The latest blow was a worrisome 76-64 loss to No. 6 Purdue (20-3 overall, 8-3 Big Ten) on Tuesday night, one of MSU’s sloppiest performances of the season and the team’s third straight loss. It was the Spartans’ worst loss at home since they lost to Illinois 81-68 in 2005.

“We just seemed inept at times, and I can’t figure that out,” head coach Tom Izzo said to the Spartan Sports Network. “When you start out bad, it’s hard to come back in the second half, and we almost did it.”

In the three losses — to Wisconsin, Illinois and Purdue — the Spartans’ opponents have shot high field-goal percentages. MSU’s last three foes shot a combined 53.4 percent, but the Spartans had allowed just three opponents to shoot above 44 percent entering the three-game losing streak.

Just like against the Illini on Saturday, each time the No. 10 Spartans (19-6 overall, 9-3 Big Ten) mounted a comeback or showed signs of a jab, their opponent struck right back with a haymaker.

“To beat Michigan State, you have to put yourself in a position to beat them,” said Purdue head coach Matt Painter, whose team snapped a nine-game losing streak in East Lansing dating back to 1998. “And we were able to do that. I think it was kind of icing on the cake the way we shot in the first half.”

Down as much as 18 in the second half, the Spartans narrowed it to three when junior guard Chris Allen hit a 3-pointer to cut No. 6 Purdue’s lead to 65-62 with 4:29 left in the game.

It was all part of a valiant comeback by the Spartans and injured junior guard Kalin Lucas, but the wound was too deep.

“(It was a) heroic effort for what (Lucas has) gone through,” Izzo said. “I feel bad for him but he did a good job of hanging in there.”

The Spartans have been skidding backward for a week. Now, they’re in danger of the wheels falling off, losing their outright hold on first place in the Big Ten. Tuesday night, Purdue was finding open layups, MSU was turning it over on in-bounds plays after made baskets and there were scattered boos in the crowd at one point.

Instead of being in the driver’s seat for the conference’s February race, the Spartans are now watching foes pass them by.

“We’re still in first place and I know we’re not playing real well but we have to regroup,” Izzo said.

It didn’t take long for the Boilermakers to take a snowed-in Breslin Center crowd out of the game.

The teams matched wits for the first seven minutes before Purdue went on a 13-0 run to blow it open. The Spartans went nearly seven minutes without a field goal in that time.

Although Lucas didn’t start, he entered at the 14:25 mark of the first half and remained effective at driving into the lane and running the point.

But a week without conditioning wore on him by the end and neither he, nor the team, had enough in the tank to finish the comeback.

Other than from Allen, who scored a quick 10 points early and led the Spartans with 21, MSU couldn’t get anything going as Purdue shot 65 percent from the field and 92 percent from the free-throw line in the first 20 minutes.

“There are a couple of guys who are just not working as hard as they need to work, and we have to adjust to that,” Izzo said.