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 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.
“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. The season will be over before you know it. I promise.
Final Score: Oklahoma City Thunder 121, Brooklyn Nets 92
