Philadelphia snapped their four-game losing skid against the Thunder on Monday night. Oklahoma City is hoping that it doesn’t become a trend against the Nets.
OKC squares off on Tuesday night against a Brooklyn team that’s lost six in a row and seven of their last eight.
Despite the setback against Philadelphia, the Thunder are one of the hottest teams in the league over the last month, sitting four games over .500 and 9-2 in 11 games since Dec. 14.
Against the Nets, OKC will look to get off to a strong start, something Thunder head coach Billy Donovan told ESPN they didn’t do during Monday’s loss in Philadelphia.
“We dug ourselves a little bit of a hole, and we’ve had that happen before where we’ve gotten down, but these guys always fight back,” Donovan said after his team allowed 51.1 percent shooting. “I thought we fought and played pretty hard and pretty well in the second half. I thought the things that hurt us in the second half was, one, I thought we gave up some timely offensive rebounds, and we just didn’t shoot the ball great from the free-throw line.”
At the other end of the spectrum, the Nets are on their worst losing skid since the end of 2018, having lost four-of-six by double digits.
Their last time out, Brooklyn fell to the Magic in Orlando, 101-89. Nets head coach, Kenny Atkinson, admitted to Field Level Media that it’s been a struggle.
“Sure, I think there’s a little bit of crisis of confidence, there’s no doubt about it,” Atkinson said after his team shot 33 percent and missed 37 of 47 3-point tries. “But that just happens during an NBA season. We’re just in a rut. We shot the ball real well early in the season, where we’re not shooting it well now. It’ll come back. I have confidence in these guys.”
Oklahoma City will tip-off against the Nets at 6:30 p.m. CT in Brooklyn. The game will be televised on NBATV.