Nets Get Thunderstruck

Brooklyn Nets vs Oklahoma City Thunder Post Game Recap 12/4


The Brooklyn Nets fell to 11-6 as they lost to the Oklahoma City Thunder 117-111 in Brooklyn. The Nets were once again without Brook Lopez with a strained right foot for the 3rd straight game, as well as Reggie Evans who was suffering from the flu.

The Nets played awful defense in the first half, allowing the Thunder to shoot 65% from the field and trailed 61-48 at the half. They were unable to keep the Thunder out of the paint, as Westbrook who finished with 25 points and Durant who finished with 32 points got to the line a combined 20 times. Deron Williams struggled with keeping Westbrook infront of him all night, and the help defense which came late most of the time led to a wide open Sefolosha. On offense, the Nets primarily stayed out of the paint, shooting 34 three pointers. The Nets hit 14 of them, most coming in the 3rd quarter where the Nets made their run to cut the defecit to 2. With Evans out, rebounding the ball would have seemed to be troublesome for the Nets, but all the three pointers they shot led to long rebounds, which the Nets grabbed 16 of, 40 rebounds total. The Thunder only managed to grab 2 offensive rebounds and 33 in total. This odd rebounding effort allowed the Nets to stay in the game and let the game come down to the 4th quarter. Under 2:00 minutes left in the 4th, a close goaltending call on Kris Humphries on a Kevin Durant layup allowed the Thunder to go up 110-106, which sealed the deal.

BRIGHTSPOTS

Andray Blatche, who started in place for Lopez, continued to play well. Blatche finished the game with 19 points and 11 rebounds, 8 of which were offensive rebounds. Deron Williams also finally found his shooting touch as all season he had been struggling. Williams hit 5-9 from three point land finishing with 33 points and 7 assists. Along with Williams, Gerald Wallace also found his shooting touch in the 3rd quarter, shooting 4-7 from three point land. Mirza Teletovic, saw a lot of action in this game, and played well. Mirza shot 3-6 from the field for 8 points. Mirza will need to continue to play well due to Broo Lopez's history with injury.

QUESTIONMARKS

Brooklyn was the 2nd best defense in opponents ppg, but allowing the Thunder to score 117 was just atrocious. The Nets struggled on defense in almost every phase, from the guards not being able to keep the Thunder's perimeter players out of the paint, to our big men not being able to stay with their man. Serge Ibaka went 8-12 from the field and had two highlight dunks. Ibaka either got a wide open jump shot or an easy dunk on the offensive end.

Joe Johnson continued to struggle shooting the ball as well. When the Nets win easily, it's usually because JJ is on his game, and shooting well but this seems to be a rarity. JJ went 1-7 from 3 point land, and only started to hit jump shots in the 4th. Along with his iffy shooting, he seems scared to attack the basket, and didn't shoot one free throw. Infact, outside of Deron who shot 10 free throws, the Nets shot a combined 13 free throws.

It was also questionable rotation decisions by Avery Johnson in the 4th quarter that led to this loss. Blatche who played well, sat a little more than half the 4th quarter from 8:43 to 2:32. Blatche, who had been playing well all night, was substituted for Kris Humphries. The rationale was that they needed defense on the court, however that is something Humphries and the rest of the Nets didn't do all game. Along with this, Jerry Stackhouse played 30 minutes and finished with 8 points on 2-6 shooting. Stackhouse played down the stretch in the 4th quarter and hardly contributed at all.

After losing to both the Thunder and Heat, it's clear the Nets are not yet in their tier. They will have to get healthy and make improvements both on offense and defense but it was good to see where they stand against the NBA's elite.

Up next for the Nets are the 10-7 Warriors, who come to Brooklyn on Friday.