MO TRIANGLE,
On Biggie Night, no defense for Knicks’ effort
CLAD IN ALL RED, Carmelo Anthony stood at his locker Sunday at Barclays Center and attempted to explain the Knicks’ 120-112 loss to the lowly Nets. Anthony and his teammates had put forth an embarrassing defensive effort against the worst team in the NBA on a night when Brooklyn honored rapper The Notorious B.I.G. a few days after the 20th anniversary of his death.
“What happened defensively?” a reporter asked Anthony. The Knicks star paused before responding. “Biggie Smalls was definitely in full effect in Brooklyn tonight,” Anthony said. “That’s all I’m going to say.” The insinuation, of course, is that the Nets shot the Knicks off the floor Sunday thanks to a supernatural intervention. But in reality, the Knicks are just an objectively bad defensive team — and their glaring flaws were on full display in BK with Puff Daddy, Lil’ Kim, Faith Evans and Biggie’s mother watching from courtside seats.
The Nets entered the contest scoring the thirdfewest points per 100 possessions of any team in the NBA. But they dropped 39 points on the Knicks in the first quarter and 67 in the opening half. Brooklyn led by 18 points at the break and stretched the advantage to 20 early in the third quarter, a deficit that proved too large to overcome.
“It’s a bad one,” said Anthony, who scored a game-high 27 points on 10 of 26 shooting from the field. “A very bad one.”
The Nets connected on 14 of their 20 3-pointers in the first half, many of them uncontested looks. Brook Lopez, who led Brooklyn with 25 points, hit all five of his attempts from downtown in the first two quarters.
“We were shooting with a lot of confidence,” Lopez said, “and making them.”