Not a successful road trip and now it closes against the best team in the NBA.
The Nets have had a series of forgettable moments on this, their longest road trip of the season, a six-game, 11-day, cross-country affair that at the moment has gotten them a single win, a blowout against another tanking team, the Trail Blazers. Whether it is a nail biter loss against the Lakers or an abysmal, record-setting blowout against the Clippers, Brooklyn cannot seem to get things going.
The challenges will not ease up either as the Nets will be taking on arguably the best team in the NBA in the Oklahoma City Thunder. This will be the final game of the West Coast trip before Brooklyn travels back to New York City to take on the crosstown rival New York Knicks in the first half of a back-to-back Tuesday.
Where To Watch
Check out the action at 7:00 p.m. ET on the YES Network and NBA League Pass.
Injury Report
Bojan Bogdanovic, Cam Thomas, DeAnthony Melton, Maxwell Lewis, and Trendon Watford are still out. Dariq Whitehead is with the Long Island Nets. Cam Johnson is questionable once again.
OKC’s twin towers Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein are also out. Nikola Topic (knee) and Ajay Mitchell (toe) are out long-term. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is questionable with a wrist injury.
The Game
When OKC defeated the Cleveland Cavaliers 134-114 a couple of nights ago, it sent a couple of messages to the rest of the league. First, the Thunder are doing this without their young, talented center in Chet Holmgren, who only has 10 games under his belt this season. With the Thunder so successful throughout the course of the season without him, it makes you think what they can accomplish once he gets back to full form.
The second message, well it is that SGA has to be a frontrunner for the MVP. In that same same against the Cavs, he had 40 in three quarters. For the season, Gilgeous-Alexander is averaging 31.6 points on over 50% shooting.
If he plays against the Nets, it’ll be a challenge for the Nets defensively that will be new to them. SGA’s offensive gifts are unique, as he is able to change pace with his slick handle and score from pretty much anywhere on the floor. Thankfully for the Nets, they have a couple of athletic wings who will try to slow down SGA. The first is Keon Johnson, who everyone knows is a supreme athlete. The second is Ben Simmons, who can play positions 1-4. IF the Nets can slow down SGA (IF he plays) it will increase their paltry chances of a win at the end of a grueling trip.
Player To Watch: Jalen Williams
Jalen Williams is a great Robin to SGA’s Batman. Averaging 20 PPG, the 6’5” 23=year-old Williams is skilled in his own right where he continues to show the league that he is someone to pay attention to for the rest of his career. The best part of Williams’ game is his versatility. Not only can he do it on the offensive end, but his 7’2 wingspan allows him to defend pretty much anybody. He plays a big part in the Thunder’s offensive scheme, which is a five out offense that prioritizes spacing.
As Mirian Fader of The Ringer wrote this week, Williams will be needed if OKC can win it all come June.
It seems safe to say his days of anonymity are over. In three years, Williams has gone from an unheralded prospect to the second-most important player on a championship heavyweight. That brings a new set of challenges that are less about finding his place in the league and more about growing into the best player he can ultimately be. At times during last year’s playoffs, the Thunder needed additional sources of offense beyond SGA. For as valuable as Williams’s Swiss Army knife skill set is, OKC may need him to morph into even more of a scorer for this version of the team to thrive. Those who have followed Jalen Williams’s career are confident he’ll meet the challenge. “He can be whatever he wants to be,” Shai Gilgeous-Alexander says. “It would be silly to put a ceiling on how good he can be.”
If SGA is out, we may find out just how important Williams is.
From the Vault
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is not just the key to the Thunder’s future. He’s a big part of Team Canada’s. He and Jordi Fernandez along with 10 other NBA players, have taken Canada from No. 15 to No. 5 in the FIBA World rankings since Fernandez took over two years ago. Since then, they’ve won a bronze medal at the FIBA World Cup in 2023 and finishing fourth in the Paris Olympics last year.
Earlier this year, when the Nets were winning a bit more, SGA was asked about Fernandez by a Spanish reporter…
Fernandez is still deciding whether to continue his head coaching responsibilities with Team Canada this summer.
More reading: Loud City, SB Nation NBA
- Brooklyn Nets Game Notes – Brooklyn Nets
- Oklahoma City Thunder Game Notes – Oklahoma City Thunder
- Thunder hope to have Shai Gilgeous-Alexander vs. Nets – Larry Fleisher – NBA
- Oklahoma City puts home win streak on the line against Brooklyn – AP
- Cam Johnson remains at top of trade talk ahead of Nets game vs. Thunder – Brian Lewis -New York Post
- Ziaire Williams showing promise as Nets continues tank campaign – Brian Lewis – New York Post
- Kyrie Irving rips Nets over trade to Mavericks two years later: ‘Best trade in the business, baby!’ – Brian Lewis – New York Post