After a 112-84 road loss on Thursday night, the Brooklyn Nets will travel to Oklahoma City to take on the Thunder tonight at 8 p.m. ET. Yesterday was another offensive lull for the Nets, but hopefully this game will bring some more firepower on that end.
Brooklyn is expected by almost no one to win against the defending champions. The Thunder, at 42-14, are the best team in the NBA with hopes of going back-to-back. They've suffered some hiccups with a 5-5 record over their last 10 games, but it's more so because of injuries than underperformance.
Tonight, Oklahoma City will be without a few notable names, including Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who will miss at least one more week of action with an abdominal injury, per Brandon Rahbar of DailyThunder.com. Jalen Williams and Ajay Mitchell are also out for quite some time, while rookie Thomas Sorber has yet to make his NBA debut with a torn ACL.
As for the Nets, Michael Porter Jr. and Egor Dёmin are available, but a plethora of names are out for different reasons, according to Brooklyn Nets PR:
### Ziaire Williams: OUT (Personal Reasons)
### Nic Claxton: OUT (Right Ankle Sprain)
### Ben Saraf: OUT (G League Assignment)
### Josh Minott: OUT (G League Assignment)
### Tyson Etienne: OUT (G League Two Way)
### Chaney Johnson: OUT (G League Two Way)
### E.J. Liddell: OUT (G League Two Way)
The Thunder are playing their first game since the All-Star break, losing their last against the Milwaukee Bucks on Feb. 12. Brooklyn has lost 20 of its last 25 games, currently 15-39. The Nets are 13th in the Eastern Conference and fourth in lottery odds.
The NBA's race to the bottom is starting to heat up, despite the league looking to [enact anti-tanking rules next season](https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/47979919/nba-set-enact-anti-tanking-rules-next-season-sources-say). The Nets haven't been as egregious in losing games, but they are still just as incentivized, if not more than, other teams.
These two are meeting for the first time this season, but last year, Oklahoma City took both matchups by an average of 17 points. The Thunder lead the all-time series 65-36.
Porter will lead the way for Brooklyn, having put up just 14 points on 5-of-13 shooting against the Cavaliers on Thursday. The 27-year-old is having a career year, averaging 24.7 points per game on 47-38-86 shooting splits.
Meanwhile, Chet Holmgren will have to lead the Thunder tonight, averaging 17.4 points, 8.7 rebounds and 1.9 blocks, in contention for the Defensive Player of the Year award.