James Harden reveals how schedule change affected Nets in loss to Thunder

One night after destroying Chicago on the road, the Brooklyn Nets fell to a young Oklahoma City team at Barclays Center. The schedule this week hasn’t been kind to Brooklyn, with the team playing five games in seven days. James Harden was the lone Big Three member to play in the 130-109 loss to the Thunder, and after the game, his exhaustion was evident.

Without Kevin Durant (rest), Patty Mills (rest), LaMarcus Aldridge (right foot), Nic Claxton (hamstring), Joe Harris (surgery), and Kyrie Irving (out), it was up to Harden to lead the Nets. And he did just that, scoring 26 points (7-of-22), along with nine assists and seven rebounds, but it wasn’t enough.

To be honest, expectations weren’t that high. The Nets were on their second back-to-back game of the week, with one game being at home and the other on the road.

Brooklyn had a late tip on Wednesday night against the Bulls (10 p.m. ET) and then had to turn around and travel back to New York for an 8:30 p.m. tip the following night.

James Harden speaks about the tough schedule following Brooklyn Nets’ loss.

On Sunday, the Nets started the stretch with a game in Brooklyn, and then after an overtime win, had to immediately hop on a plane to travel to Oregon for a game on Monday night. After that, the team had to fly to Chicago for a game on Wednesday and then made their way back to New York for games on Thursday and Saturday.

The Nets’ schedule has been all over the place, but because of the team’s COVID outbreak in December, the NBA had to find open slots to wedge games into.

Harden didn’t play on Monday against the Blazers due to a left knee hyperextension, so after he didn’t go to bed on Thursday until 7:30 a.m. when most people in New York are waking up to start their day, he was tasked with being the main face of a shorthanded roster hours later.

And to no surprise, Harden wanted the Nets to pick up the win, regardless of the circumstances.

"“Today was definitely a little frustrating because we wanted to win. We played so well last night, so we wanted to kinda have some kind of carryover, but it just didn’t happen.”"

Brooklyn didn’t receive any favors from Oklahoma City, either. The Thunder are the worst 3-point shooting percentage team in the league at 31.1%, but they shot 44.4% from downtown against the Nets.

At least the most challenging part of the week is over, and Brooklyn got to enjoy being back at home for one full day before taking on New Orleans at Barclays Center.

It turns out that you do need sleep in “The City That Never Sleeps.” Hopefully, Harden got some much-needed rest on Friday.

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