{"id":168005,"date":"2026-03-19T05:41:39","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T05:41:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/168005\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T05:41:39","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T05:41:39","slug":"nets-get-pummeled-by-defending-champion-thunder","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/168005\/","title":{"rendered":"Nets get pummeled by defending champion Thunder"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Nets\u2019 first half wasn\u2019t just horrific; it was historic.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Brooklyn got hammered 121-92 by Oklahoma City on Wednesday night before a sellout crowd of 17,548 at Barclays Center, putting forth one of the sorriest halves of basketball in franchise annals.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Brooklyn trailed the Thunder 60-24 at the break, its lowest-scoring first half in franchise history. <\/p>\n

The Nets were just two points away from tying the worst half by any NBA team in the shot-clock era, the 22 by Phoenix in 2016.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"BrooklynNic Claxton tries to drive on Chet Holmgren during the first half of the Nets\u2019 121-92 blowout loss to the defending champion Thunder at Barclays Center on March 18, 2026. JASON SZENES FOR THE NEW YORK POST<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously you feel embarrassed when you score 24 points in a half of basketball,\u201d said Jordi Fern\u00e1ndez. \u201cAnd I do believe, no doubt in my mind, our guys are better than this. But it\u2019s not about what I believe; it\u2019s about going out there and doing it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The makeshift Nets \u2014 who played without Michael Porter Jr., Egor D\u00ebmin and Day\u2019Ron Sharpe, and lost Noah Clowney to injury \u2014 shot just 23.7 percent in the first half, and 1-for-16 from deep.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Brooklyn had 15 turnovers for 22 Thunder points. It trailed by as much as 42 in a rout that was as much about being unprepared as undermanned.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, our readiness to play the game was not there,\u201d said Fern\u00e1ndez. \u201cI expect our guys to play every minute like it\u2019s the hardest minute you\u2019ll play in your life, and it didn\u2019t happen. And some of the guys coming off the bench, they did it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not magic or rocket science. It\u2019s just control what you can control, your attitude and your energy and good things happen in this game.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Nets (17-52) are the first team in the league this season to be held under 100 points in four straight games. They\u2019ve lost five in a row and 15 of 17.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"OklahomaShai Gilgeous-Alexander looks to shoot over Jalen Wilson during the first half of the Nets\u2019 blowout loss to Thunder at Barclays Center on March 18, 2026. JASON SZENES FOR THE NEW YORK POST<\/p>\n

Brooklyn is third in the lottery standings, 2 \u00bd games behind Indiana and pulling within a half-game of idle second-place Washington.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jalen Wilson had a team-high 15 points off the bench, while Nolan Traore added 13 and six assists.\u00a0<\/p>\n

OKC star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander cracked the 20-point barrier for the 130th straight game, while Jared McCain led the Thunder with a game-high 26 off the bench.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFollow all the basketball buzz in Brooklyn\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Nets by Brian Lewis, exclusively on Sports+.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

Noah Clowney was forced out of the game after just 7:57 with a right wrist injury, but told The Post he wasn\u2019t seriously hurt and should be fine.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, we have to take a look and see what\u2019s there, and obviously prioritize his body and his health,\u201d Fern\u00e1ndez said. \u201cThat\u2019s the most important thing, especially now with 13 games to go. And hopefully he\u2019s fine.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Porter missed a fourth straight game with a sprained ankle, but now has \u201cleft hamstring awareness\u201d added to his injury designation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019d just done form shooting the previous time, and [Tuesday] throughout the workout, his ankle was feeling better,\u201d said Fern\u00e1ndez. \u201cHe just felt his hamstring, and we\u2019ve got to make sure we look at it and have a plan.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ben Saraf was out with a sore left foot.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jalen Williams, Luguentz Dort and Isaiah Hartenstein were out for OKC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Nets\u2019 first half wasn\u2019t just horrific; it was historic.\u00a0 Brooklyn got hammered 121-92 by Oklahoma City on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":168006,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,355,99,21,9,24,1558,63,9132,30530,319],"class_list":["post-168005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-nets","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-nba","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-ny-sports-minute","tag-nyc","tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","tag-shai-gilgeous-alexander","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=168005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168005\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/168006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}