Knicks fall apart on court, get routed by Nets
Seth Curry of the Nets hits a three point shot in the first half against Jalen Brunson of the Knicks at Barclays Center on Wednesday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
As the Knicks players were going through the motions of pregame warmups at Barclays Center, Nets general manager Sean Marks was explaining the decision to name Jacque Vaughn as the head coach for the Nets, then veering into the uncomfortable subject of Kyrie Irving. And all the while outside Barclays Center a group was staging a pro-Kyrie demonstration.
If you blinked and forgot for a moment which team had been embroiled in chaos before the tip and opened your eyes to see the final minute of the first half — Julius Randle turning the ball over and Randle and RJ Barrett never even getting past midcourt as Joe Harris buried a three on the other end for a 25-point Nets lead.
From the opening tip it was the Brooklyn Nets that shrugged off the drama and distractions and the Knicks who were soundly defeated in a nationally-televised game, 112-85. The Knicks never led and it took just minutes into the game to reveal that they would never contend on this night.
“I think they just played harder than us tonight,” RJ Barrett said. “They played harder. They played together. So that was really the story of the game.”
The Nets didn’t seem to need anything more than Kevin Durant as he dominated the Knicks scrambling efforts to double team him or attempts from multiple players to take the assignment. In the first quarter as the Nets built leads of as many as 17 points Durant had 11 points but also dished off six assists. And by the end Durant had piled up 29 points, 12 assists and 12 rebounds — becoming the first player to score at least 25 points in each of his teams first 12 game since Michael Jordan did it in 16 straight to begin the 1988-89 season.
“We were struggling,” Durant said. “We’ve been through a lot. Guys got pride, individual pride [to] just come out and play better. That’s what we’ve been doing. We don’t want this to be a honeymoon stage for us.”
But the Nets got star turns up and down the roster while the Knicks got 24 points and 11 rebounds from Randle — and a minus-29 for his time on the floor. Seth Curry added 23 points for the Nets.
The loss dropped the Knicks to 5-6 on the season and was their first loss to a team with a losing record — although few expected the Nets to be toiling below .500 before the season began. But it also added to the reality that the Knicks have not beaten a team with a winning record this season. With a five-game West Coast trip looming next week the Knicks can ill afford another night like this one.
“They played harder than us,” Jalen Brunson said. “We just didn’t respond fast enough . . . It’s not OK. It’s something that we need to quickly recover from. I’m OK with missing shots, I’m OK with aggressive mistakes, but effort and heart from all of us, that’s what we need.
“If you go out there and play as hard as we can, do what we can and a team beats us, we got to live with that. But when we know we didn’t go out there with 110%, that’s hard to live with. So, no, it’s not OK. They played harder than us. We didn’t play as hard as we could.”
Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau grew up on the constant chaos around Madison Square Garden, first as a Knicks fan growing up — 23 years old when Micheal Ray Richardson proclaimed, “The ship be sinking, but the sky’s the limit.” And he was a young assistant coach when things began to dysfunctional little more than 20 years ago. But for Thibodeau right now — and things change quickly with the Knicks — it’s all about basketball.
It’s been a long time since the Knicks could lay claim to that functional title. The Nets now have won the last eight meetings between the two teams and once the game began the Knicks couldn’t even claim to be the functional franchise.
“We weren’t ourselves tonight,” Barrett said. “Over the course of 82 games, this is going to happen. We need to come out with energy every single night, as much as we can. We can’t make it a habit. We got to come out with energy every single night. It’s a good thing we have another game Friday.”
Notes & quotes: Quentin Grimes was available after being scratched from the last two games with the sore left foot that has bothered him since training camp began. He didn’t get in the game until 4:36 remained and the Knicks were down by 33. “Just normal protocol,” Thibodeau said. “Follow the trainers’ plans. If he doesn’t have soreness, he goes . . . You trust the doctors, you trust your trainers, you trust Quentin. Just let him work his way through it. Obviously, he’s been out for a while now, so the conditioning piece of it is important also.”
Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
