I've never found anything wrong with getting your ass completely handed to you every once in a while. Sometimes you have to acknowledge you're gonna face people who completely outclass you. It's when you lose badly in every single game that you begin to feel truly awful.
That's where you have two options: give up (i.e. learned helplessness) or take every possible measure to improve.
My cousin is an amazing basketball player, but his team often loses the games by a douzen or two or more points. It's humiliating. I feel for him. And hey, that's where it'd be easy for him to give in and blame his team, but he keeps playing and doing his best. It's admirable sportsmanship.
For me, I'd do theater and get ensemble roles all the time for years on end. It pissed me off and depressed me so much, but for some reason I never felt like I could give up, so I took lessons, classes, and involved myself in every activity and practice I could. Now I can safely say I'm a extremely talented singer and actor and have gotten the leads I've worked for.
But not everyone can have that drive; I didn't for sports. And even If you try hard, there's no guarantee you'll get better, and that's what sucks about life. I empathize with losing players because playing to win can kill confidence. It kind of did for me, because for a long time I couldn't recognize when I did become good. With my cousin, he ignores his losses on the hope he'll have a good day Sure, it's easy to detach youself from it altogether and just say whatever, but the dedicated losers have my sympathy.
Long post short, if the team is that bad, I don't think there's much harm in showing a little mercy.