly was an excuse.

The C’s charged out to a 12-2 lead and then failed to apply themselves until they were trailing 94-76 with 5:16 remaining. By then, it was too late.

The Celtics staged a late rally, waking up a Garden crowd that had booed the team’s dismal display during the first three quarters. A furious 16-4 run pulled the C’s to within 98-92 with 2:09 left.

The Celtics could have drawn closer, but Ray Allen missed an open 3-pointer from the right wing. New Jersey’s Kris Humphries answered with a bucket at the other end to give the Nets an insurmountable 100-92 edge.

“I talk about it a lot with our guys, ‘Those are the basketball gods punishing you. You have no right to get back in this game,’ ” Celtics coach Doc Rivers said. “I thought all those little breaks went to them, and I thought the basketball gods were saying that they deserved to go to (the Nets).”

Though the Nets will challenge the 9-73 mark the 1972-73 Philadelphia 76ers [team stats] set for all-time futility, they do possess a trio of talented young players. Brook Lopez (25 points), Devin Harris (23) and Courtney Lee (21) torched the once-vaunted Celtics defense.

Garnett led the C’s with 26 points and nine rebounds, but his postgame focus was on the defensive woes.

“We’re a team that takes a lot of pride in getting stops,” Garnett said. “We got to get back to that. Hearing it is starting to make my ears ring, but that’s what it is. And we will. We have no choice.”

Marquis Daniels, who was starting in place of Pierce, had 16 points on 8-of-9 shooting, but was limited to 27 minutes by foul trouble. Rajon Rondo [stats] had 13 points and 17 assists, but he too was plagued by fouls.

Rondo keyed the fast start, but when he was sent to the bench with his second foul less than four minutes into the game, the team’s ball movement suffered.

After Rondo left, the Nets went on a 27-15 run to take a 29-27 lead at the end of the first quarter. New Jersey extended its advantage to 49-42 at the break and, with its newfound confidence, opened up a 68-54 edge midway through the third quarter.

The Celtics showed signs of life with a 10-2 run, sparked by Nate Robinson (13 points). But New Jersey kept its foot on the gas, its lead ballooning to 94-76 on a Keyon Dooling 3-pointer midway through the fourth.

There were suggestions afterward that perhaps a loss to the NBA’s worst team could serve as a wake-up call. But the Celtics [team stats] sounded like a team that has heard the alarms going off for some time. They just don’t seem sure how to answer the call.

“I don’t know how many wake-up calls we need,” Kendrick Perkins [stats] said. “We’ve had a few this year. We’ll see how we bounce back against Detroit (on Tuesday). We’ve got a few days to think about these last two losses.”