A rebuilding team, especially one with a 59-point loss in its rearview mirror, isn’t supposed to hang with the best one in the league. However, the Nets have made going off-script a habit this year. Tonight though, they did what everyone expected them to.

While most people likely chose playoff football today over this asymmetric warfare, the Nets kept on punching up out west. They didn’t land any major blows. At best, they gave their heavyweight opponent a scratch or two. But they did keep punching, and after all, that’s all anyone should be asking of the Brooklyn Nets this year.

The Thunder, on the other hand, have greater goals and far, far more might. They wasted no time portraying both this evening, flexing their league-best defense right out of the gates. On the Nets’ first offensive possession of the game, OKC drove them into a shot clock violation, then followed up by forcing seven straight Brooklyn misses. It wasn’t until the 7:29 mark of the first that the Nets canned their first field goal — a transition take from D’Angelo Russell.

The Thunder’s dynamic offense wasn’t far behind the defense in meting out punishment. OKC started the game 8-of-11 from beyond the arc, going on an 18-0 run that put them up on the Nets 34-7 midway through the first.

“That first quarter it felt like the threes were raining,” said Fernández postgame. “Yes, they made them, because you have to make them. We made some mistakes especially in defending the small pick and roll. Obviously we have to work at it and be better.”

But just as the Thunder started looking at the Nets like the Clippers did earlier this week, a few Jalen Wilson buckets spanning the first and second quarter boundary saved this one from tumbling into another abyss. The Nets went on a 20-7 run, keeping us dry just when the game was starting to look like another wash.

“I think the guys showed fight,” said Fernández of the comeback effort using his favorite word. “We cut it, I think it was a couple of times to 12, and that’s what I want to see from our group, resiliency, fight, doing things the right way, and having right intentions on both ends, and I think we did it at times.”

Still, that’s the thing about starting a game down almost 30 points from the get-go. You can fight your tail off, do the right things, get a 15-point swing in your favor, but then when you pick your head up and look at the scoreboard, you’re still behind, and by a lot.

Even as the Nets improved bit by precious bit throughout the course of the game, raising their percentages and morale, they still had a 20-point deficit staring them in the face the entire time. They never chased the Thunder. They chased a shot at chasing the Thunder — and never really got there.

By the second frame, Brooklyn had resorted to the spam dribble-handoffs strategy with Russell, again seemingly playing on a pitch count, needing to grab some bench. Then as the Net offense fluttered at best, Oklahoma City’s continued to soar.

Each time Brooklyn deflated OKC’s scoreboard cushion to around 15-10 points, the Thunder pumped it back up to 20 not long after. At the break, they led Brooklyn by a 69-49 tally, shooting north of 60% from both from three and the field.

Isaiah Joe, who torched the Knicks with 31 points on eight made triples earlier this month, once again displayed his hatred for New York basketball, going 5-of-6 from downtown in the first two periods. Joe finished with eight threes again tonight (8-of-10 3Ps) and 24 points. He and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led all players with 15 each at the half.

Wilson and Cam Johnson represented Brooklyn’s leading scorers at the break, each with modest eight-pieces at that point. Johnson, who returned after missing both LA games after re-tweaking his right ankle, finished with 15 points while shooting 6-of-11 from the field. He did a solid job advertising to a potential buyer this evening within the parameters of an uncompetitive game.

Wilson faded after his aggressive start. All but three of his points came in the first where he shot 2-of-6 from the field. He went 1-of-4 in the second and 0-of-3 in the second half.

Brooklyn did pull to within 13 with 4:04 to go in the third, once again riding Johnson, only for the Thunder on cue to close the frame on a 13-5 run. Neither Brooklyn nor the horn between the third and final quarter slowed Oklahoma City’s momentum after that. The Thunder enjoyed a 10-4 burst which at the time gave them their largest lead of the contest, also putting them up 108-81 with 8:43 to play.

From that point on, the game transitioned from a contest to something more along the lines of a scrimmage. Players fought and worked on their games but the opportunity to come away with a win lied outside the realm of reality.

The 25-year-old Tyrese Martin took advantage nonetheless, playing eight minutes and scoring seven points in the game while going 3-of-4 from the field. He finished the night with 15 points, tying Cam Johnson for the team-high, also grabbing six boards and dishing two dimes in the process.

“Getting better doesn’t stop right now,” Fernández said. “We have to have high standards and I think these guys have been amazing with the high standards of getting better.”

Noah Clowney also took aim at improvement in the fourth, splashing a triple to push his total scoring for the night to nine points on 2-of-8 shooting with all those attempts being from three. Guards Reece Beekman and Keon Johnson picked up a pair of dimes each in the final period as well. So, there’s that.

Sure, these represent the lowest-level, most basic victories for any NBA team. But again, look at each team’s record, look at their look at their game logs, and look at their rosters up and down. If you can, unclench your fists and understand that bargaining for anything else tonight would’ve been foolish, and that’s alright.

Injury Report

Ben Simmons was a late scratch tonight due to an illness. Unrelated or not, there has been a flu running around the league according to Keith Smith of Spotrac.

Milestone Watch

• Not much to speak of, but if you round up his numbers, Cam Johnson is at 50/40/90 after going 6-of-11 tonight, CJ is now at 50.0% overall, 42.6% from three and 89.7% from the line.

Next Up

With Brooklyn’s road trip now concluded, the Nets will return home to host the New York Knicks on Tuesday night. It’s Brooklyn’s first game in participation with the NBA’s Rivals Week. It’ll also be Mikal Bridges’ first game back at Barclays Center as an opponent. That should provide some spice in what’s otherwise been a bleak midwinter.