The Brooklyn Nets will be out to prove they can win again without Kevin Durant when they travel to San Antonio to play the struggling Spurs on Tuesday night.
The Nets will make their only trip of the regular season to San Antonio after a 112-102 loss at home to Oklahoma City on Sunday.
Brooklyn dropped its second straight game since Durant went down with a knee injury that will keep him sidelined for at least another week. The team also played without Ben Simmons, who has a sore back.
Seth Curry paced the Nets with 23 points off the bench in the loss while Nic Claxton added 17 points and 13 rebounds to record his team-leading 13th double-double. Kyrie Irving scored 15 points and Royce O’Neale tallied 11 for Brooklyn.
The Nets were up 80-75 heading to the final quarter but immediately surrendered a 15-6 run and never regained the lead. Brooklyn was doomed by 29.3 percent shooting from 3-point range.
Tuesday’s contest will be the first in a five-game trip for the Nets that also will take them to Phoenix, Salt Lake City, San Francisco and Philadelphia over a nine-day span.
The Spurs are just trying to find any way to win. San Antonio has dropped five straight games and eight of its past nine, including 132-119 at home to Sacramento on Sunday.
Jakob Poeltl led the Spurs with 23 points while Josh Richardson added 21 and Keldon Johnson scored 20. Key reserve Doug McDermott missed the game with upper-back tightness.
San Antonio led 64-63 at halftime but couldn’t slow the Kings in a pivotal third quarter and trailed 102-90 heading into the fourth. San Antonio clawed to within four points in the final quarter but could not get over the hump.
The Spurs have not won consecutive games since they captured three straight from Dec. 8-12.
