Game Thread: New York Knicks @ Brooklyn Nets 7:30 pm 2/1/2017 [Game#51]

NEW YORK -- On one side of the East River, the New York Knicks frequently infuriate fans with disappointing performances.

On the other side, the Brooklyn Nets are paying the price for moves that did not work and are engaged in a massive rebuilding.

This is the state of pro basketball in New York City and it's on display Wednesday night when the Knicks visit the Nets.

The Knicks (21-29) are on course to miss the playoffs for the fourth straight season and 12th time in 17 campaigns since trading Patrick Ewing in September 2000. Back then, the Knicks traded their franchise icon for players and contracts who crippled the salary cap situation.

And now comes rumors of another star being dealt in Carmelo Anthony. The Knicks are nearing the six-year anniversary of obtaining Anthony from the Denver Nuggets but in recent weeks talk about Anthony's future has swirled around the star forward, who reportedly would only waive his no-trade clause to join the Los Angeles Clippers, Cleveland Cavaliers or Boston Celtics.

The talk and speculation stems from his relationship with Phil Jackson, who became team president in March 2014. One of Jackson's first orders of business was re-signing Anthony and giving him a no-trade clause.

The relationship has always been tenuous but things picked up steam when Jackson's confidant Charley Rosen criticized Anthony in an article. Anthony was forced to deal with the story and it resulted in a meeting with Jackson.

New York began the season with a promising 16-13 record through Dec. 22. Starting with a Christmas Day home loss to the Boston Celtics, the Knicks are 5-16, which is a similar skid that derailed a respectable 22-22 start last season.

The Knicks are 3-8 on the road in this skid and Tuesday's 117-101 loss at Washington marked the 19th time they allowed 100 points in the last 21 games.

Anthony scored 26 and Brandon Jennings added 21 but the Knicks shot 36.6 percent -- their second-lowest shooting percentage of the season.

"Goodbye, January," Anthony said. "You got to find it every night. You got to dig deep and find it. Find energy every night. Even when you don't have it you got to find it."

The Knicks also allowed the Wizards to shoot 55.7 percent and it was their worst percentage allowed. It also was New York's ninth time allowing an opponent to shoot 50 percent or better -- the Knicks are 1-8 in those games -- and compounding the problem was the 62 points Washington scored in the paint.

"We just didn't look like we had energy," Knicks coach Jeff Hornacek said.

New York also played shorthanded as Kristaps Porzingis was a late scratch because of illness and Derrick Rose missed his second straight game with an ankle injury. While Porzingis may not play Wednesday, Rose will likely miss his ninth game of the season and the Knicks are 1-7 when he does not play.

The Nets are in their first full year of rebuilding as they approach the one-year anniversary of Sean Marks becoming general manager. Marks was brought in to replace Billy King, who traded multiple first-round picks to the Boston Celtics for Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce in 2013.

The deal resulted in the Nets getting a year of Pierce and a year and a half of Garnett to go along with five playoff wins.

Now barring a massive turnaround, the Nets will be the league's worst team. In any other year it would put them in position for the top overall pick but this year the Celtics stand to benefit.

The Nets are on a six-game losing streak and it is their third skid of at least that long this season.

Brooklyn stopped an 11-game losing streak Jan. 20 at New Orleans but during its latest slide, teams are scoring 115 points against the Nets and shooting 49.2 percent.

The Nets allowed 100 points for the 24th straight game in a 104-96 loss Monday when the Miami Heat.

The point total represented a slight improvement but it came on a night when the offense misfired, especially after getting a 50-39 lead. The Nets shot 42.6 percent and a season-low 15.4 percent from 3-point range.

"The energy was better, we were better defensively. We didn't make enough shots, didn't shoot it well," Brooklyn coach Kenny Atkinson said.

Bojan Bogdanovic led the Nets with 16 points but Brook Lopez was held to 14 points and shot 5 of 17.

"I'm very disappointed in myself," Lopez said. I don't think I went out there and put my best foot forward. I hurt our team a lot. I need to be better. I can't have nights like this, and I have to have better focus, be more aggressive and be the player I know I can be."

The Nets held a double-digit in the first meeting Nov. 9 in New York but the Knicks wound up with a 110-96 victory. The Nets held Porzingis to 11 of 32 shooting in taking both home meetings last year as Lopez scored 53 points in those games.

Since the Nets relocated from New Jersey in 2012, they have a 9-8 edge in the series and are 5-3 at home.
(cbssports.com)

thanks rady... it has to be tough to prepare for these 2 lousy teams... I don't think tho that giving Me-Lo a no trade clause makes that much of a difference ... if he didn't have the clause would that open up other teams having interest... I don't think so....

paris401 said:

thanks rady... it has to be tough to prepare for these 2 lousy teams... I don't think tho that giving Me-Lo a no trade clause makes that much of a difference ... if he didn't have the clause would that open up other teams having interest... I don't think so....

