Atkinson would welcome Lin’s return to the court. The Nets have lost six of their past seven games, including four of five on a recent trip that included stops in Phoenix, Los Angeles and Oklahoma City. After energizing fans with their up-and-down style of play at the start of the season, the Nets are hemorrhaging points on defense. The latest statistical model from the forecasting site FiveThirtyEight has them finishing with a 25-57 record, which, to be fair, would be a four-win improvement from last season.

No one ever suggested that the road to respectability would be easy. At least the Nets are trying. Perhaps that is all anyone can ask of them this season.

“We play hard,” Luis Scola, a veteran forward, said at a recent shootaround. “What that’s going to mean in terms of wins, no one really knows. But we play hard.”

Clippers Coach Doc Rivers said that this latest iteration of the Nets reminded him of the first team he coached, the Orlando Magic, back during the 1999-2000 season. The Magic, he said, were loaded with undrafted players who were determined, selfless and capable of upending opponents who took them lightly.

“We had a bunch of renegades,” Rivers said last week. “They were just an amazing team to coach. I actually thought that’s how all your teams would be — that you’d have all these guys who were hungry every night and listened. I was wrong.”

Rivers made these remarks about an hour before the Clippers went about the uncharitable business of pulverizing the Nets, running out to a 28-point lead — in the first quarter. Hunger and passion count for only so much when there is a seismic disparity in talent. And the Clippers have a lot of talent.