Game Thread: New York Knicks @ Brooklyn Nets 7:30pm 2/19/2016

No matter what side of the Knicks-Nets rivalry they're on, New York fans have felt a level of frustration during a disappointing season with the clubs being guided by interim coaches and occupying two of the last four spots in the Eastern Conference.

Neither team followed through on a trade at the deadline, but the Nets hope the hiring of new general manager Sean Marks provides them with the necessary leader needed to make future adjustments to a roster badly in need of some.

The Knicks still believe they're in the playoff hunt and look to snap a six-game losing streak Friday night in Brooklyn.

New York (23-32) has lost 10 of 11 while dropping to 12th in the East, five games back of the final playoff spot. President of basketball operations Phil Jackson fired coach Derek Fisher on Feb. 8 before the Knicks lost 111-108 the next night to Washington in Kurt Rambis' debut prior to the All-Star break.

Rumors swirled that Jackson might've been looking to deal Carmelo Anthony before Thursday's deadline, but he stood pat despite the slump.

"I'm putting the onus on them that we need to keep getting better," Rambis said. "We have talented players. We need those guys playing really hard, really focused and together."

Anthony had 33 points and 13 rebounds against the Wizards while Kristaps Porzingis scored 20, but the Knicks again dug themselves an early hole and couldn't rally.

They've been behind after the first quarter in each of their last four, including three times by double digits. Rambis and Anthony said New York needs to be more engaged at the start if it wants to make the postseason for the first time in three years.

"Getting a win in Brooklyn coming off the break would get us off to a good start," Anthony said. "It's going to be challenging, but we believe that we can (make the playoffs). We just have to win some games and we'd be right there."

The Nets (14-40) don't share those playoff aspirations and are trudging through their remaining schedule under Tony Brown after Lionel Hollins was fired Jan. 10. Owner Mikhail Prokhorov reassigned general manager Billy King within the organization that same day and targeted Marks as his replacement.

Marks was introduced Thursday with no moves being made before the deadline. He joins the Nets after spending the last two years as the assistant general manager for San Antonio.

"I look forward to the challenge of creating a unified culture and building a winning team," Marks said.

That certainly won't happen overnight. Brooklyn hasn't won back-to-back games since early December and failed to do so again before the break, falling 109-90 to Memphis at home Feb. 10. Joe Johnson was held scoreless, ending the NBA's longest active streak of 937 games with at least one made field goal.

"Second half of the season, want to get some of our younger players quality minutes (while) always trying to win," Brown said.

The Nets have won five of the last six meetings, including three in a row at Barclays Center. Brooklyn overcame a career high-tying 31 points from Derrick Williams in a 110-104 home win Jan. 13 in the most recent matchup.

Anthony, who scored 28 in a 108-91 victory over the Nets on Dec. 4, missed the last meeting with a sprained right ankle.

(nba.com)

Knicks have a good first quarter. 32-23 after 1...

Grant enters game and immediately gets his pocket picked... I way misses FT... Seraphim with 2 turnovers. Come on guys.

27-15 Nets so far in the second quarter.... Second unit was awful... NY finishes with enough tho to take a 52-50 lead.

So sets in the apathy

24-9 Nets run (first half of the third quarter)...

Aside from zero defense... Zero ball movement... Zero effort...Knicks looking good.

Nets only have 4 turnovers. Once again, Nets backcourt of Sloan and Ellington superior to Calderon-Affalo

NYK cut lead to 3 early fourth... But a KO turnover, bad shots by Galloway, DW and Melo, a turnover by Grant... Lead back to double digits (13).

B. Lopez best player on floor tonight. KP and Melo non-existent in 4th... LT a complete non-factor... Calderon his usual worthless self... AA hit a few big shots but that is meaningless now...

If you didn't think season ended befor ASB... It ended tonight with a bad loss to Nets.

I was very lazy tonight just box score watching for the most part while catching this Pacer/Thunder game. Really have no interest to watch this trash team anymore. They'll probably win about as many games as I figured 30 at best. Another embarrassing loss to the cross town resident.

Until we start Grant I probably won't catch too many more Knick games. Although the rest of the East may prove to be pretty compelling down the stretch.

Yep looks like we've thrown in the towel. Anybody want to bet on an over/under when Melo shuts it down???? I'll split the difference; Melo shuts it down with 14 games left

Grant was awful tonight... Hard to justify playing him... But... Since we're going nowhere... Might as well toss him out there, and he'll either get exposed and PJ will concede he wasted a pick or something will click and he can start playing (not thinking)...

Good news is Rambis won't be our HC next year. PJ will go with Shaw now. And, then, in 2 years... Phil, Melo, Shaw will all be gone.

mafra said:

Grant was awful tonight... Hard to justify playing him... But... Since we're going nowhere... Might as well toss him out there, and he'll either get exposed and PJ will concede he wasted a pick or something will click and he can start playing (not thinking)...

Good news is Rambis won't be our HC next year. PJ will go with Shaw now. And, then, in 2 years... Phil, Melo, Shaw will all be gone.

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Missed the game but Grants line didn't look that bad 16mins 6 pts. Why do you say he was awful? At least Rambis played him.

Bad way to start the 2nd half with a loss to another bottom feeder, I think the Nets are better and it wouldn't surprise me if they pass us in the standings. We may be only better than the Sixers, Nuggets are going to get a nice pick out of this, they ought to fire someone if they wind up with Simmons.

mafra said:

Grant was awful tonight... Hard to justify playing him... But... Since we're going nowhere... Might as well toss him out there, and he'll either get exposed and PJ will concede he wasted a pick or something will click and he can start playing (not thinking)...

