Knicks get first victory at expense of crosstown rivals

Frank Ntilikina and the New York Knicks both got on the board Friday night.

The rookie guard scored his first NBA points, and the Knicks beat the Brooklyn Nets 107-86 for their first victory of the season.

“It was great. We had a great game and I think the fans liked it,” Ntilikina said.

Kristaps Porzingis had 30 points and nine rebounds, and Ntilikina finished with nine points as the Knicks became the last team in the league to get a win this season.

They did it with a surprisingly strong defensive effort that shut down the NBA’s highest-scoring team, holding the Nets about 35 points below their average.

New York blew it open with a 25-6 run in the third quarter that turned a threepoint lead into a 72-50 cushion and coasted from there after three straight losses that followed a winless preseason.

“It was important because obviously it was our first win, but I think the most important thing in all of these three losses, we stick together,” center Enes Kanter said. “We stick together in every practice, we practice really hard and then tonight it was all about defense and we did a great job.”

D’Angelo Russell returned from a one-game absence with 15 points for the Nets, who looked nothing like the team that beat Eastern Conference champion Cleveland two nights earlier.

They came in averaging 121.2 points and had reached 110 in each of their first five games, but shot just 40.5 percent from the field against their city rivals.

“They were the more energetic team,” Nets coach Kenny Atkinson said. “They were the more physical team. They were denying us left and right. We couldn’t handle their pressure. We were lethargic and we paid for it.”