The Brooklyn Nets travel to face the Oklahoma City Thunder on Friday, February 20, in a matchup between teams headed in opposite directions in their respective conferences.
Brooklyn enters at 15-38, 13th in the Eastern Conference, while Oklahoma City owns the NBA’s best record at 42-14 and leads the West by three games.
The Thunder will be without their leading scorer and MVP candidate, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who is out with an abdominal strain. The All-Star guard is averaging 31.8 points, 6.4 assists and shooting 55.4% from the field across 49 games.
His absence removes 31.8 of Oklahoma City’s 119.7 points per game, which ranks among the league’s top offenses.
Jalen Williams is also out with a right hamstring strain. The wing is averaging 17.5 points and 5.4 assists, serving as a secondary creator alongside Gilgeous-Alexander.
Ajay Mitchell (abdominal strain/left ankle sprain) and Thomas Sorber (right ACL surgical recovery) remain sidelined as well.
Without its top perimeter options, Oklahoma City will lean more heavily on Chet Holmgren and Isaiah Hartenstein in the frontcourt. Holmgren is posting 17.4 points and 8.7 rebounds while shooting 56.0% from the field, and Hartenstein is averaging 10.6 points and 9.7 rebounds with a 63.5% field-goal mark.
Brooklyn’s injury report is headlined by Nic Claxton, who is out with a right ankle sprain. The center averages 12.5 points, 7.3 rebounds and shoots 59.0% from the floor.
His absence places more responsibility on Day’Ron Sharpe, who is contributing 8.5 points and 6.7 rebounds in 18.5 minutes per game.
Ziaire Williams is out for personal reasons, and several Nets players, including Tyson Etienne, Chaney Johnson, E.J. Liddell, Josh Minott and Ben Saraf, are unavailable due to G League assignments.
Offensively, Brooklyn relies on Michael Porter Jr., who leads the team with 25.0 points per game while shooting 47.4% overall and 38.5% from three.
The Thunder are coming off a 110-93 home loss to Milwaukee after a 136-109 road win in Phoenix. Brooklyn split its last two games, defeating Chicago 123-115 before falling 115-110 to Indiana.
