In the past, the Nets could have taken a lot of positives out of pushing the Thunder to the brink like they did last night at Barclays Center. But there is a new level of expectations in Brooklyn, both in the stands and on the court, that makes any loss — even ones like the 117-111 defeat the Nets suffered last night — unacceptable.
“A loss is a loss to us,” said Kris Humphries, who finished with 12 points and 12 rebounds. “We’re not the Nets of the past few years. No moral victories.
“We’re trying to win games. We can’t go on losing streaks. That’s not what this year is about.”
The Nets are now on a two-game skid after suffering back-to-back losses at the hands of the two teams that squared off in the NBA Finals last season, and after allowing the Thunder to show why they are one of the league’s best offensive teams.
Oklahoma City (15-4) seemingly couldn’t miss from anywhere on the court all night long, finishing over 60 percent from the field, 50 percent from 3-point range and an incredible 30-for-34 (88 percent) from the foul line.
The numbers were even more eye-popping in the first half, when the Thunder shot over 65 percent from the field, hit 6-of-9 of their shots from 3-point range and made all nine of their foul shots.
“We don’t give ourselves a chance to win the game when you let a team shoot 60 percent from the floor,” said Jerry Stackhouse, who finished with eight points in nearly 30 minutes. “We look back at that number, and that’s where the game was lost at.
“We had enough points tonight, but everybody on their team shot better than 50 percent. When you allow that to happen, that’s hard [to overcome].”
But the Nets (11-6), who were playing without starting center Brook Lopez (sprained right foot) and key big man off the bench Reggie Evans (flu-like symptoms), managed to stay with the Thunder despite their torrid shooting because of a stellar performance from Deron Williams.
Williams admittedly had been struggling with his shooting for much of the season. But the star point guard, who said after Saturday’s loss in Miami that he was looking forward to getting a couple days off, looked like a new man against the Thunder. He finished with a season-high 33 points on 10-for-20 shooting to go along with four rebounds and seven assists.
The combination of brilliant play from Williams and timely 3-point shooting from his teammates allowed the Nets to climb back into the game in the third quarter, ending the period on a 26-15 run to enter the fourth quarter down four, 90-86.
“I just wanted to be more aggressive,” Williams said afterward. “I didn’t know I was going to get going like that. It was one of those games where you see a couple shots go in and you get your confidence up. It stinks it was in a loss, but I’m definitely happy that I got going tonight.
“The ball just hasn’t been going in the hole. It’s been right there, it’s been in and out, but I got some to fall tonight and got my confidence up a little bit and hopefully can keep it going.”
But it wasn’t enough to overcome a terrific performance from the Thunder’s pair of superstars in Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. Durant finished with 32 points, including 14 in the second quarter when the Thunder jumped out to a 61-48 lead at halftime.
He had eight points in the fourth that helped hold off a late Nets rally, scoring twice inside the final five minutes of the game when the Nets had cut the lead to two points and would have had a chance to tie or take the lead with a stop.
Westbrook, meanwhile, did his best to match Williams play-for-play, finishing with 25 points and nine assists.
“I thought we tried to make it difficult on Durant and tried to crowd his space, but you’re probably arguably talking about the best player or the second-best player in the NBA,” Nets coach Avery Johnson said. “We got a chance to see him up close and personal and he’s pretty good.”