Brooklyn Nets Put In Chokehold By Oklahoma City Thunder, Lose 121-92

The Brooklyn Nets trailed the Oklahoma City Thunder 60-24 at halftime on Wednesday night. Those two dozen points tied a franchise-worst for points scored in a half. The worst part? It wasn’t even surprising.

The already-tanking Nets, missing Michael Porter Jr. for the fourth straight game, ran smack-dab into one of the modern era’s very greatest defenses. The Thunder were on the second night of a back-to-back missing Jalen Williams, Isaiah Hartenstein, and Lu Dort, but the Nets needed a whole lot more help than a plane ride and a couple missing starters.

Jordi Fernández said all there really is to say: “You feel embarrassed when you score 24 points in a half of basketball. And I do believe, no doubt in my mind, that our guys are better than this. But it’s not about what you believe.”

He continued: “I think our readiness to play the game was not there.”

The Nets shot 8-of-22 from two and 1-of-16 from three while turning it over 15 times in the first half. The Thunder were playing on easy mode. Their help defenders engulfed any poor Nets that tried to drive the gaps. At one point, Cason Wallace caught a Josh Minott crossover out of mid-air, a defensive play that I have never, ever seen before…

Unbelievable. Fernández harped on the turnovers postgame, and rightfully so. But I’m not sure what his team could learn from this one, other than to appreciate every game that doesn’t go like this.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored his 20+ points and checked out midway through the third, handling double-teams with the ease of a demigod sent down to Earth simply to hoop, while newcomer Jared McCain had a blast scoring 26 points to lead all scorers, taking full advantage of his green light in the most laissez-faire NBA environment imaginable. But the Nets did win the second half, however. They scored 68 points after halftime, managing to veer away from history and make the final score look like a normal blowout.

“I think we just stepped up, we were taking some pride, looking at the score and understanding what the first half was. But having the second half, ‘How can we try to win the second half?’” said Jalen Wilson, who led the Nets with 15 points.

Given the embarrassment of the first half, Fernández managed the rotation like it was a preseason game. Fourteen Nets got in the game, and once again, the deepest reserves performed the best. Josh Minott didn’t play in the first half, but started the third quarter and put up 9/1/2 with three steals, even winning his minutes. (Hell of a night for his on/off splits.)

Once again, two-way player Chaney Johnson had a strong outing, even if plenty of his production came in garbage time. Johnson scored a dozen points and grabbed five offensive rebounds, worth a head-nod even if he was battling with dudes just trying to avoid injury. In his last three games, Johnson has scored 35 points on 11-of-21 shooting.

“You always have to be ready,” said Fernández. “I just like to tell the guys what their situation is, so they can prepare for it as much as they can. I like to give the information, but then, if I see something that I have to change to make the team play harder, then I will. And today, it happened where guys that were not supposed to be in — I’ll give you J-Will, Tyson [Etienne], Josh, those guys played extremely hard.”

Despite their best efforts, Brooklyn once again did not reach 100 points. That’s four straight games of only scoring in double-digits, the longest streak by an NBA team this season. Mark Daigneault, like many other opposing head coaches this season, praised his team’s readiness to play, their professionalism, the fact that they didn’t treat the game like a joke. The season will be over before you know it. I promise.

Final Score: Oklahoma City Thunder 121, Brooklyn Nets 92

Milestone Watch

• No milestones for this one, other than the ones of futility previously noted.

Meanwhile, in Tankathon rankings, the Nets moved more fully into third place in lottery odds as the Kings were idle and fell into fourth. Overall, Brooklyn is now 2.5 games out of the first, a half game behind the Wizards for second place and two and a half ahead of the Jazz who are in fifth place with 13 to go. It now appears that barring extraordinary circumstances — like a Nets winning streak, the team’s floor is fourth, meaning at worst they’d walk out of the Lottery with the eighth pick. The ceiling of course would be the overall No. 1.

Injury Report

Noah Clowney left in the first half with a right wrist sprain. After shooting a free-throw, he was in visible discomfort and immediately subbed out. Fernández had no update postgame.

Michael Porter Jr. missed his fourth straight game as previously mentioned, but not (solely) with the right ankle that previously bugged him. On Wednesday, he landed on the injury report with “left hamstring awareness,” an odd term though if the Nets have learned anything in recent history, it’s not to mess around with hammies.

“He just felt his hamstring, and we just got to make sure that we look at it and that we have a plan for it,” said Fernández.

Lastly, Egor Dëmin spoke to the media for the first time since being ruled out for the season with plantar fasciitis. He wouldn’t reveal the specifics of his “non-surgical procedure,” though he spoke for ten minutes about the rehab process and his rookie season as a whole. Here is the full article.

From Badalona to Brooklyn

On Tuesday night, the Brooklyn Nets officially released their in-house documentary on the life and career of Head Coach Jordi Fernández. The hour-long doc, linked right below, tells his story chronologically, with much focus on his basketball-crazed hometown of Badalona, as well as the early days of his stateside journey…

“It was way better than what I thought,” said Fernández of the doc. “Because, you know, you feel like you know your own story, but when somebody paints it in a way that is very well done, it’s special. Because sometimes you forget, you know? And it’s sad to say at times, but you get where you get, and it’s really, like, an incredible journey, and you go through all the steps in your life. To just re-watch it, and in a very well put together way, it’s very special.”

Next Up

The Nets have one more home game before hitting the West Coast, and it’s against the Manhattanites. Tip-off against the New York Knicks is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. ET on Friday night.

• Boxscore: Oklahoma City Thunder 121, Brooklyn Nets 92 – NBA
• Game Highlights: Oklahoma City Thunder 121, Brooklyn Nets 92 (Video) – NBA
• PostGame Show (Video) – Chris Shearn & Frank Isola – YES Network
• Jordi Fernandez PostGame Press Comments (Video) – YES Network
• Jalen Wilson PostGame Comments (Video) – YES Network
• Thunder beat the Nets 121-92 for a 10th straight win as Gilgeous-Alexander scores 20 – Adry Torres – AP
• Nets pummeled by defending champion Thunder after historically putrid first half – Brian Lewis – New York Post
• Nets’ Egor Demin eager to start offseason recovery work after rookie year took toll on injury – Brian Lewis – New York Post
• Nets lose to Thunder 121-92; Jalen Wilson scores 15 points off bench – Sharif Phillips-Keaton – USA TODAY
• Fans clown Nets over eye-popping point total in first half vs. Thunder – Paolo Mariano – Clutch Points