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Melo knew teams would dump him to a loser if he acted up by not doing what the head coach wanted, like when he played in Denver with George Karl.

That's why he made sure he had a no trade clause in his contract.

Knicks don't look interested tonight, playing to the level of their opponents record.

Yes! In full tank mode.... can we stink enough to catch Nets?

Hungry players always give the knicks a spark, when is the last time Sasha had meaningful playing time.

Puppet Horn beats the Tanking-Nets !!!

Didn't see the game but I guess it was an ugly game with the Boys shooting 35% 22% from 3 and 60% FTs. Hard to believe you can beat anyone with those kind of numbers.

WHG was big and I read that Horn was close to starting him over Noah. Not sure it really matters when Noah only plays limited minutes but should Noah get any minutes?

A rare win in a back to back with good games by KP and WHG is a good win even against a crap team like the Nets.

Playa2 said:

Hungry players always give the knicks a spark, when is the last time Sasha had meaningful playing time.

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At the start of the season .. i thought new coach Horn would have put together a full depth 2nd-unit bench lineup with us having Sasha n Jennings to lead the point of a all bench lineup. We have some good-depth in a 10 man rotation not a 8 or 9 man rotation

Had to work and missed this game, but hoping to catch a replay. Sounds like Porzingis, Willy, and Vujacic sparked a big time 4th quarter comeback that was likely fun to watch. I'd love to see Porzingis and Willy start together from here on out to see what the two of them can build together up front.

The future is KP, WHG, and the future star PG we draft this July.

i think there's more future on this team than just those 2 guys. kuz hasn't looked too great these past couple of games (i'm suspecting some kind of nagging minor injury, but that's just a hunch) but i'm willing to be a little patient with him. i still like the Q and i still like holiday. i'm also curious to see how willy responds to the recent burst in hype. ny sports media has a funny way of quickly blowing up a guy's growth with premature and dramatic praise and such. remember when baker was the flavor of the week not so long ago? and yeah, i still think the knicks should re-sign jennings this summer.

oh and by the way, holiday's brother jrue is a free agent this summer. might he be thinking about getting out of the west and having to be in constant contention with teams like the warriors and spurs? i hope so.

Playa2 said:

Melo knew teams would dump him to a loser if he acted up by not doing what the head coach wanted, like when he played in Denver with George Karl.
That's why he made sure he had a no trade clause in his contract.

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so 'today' if he didn't have that clause, who else is going to want him????

this team has a lot of talants, but they lack the will to play hard, every time we get a spark from one of the players, you see the whole team in a different level, the problem is that this is not happeneing constantly. the drama for sure is affecting them, but don't we have players that push the team and create this fiery desire to compete and win, i thought Noah is one, Jennings too...... do they have a problem deciding who is the superstar in this team and who is the best guard? why they are wasting all this talent is beyond my thinking...

If no one watched this game does that mean the game really happened?

lol anyway good to hear Willy keeps bringing it when his number is called

It figures, right when I'm rooting for the losses to start piling up.... NYK rally. Trailing all game, second night of back to back.... but this was the lowly Nets....

At least is was a youth-generated win. Cannot root against the kids winning games. Would've been worse if it was Melo and the vets winning a meaningless game that only hurts us in the long run.

Broadway said:

If no one watched this game does that mean the game really happened?

lol anyway good to hear Willy keeps bringing it when his number is called

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Willie n Quinn were our dominating factor off the bench to start the season off with wins .. the tandem of Willie n Quinn coming off the bench together in the rotation to MAN the paint would have been our Twin-Tower Bigs on offense/defense to boost coach Horn weak 3 guard offense.

I understood Noah's reasoning for not wanting to play at the start of the season, the Knicks roster had some young potential big-men (KP/Quinn/Willie/Kuz/Plumlee) that need playing-time to build confidence in playing together early in the season .. Noah knew his veteranship would be a much need during mid-season n playoffs.
Coach Jeff Horn poor-weak rotation-substitution from the beginning of the season to now were always 2 big-men short for PG-Rose or PG Jennings to have a explosive night, plus as a head-coach why would u let Melo keep dribbling the ball upcourt as if he is the PG especially when we are losing by more than 3 points when we have two quick transition point-guards in Rose n Jennings who could get the ball upcourt before our opponents could set up their defense???

The Dragon said:

this team has a lot of talants, ..

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ahhh but they don't have 'winners'....

paris401 said:

ahhh but they don't have 'winners'....

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we missing a winners' coach .. n winners' leadership-player calling shots ...
the players are on the roster to be a playoff team in the weak Eastern-conference