Playing on the tail end of their 17th back-to-back of the season, Coach Jason Kidd’s Nets got rude welcome on the other side of the Brooklyn Bridge from their intra-city rivals.
The well-rested and suddenly surging New York Knicks proved too hot for the Nets to handle on Wednesday night in Manhattan, and handed them a 110-81 defeat inside Madison Square Garden, bringing Brooklyn’s three-game winning streak to a screeching halt.
New York shot 60 percent from the field led by wing scorers J.R. Smith and Carmelo Anthony. Smith had a game-high 24 points while Anthony added 23 of his own. Three other Knicks reached double figures on the night.
“They made shots,” Coach Kidd said flatly afterward.
The Knicks came into the game with an extra edge, as they are currently embroiled in a battle for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
Smith got going early, hitting a three-pointer on the game’s first possession. Brooklyn wing Joe Johnson responded with a trey of his own. The teams went back and forth until the 2:03 mark of the first quarter, when an Anthony jump shot gave New York the lead for good. Tim Hardaway Jr. added a trey at the first quarter buzzer to Brooklyn down nine after one.
The Knicks continued to push their lead before the half as they shot an astounding 66.7 percent from the field in the second quarter and capitalized on Brooklyn’s five turnovers in the half. While New York shot the lights out, the Nets couldn’t get going on offense, shooting 6-of-16 from the field and 2-of-6 from beyond the arc in the second quarter. As such, the Knicks took a 63-38 lead into halftime.
Toward the end of the half of that first half, Coach Kidd got another NBA first out of the way when he was assessed a technical for arguing a call by the officials, who ruled that a ball that went out of bounds was last touched by Brooklyn. The technical, which Jason described as an “accident” after the game was his first of the year, making him the last coach in the league to receive his first of the season.
“It happens. It is the schedule,” he said. “I thought the ball went out
[off J.R.] Smith. I was wrong. I pressed it too much, and got a T. No big thing.”
However, Nets players liked seeing the fire out of their first-year coach.
“As a coach, you’ve gotta get pissed off sometimes,” said Brooklyn forward Andray Blatche. “You gotta have an attitude, and he’s got it right now.”
That attitude was of little help to the Nets on Wednesday, however.
Brooklyn did get off to a good start in the third frame behind the play of all five starters on both ends of the floor. The Nets outscored the Knicks in the quarter thanks to a sound effort defensively, as they held New York to 37.5 percent from the field and forced seven turnovers.
But it proved to be too little too late, as they were only able to make a small dent in New York’s lead before the Knicks rallied back to take an 82-61 edge into the final quarter.
With the game out of reach, Coach Kidd made the decision to give his starters some rest and none of Brooklyn’s first five entered the game in the final 12 minutes. New York poured it on, going 12-of-18 from the field to close out the Nets.
“We played last night and we came out sluggish. You have to give New York credit. They won the game,” Coach Kidd said afterward. “Lose by one, or lose by 100 it’s just a loss and we move on. We will go back and look at it and get ready for Detroit.”
NEXT UP
Coach Kidd’s squad won’t have to wait so long for their chance to bounce back as they face their 18th back-to-back of the season when they host the Detroit Pistons on Friday night at Barclays Center before heading to Philadelphia to face the Sixers on Saturday night.
First up is Detroit, who has topped the Nets in all three contests between the teams so far this season, but Brooklyn will get one last chance to not only end that streak, but also extend its NBA-leading 14-game home winning streak.
Saturday’s game in Philadelphia gives Brooklyn a chance to get back on the good side of the ledger on the road, where they are just 14-23 on the season.
The Nets might have some reinforcements for both games, as Coach Kidd hinted recently that veteran forwards Andrei Kirilenko and Kevin Garnett are close to returning from their respective injuries.
Kirilenko has missed six games and Garnett has missed 18, but Jason noted after the loss to New York that Garnett doesn’t necessarily need to practice before he plays.
“As many as he wants,” Coach Kidd said of how many practices Garnett will need. “So if it’s one, that’s fine by us. If it’s zero, that’s OK. He’s not a rookie. He has won a championship so we’ll see how many games he can play.”
Tip-off of Friday’s game is set for 7:30 p.m. EST and the game can be viewed locally on WWOR or via NBA League Pass. Saturday’s game is scheduled for a 7 p.m. ET tip and can be seen on YES or via League Pass.
RELATED LINKS
- Mild-mannered Nets leaders take out frustration on refs (NY Post, April 3, 2014)
- Nets blow chance to gain ground in East (NY Post, April 3, 2014)
- Nets get blown out by Knicks at MSG (NY Daily News, April 2, 2014)
- Nets fall to Knicks (NY Daily News, April 2, 2014)
- Lacking Discipline, Nets Meet Punishment (NY Times, April 2, 2014)
- Nets rattled by crosstown rival Knicks (Newsday, April 2, 2014)
- Defense didn’t travel to the Garden (ESPN New York, April 2, 2014)
- Kidd on tech: That was an accident (ESPN New York, April 2, 2014)
- Woodson, Kidd Have Different Coaching Philosophies, Futures (Wall Street Journal, April 2, 2014)
- Knicks destroy listless Nets, 110-81 (Nets Daily, April 2, 2014)
- Nets blown out as Manhattan rolls (The Brooklyn Game, April 2, 2014)
- Knicks defeat Nets, 110-81 (The Associated Press, April 2, 2014)
