Brooklyn Dominates MLK Day Matinee

Less than one month ago, the Brooklyn Nets and New York Knicks played Christmas Day matinees at their respective arenas and suffered 18 and 30-point losses respectively, dropping each team’s record to 9-19.

Both teams appeared to be headed in the same direction: down.

But since a 21-point loss to the San Antonio Spurs on December 31 ended the 2013 calendar year for Brooklyn, Coach Jason Kidd’s Nets have turned over a new leaf. On Monday, they showed that New York’s two squads are actually headed in very different directions.

Brooklyn won for the seventh time in eight games since the start of the New Year, routing the Knicks 103-80 on their Madison Square Garden home court in a Martin Luther King Day matinee. The loss was New York’s fourth straight and the teams are now separated by three games in the standings.

After the game, Knicks star Carmelo Anthony lauded Coach Kidd’s efforts to prepare his team for the game and Brooklyn’s execution of their coach’s plan.

“From the jump ball, it felt like they owned us today,” Knicks star Carmelo Anthony said. “They played to the mismatches and that’s something that Jason does well, even when he was here. That was his big thing, to play to the mismatches.”

The Nets were led by an incredibly balanced attack as 53 of their 103 points came from the starting five and 50 came from the bench, which featured point guard Deron Williams, returning after a five-game absence due to ankle injuries. Williams suggested to Kidd that he come off the bench for the time being so as not to disturb the rhythm the Nets starters created in his stead.

“Whatever you want to do,” Coach Kidd told his point guard, impressed by the sentiment.

Williams had 13 points off the bench and Andray Blatche chipped in 19. Joe Johnson paced the Nets in the scoring column with 25 points. After the game, Johnson credited Coach Kidd with instilling the confidence in him to succeed and trusting Johnson to produce in big spots.

“It’s been J-Kidd,” Johnson said. “He’s been telling me, ‘Be ready. We’re coming to you.’ It’s not necessarily for me to score. But, if the double-team doesn’t come, he knows I’ll make the right play. Early in games, when it does come, our guys are making them pay and I just kind of get wide-open shots.”

Johnson has now scored more than 20 points in five of Brooklyn’s last six and all of those games Nets wins. The team is 9-3 when Johnson scores at least 20 points.

“We play through Joe, and Joe has been making a lot of great reads, not just looking to score the ball but getting other guys wide-open looks,” Kidd said. “And the ball movement has been contagious throughout everybody.”

DEFENSE DONE RIGHT

One other factor in Brooklyn’s New Year surge has been the play of the team’s defense.

Since allowing more than 100 points in back-to-back road losses to the Pacers and Spurs December 28 and 31, the Nets have limited opponents to an average of 89 points per game. Just one time has an opponent gone over 100 points in that span — the Atlanta Hawks in a 127-110 Brooklyn win, which played out like a track meet in London.

“We’re starting to build something defensively and when you can do that it’s beautiful,” Nets forward Paul Pierce said. “Even more so than offensively because it creates trust … We’re putting games together, we’re putting quarters together. It’s not just one quarter or two quarters, we’re starting to be more consistent.”

Defense was a big key to the win over the Knicks. Holding the Knicks to just 16 points on 41 percent shooting in the first quarter allowed the Nets to build a double digit first quarter lead. By halftime they led by 14 and though Brooklyn scuffled themselves offensively in the third, they held the Knicks to just 17 points on 29 percent shooting, allowing the Nets to close through the fourth to a win.

“They out-schemed us,”’ said Tyson Chandler, a teammate of J-Kidd in both New York and previously in Dallas, where the two won an NBA title together in 2011.

CONTROLLING THE CROWD

As the Nets cruised to victory in the fourth, pushing their lead to its pinnacle in the game’s final minutes, chants of “Brook-lyn” rang through Madison Square Garden, a response to the “Let’s Go Knicks” chants that rained down on the Nets when the Knicks defeated them by 20 on December 5 at Barclays Center.

Jason, who participated in the New York-Brooklyn rivalry last year as a member of the Knicks downplayed the value of beating the Knicks over any other NBA team, but did note that Nets fans were sure to get some extra pleasure out of it.

“It’s a rivalry for the fans,” Kidd said. “For us, it’s another NBA game. It’s a tough place to win.”

Interestingly, when he was introduced prior to the game, Jason received neither cheers nor boos from the New York crowd. He was asked after the game about the reception and whether he expected cheers for his role in the Knicks’ 54-win, Atlantic Division Championship season.

“Cheer for me? No need to. I didn’t do anything here,” he said. “We had a good run here last year. That’s as much of a feeling that I have coming into this building.”

SHARED CREDIT

The feeling leaving the building was far better for the Nets than it would have been a month ago. Thanks to their 7-1 record in January, the Nets are now 17-22, closing in on the .500 mark and sit just 2.5 games out of the Atlantic Division lead.

One of the team’s leaders, Kevin Garnett, was asked about how things have come together so quickly for the Nets and credited Coach Kidd for communicating his plan to the team.

“Jason has done a great job of turning it around and getting us to understand what he wants,” Nets forward Kevin Garnett said. “He’s embedded in our minds what he wants. Mostly we’ve been communicating and not guessing.”

But Coach Kidd said it is the players who deserve the credit for doubling down on their commitment to the team, trusting in the process, fighting through adversity and executing the game plan.

“It’s about those guys in that locker room,” he said. “They believe they can play both sides of the ball, and they’re doing it at a high level.”

However, the Nets know that just as quickly as things have turned up for them, it can all turn back down for them if they stray from the principles that have carried them through this stretch of success.

“We know and understand where we’ve come from,” Johnson said. “We know how it can turn and go back,” Johnson said. “We’re enjoying paying attention to detail and trying to be successful.”

NEXT UP

The Nets have a quick turnaround from Monday afternoon’s win as they will be back in action at home on Tuesday night hosting the Orlando Magic at Barclays Center.

Tip-off is slated for 7:30 p.m. ET and the game can be seen on YES.