With the NBA’s second-leading scorer getting the night off, the Brooklyn Nets still had no problem piling up the points in Oklahoma City.
As nine players scored in double figures, the Nets matched a franchise record for points scored in a regulation game in their 147-125 rout of the Thunder, the fourth straight win and the eighth in the last 10 games for Brooklyn, now 13-8 on the season.
“Any time the whole team played well we can do some great things as a group definitely stands out of the rest,” said Kyrie Irving. “Definitely proud of our guys for competing on both ends of the floor and just not letting the foot off the gas pedal.”
The Nets took control of the game and never let go with a dominant stretch that bridged the first and second quarters. Holding the Thunder without a field goal for nearly eight minutes, they edged out to a 36-27 lead at the end of the first quarter, then outscored Oklahoma City 15-0 to take a 51-27 lead with 8:35 to go in the first half. After their highest-scoring first half of the season, they led 76-58 at halftime.
While Kevin Durant was out due to injury recovery after playing 42 minutes in Wednesday’s overtime win in Atlanta, Irving and James Harden each had 25 points. Harden posted his third triple-double as a Net — he’s had at least a double-double in all but one of his eight games for Brooklyn — with 25 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds, shooting 9-for-14. Irving matched Harden’s 25 points on 10-for-16 shooting, plus seven assists and five rebounds.
“They were both incredible,” said Nets coach Steve Nash. “James manages the game so well, spreads the floor, scores, assists, rebounds, gets his hands on balls defensively. Kyrie was just incredible shotmaking. He’s able to make some amazing plays with the basketball and it was such a threat out there it’s so difficult for defenses to contain.”
Brooklyn shot 57.0 percent overall and 42.2 percent from 3-point range, with Joe Harris making 5-of-9 3-pointers on the way to a 20-point night. Bruce Brown scored 19 points on 9-of-11 shooting with five rebounds.
Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot made 4-of-8 3-points and finished with 13 points, while Jeff Green and Landry Shamet had 11 each. Rookie Reggie Perry posted his first career double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds, and DeAndre Jordan and 10 points and eight rebounds.
Tied at 20 in the first quarter, the Nets scored eight straight with three-point plays by Harden and Green sandwiching a Harden drive, going up by nine at the end of the quarter. Oklahoma City went without a field goal for the final 4:43 of the first quarter, and the drought continued in the second quarter, with the Thunder going scoreless entirely until the 8:35 mark.
Brooklyn took advantage with a 15-0 run to start the second quarter, with Harden and Shamet combining for the first 13 points before Green’s transition layup put the Nets up 51-27.
“We’re catching a rhythm obviously offensively, but defensively as well,” said Harden. “We’re learning our strengths and our weaknesses and things we can get better at, and every game is going to be different. Tonight, Shai (Gilgeous-Alexander) had it going, we knew that Al (Horford) had it going, so we wanted to get the basketball out of those guys’ hands and make somebody else make a play, and from the beginning of the game, we did that. It’s a little bit of both, our effort, getting to know each other obviously on the court, and then coaches are doing an unbelievable job of switching up throughout the course of the game and showing teams different looks.”
The Thunder cut Brooklyn’s 18-point halftime lead to 103-89 with 2:20 to go in the third quarter, but Luwawu-Cabarrot knocked down a 3-pointer, Perry finished in transition and Shamet hit for a transition three that pushed the lead back to 111-89. The Nets outscored the Thunder 12-5 down the stretch in the quarter and took a 115-94 lead into the fourth.
Brooklyn answered again in the fourth with the Thunder back within 13, putting together a 12-0 run capped by back-to-back threes from Luwawu-Cabarrot for a 129-106 lead and cruising to the finish.
The Nets have opened their three-game road trip with wins over two teams that had beaten them earlier this season in Brooklyn.
“There’s a familiarity growing on both ends of the floor,” said Nash. “We’ve got a long ways to go defensively. It’s not our forte or strong suit, but we’ve got to be clean with our gameplan and make sure that we’re talking and anticipating actions, so I think that’s improving. And offensively, I think guys are starting to get a feel and rhythm for one another, how each other likes to play, where they like the ball, how they like to move, cut and play off each other. James is a master at leading that and manipulating the floor, and obviously with Ky and Kevin’s scoring ability it’s very potent at that end of the floor, so we’ve got to continue to refine offensively to find that connectivity, and then defensively the same thing. Just get sharper and cleaner with all of our reads and talking and executing at that end, we can be solid down there.”