STILL KINGS FOR A NIGHT
Knicks thump Nets, who can’t take over Big Apple like this
First Spencer Dinwiddie missed an open three. Then Joe Harris. Then Taurean Prince, all in the same possession.
If there was a stretch that embodied the Nets’ embarrassing 94-82 loss to the Knicks on Thursday, it was those three consecutive missed shots in a 12-second span.
“We played really, really bad. Like laughably bad,” Spencer Dinwiddie said. “We’ve had different losses over the year where I’ve stood here and been upset. We shot probably historically bad.”
Here’s exactly how bad they
were: The Nets made just eight two-point field goals against the Knicks on Thursday. That’s the least amount of twos made by any team in the past 69 years.
Not nice.
If the Nets are supposed to be the best team in New York City, they didn’t look like it the day after Christmas. “Let’s go with too much egg nog?” Dinwiddie said. “I don’t know what else to tell you.”
Maybe they just weren’t the better team on Thursday night.
Instead, it was the Knicks who looked like they owned Barclays Center. They moved the ball around the floor with a purpose. They only finished with 16 assists, but everyone touched the ball, possession after possession.
The Knicks defended with energy, holding the Nets to a season-low 82 points.
They played inspired basketball.
It may have very well been the Knicks’ third-best performance of the season behind both wins over the Mavericks.
“The communication was the biggest thing,” Marcus Morris Sr. said. “We know who we were trying to find and what we were trying to take away. We did a great job of that, and when we fell off a little bit, we got a timeout and brought it back together. That was a good step for us.”
Julius Randle led the way with 33 points on 50% shooting from the field, but Elfrid Payton has been the difference for this Knicks team so far. Payton finished with 13 points, seven rebounds and four assists. How wonderful it must feel to have an experienced point guard back in the rotation.
“He’s the head of the snake,” Randle said, “and this team really feeds off his energy.“
The Nets, though, didn’t do themselves any favors. A team that lives and dies by the three died a slow, painful death against its crosstown rival. Prince shot 1-of-10 from downtown. Garrett Temple shot 2of-7 from three and Dinwiddie shot just 5-of-15 from the field.
“It’s a tough task when you shoot 25 percent,” said Jarrett Allen. “That makes playing defense harder and that makes running up and down the court harder. At the end of the day, we still have to have more effort.”
Thursday night was the worst-case scenario for a team with its two best players out with injury. Dinwiddie didn’t have an All-Star performance, yet still got to the line 17 times to finish with 25 points.
No other Net scored in double figures. That’s the ball game.
This story, however, is less about the Nets — a playoff team with two injured stars — and more about the Knicks, who are a transformed team now under Mike Miller’s leadership.
The Knicks fired David Fizdale on Dec. 6. They are 4-6 under Miller since then — 4-4 in their last eight games — and look like a new team after the coaching change.
Nets head coach Kenny Atkinson said before the game he could see the differences in the Knicks on film. “I think they’re different schematically, especially on defense. They’ve changed some things,” he said. “A nine-game sample size. I think they’ve played well.”
It’s 10 games now. These Knicks are better, and it’s hard to say otherwise.