NEW YORK — The Brooklyn Nets welcomed the Oklahoma City Thunder to Barclays Center on Sunday and lost 112-102. This is the first of two meetings between the teams this regular-season. Oklahoma now leads the series 1-0.
For the Nets, Seth Curry had 23 points off the bench and Nic Claxton had 17 points, 13 rebounds, and four blocks. Royce O’Neale had 11 points, 10 rebounds, and eight assists while Kyrie Irving had 15 points.
For the Thunder, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander had 28 points and seven rebounds while Josh Giddey had 28 points, nine rebounds, and nine assists. Lu Dort had 22 points and Isaiah Joe had nine points off the bench.
In almost a repeat of the loss to the Boston Celtics on Thursday, the Nets were competitive for the first three quarters and was up by 10 points at one point. There were too many times where Brooklyn forgot to cover someone, whether at the three-point line or at the rim, and it doomed them in the end.
As has been the case throughout this season, Brooklyn had trouble limiting dribble penetration. Gilgeous-Alexander and Giddey were able to get to the rim at will and even with Claxton having four blocks, the Nets struggled to defend the paint. Nets guard Ben Simmons was a late scratch for this game due to back soreness.
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