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OKLAHOMA CITY — This early in the season, it’s more about the process than the product for the Nets.
So far, both have been pretty good.
The Nets (9-4) will face the Thunder on Sunday with a chance to close out a season-long, six-game road trip with a superb 5-1 mark. But Kevin Durant said they’re more concerned with the quality of the basketball they’re playing.
“More so than our record, it’s about how we’re playing,” Durant said. “Obviously, we want to win every game, but we’ve got a bigger goal in mind, and it’s about the habits that we build.
“I feel like, throughout this road trip, we did have some solid games, we did have those games where we played great offensively, bad defensively like [Friday] and we had games where we played solid defensively but bad offensively. You seeing us trying to put games together, and I think that’s the good part about it, we’re figuring out what works out on both ends and now it’s on us to put it for a full 48 [minutes].”
More often than not, the Nets have done it with surprising defense as their offense tries to figure itself out minus All-Star Kyrie Irving. But Friday in New Orleans, it was the offense that erupted, behind Durant and James Harden.
Against the Thunder — just 5-6 on the season, but winners of four straight — the Nets have a chance to complete their impressive trip. Their only loss was in Chicago, but they rebounded with a rout of the Magic and they led by 21 against the Pelicans before taking their foot off the gas and having to regroup.
Still, the Nets have won seven of their last eight, coinciding with Harden getting hot. And they see a value, momentum-wise, in closing out the trip strong.
“Most definitely,” DeAndre’ Bembry said. “We lost to a good Chicago team, but we have a good group that knows how to get past a loss. That is a good thing for us. Especially coming out after the Chicago game, the win against Orlando and a couple more games to end the road trip would be nice.
“Yeah, we’ve got a collective group that’s not really worried about losses right now. We know what we have on this team. We’re very confident and we look forward to each game and try to win each game. We’re looking forward to ending this road trip on a high note and finishing it off right.”
This is the Nets’ longest road trip since a seven-game swing from March 13-28, 2019. It’s the first time in team history they’ve played six consecutive road games right after six straight at home.
DeAndre’ Bembry shot 26.4 percent from 3-point range last season and is a career 28.1 from deep. But he comes into Sunday with shooting splits of 564/700/857.
Nic Claxton (illness) is unlikely to play Sunday according to coach Steve Nash, because he is still ramping up. … Vit Krejci, Theo Maledon, Tre Mann, Paul Watson and Aaron Wiggins are all out on G-League assignment for the Thunder.
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