Nets are eager for revenge vs. Hawks

ATLANTA — For the Nets, getting beaten Saturday by the Hawks — one of the worst teams in basketball — was like slap in the face.

One can only hope it wakes them up. Especially because they have a rematch Monday, a tilt they’re openly calling a must win.

“It’s a good thing,” Rondae Hollis-Jefferson told The Post. “We played them [in Brooklyn] and they smacked us in the face. And we go down there and give them a taste of the medicine.”

Saturday was surely a bitter pill to swallow for the Nets. Brooklyn had just come off a rare winning road trip, and returned to Barclays Center only to get beaten by a Hawks team that’s the secondworst in the NBA.

With Monday kicking off a 5,000mile odyssey — facing the Heat and Carmelo Anthony’s Thunder, both in Mexico City — beating Atlanta is paramount. Even ex-Hawk DeMarre Carroll, the veteran leader in the Nets’ locker room, acknowledged Monday’s game is one they have to have.

“Very big; especially going to Mexico, playing two really good teams. We’ve got to get that game,” Carroll said. “We should’ve got [Saturday’s] game. But at the end of the day, we’ve got to be ready on Monday. I think we need that win, it’s a big win for us.

“We know we didn’t play well. They came out and were the aggressive team. We know we weren’t playing like we normally play. We’re all in good spirits and I think we’ll be ready come Monday.”

The Hawks should surely have their full attention. Especially after coming into Barclays Center and out-hustling the Nets.

“They out-competed us,” Caris LeVert said. “... For sure, we definitely want to redeem ourselves and try to beat them. We feel like we came into the game with the right mindset, but we didn’t execute the way we wanted to.

“They out-executed is, they outcompeted us [Saturday] night. Luckily, we’ve got another chance in a couple days.”