Good news is Rambis won't be our HC next year. PJ will go with Shaw now. And, then, in 2 years... Phil, Melo, Shaw will all be gone.

Click to expand...

Whoever was playing to start the 3rd qrt tonight was far more awful than Grant ever was in his measly 16min. Whoever was guarding Brook all night was doubly awful

tiger0330 said:

Missed the game but Grants line didn't look that bad 16mins 6 pts. Why do you say he was awful? At least Rambis played him.

Bad way to start the 2nd half with a loss to another bottom feeder, I think the Nets are better and it wouldn't surprise me if they pass us in the standings. We may be only better than the Sixers, Nuggets are going to get a nice pick out of this, they ought to fire someone if they wind up with Simmons.

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While Brooklyn is way out of the picture with only 15 wins the fact we are bad as we are it's not a stretch they can catch us.

What is our record since the FishFry?

Rambis STILL looking for his first win since Fishfry. This team and franchise is embarrassing.

Broadway said:

While Brooklyn is way out of the picture with only 15 wins the fact we are bad as we are it's not a stretch they can catch us.

What is our record since the FishFry?

Click to expand...

I'm probably way off base saying the Nets are going to pass us, they would have to play out of their minds and we would have to have to continue this recent collapse for them to pass us in the standings.

Rambis is not doing anything different than Fish, how does he expect any different results.

tiger0330 said:

Missed the game but Grants line didn't look that bad 16mins 6 pts. Why do you say he was awful? At least Rambis played him.

Bad way to start the 2nd half with a loss to another bottom feeder, I think the Nets are better and it wouldn't surprise me if they pass us in the standings. We may be only better than the Sixers, Nuggets are going to get a nice pick out of this, they ought to fire someone if they wind up with Simmons.

Click to expand...

Don't mind me... I'm prone to hyperbole.

Grant just had a few really bad turnovers. Something a junior high kid would do... One was a killer when game was close midway thru the 4th...

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(Ny post)

Bums.

The Knicks don?t look any better without Derek Fisher?s poker face on the sidelines. In fact, they looked a little worse in their seventh straight loss.

At full strength, the Knicks were still outclassed by the awful Nets on Friday in the first game back from the All-Star break as their stated playoff push looks like a farce.

After taking a nine-point first-quarter lead, the Knicks got sloppy, didn?t get back in transition and were outhustled in a 109-98 defeat at Barclays Center. The Knicks (23-33) fell behind by 17 points in the fourth quarter despite a crowd that clearly was in favor of the road club that decided against making a move at Thursday?s trade deadline.

?I thought we gave this game away tonight, especially after that first quarter,?? Carmelo Anthony said in a quiet Knicks locker room. ?They applied a little pressure and we started turning the ball over ? 16 turnovers [for] 21 points. That?s the game right there. Not much to say. It was obvious why we lost the game.??

Knicks interim coach Kurt Rambis fell to 0-2 and faces the Timberwolves on Saturday at Minnesota, where he lost 132 games as the head coach from 2009-11. The Knicks, who allowed the Nets (15-40) to shoot 49 percent (8 of 17 from 3-point range), have lost 11 of 12 games as they tumbled six games out of the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference.

?It?s crunch time now ? 26 games left,?? Anthony said. ?Tonight was a game we had an opportunity to get and we didn?t.??


Brook Lopez dunks in two of his 33 points Friday night.Photo: Paul J. Bereswill
Anthony had a terrific first period, but tailed off to finish with 22 points, six assists and seven rebounds. Rookie Kristaps Porzingis notched three blocks in the first seven minutes and finished with 18 points and eight rebounds, but had four turnovers.

?We got to have that mentality we want it,?? Porzingis said. ?We lost again. It sucks.??

Center Brook Lopez led the Nets with 33 points on the night they officially introduced their new general manager, Sean Marks, formerly of the Spurs. Knicks center Robin Lopez, Brook?s twin, disappeared in the second half and finished with 10 points.

Trying some dark humor, Robin said, ?He?s incredibly lucky when he plays like that.??

?Altogether they were more on the same page than we were,? he added.

The Knicks led 52-50 at halftime after letting the Nets get back in it following their 32-23 first period. Anthony was 5 of 6 for 11 points, three assists and three rebounds after 12 minutes. It turned into a mirage.

?I don?t think it was effort,?? Anthony said. ?I though we came out great. We were locked in, focused, felt we had that energy in the first quarter. That quarter looked good. I felt it was clicking.??

Early in the third, the Nets clicked on a 10-0 run ? capped by an Anthony turnover that resulted in a fast-break layup for Donald Sloan (14 points).


An angry Jose Calderon, the lone Knick back on defense, motioned at his mates to come back next time to join him in transition defense. That fast break put the Nets ahead 64-59 and prompted a Rambis time-out with 8:20 left in the third.

During a time-out with 2:13 left in the third, Rambis had words with rarely used Kyle O?Quinn, apparently yanking him from the game. O?Quinn got visibly upset, throwing up his arms and walking away. A couple of teammates came over to settle him down.

?Part of our demise is they ramped up the pressure and we couldn?t handle it and turned the ball over and they scored a lot of points off turnovers,?? Rambis said.

The Knicks got within four points early in the third before throwing away the moment.

Porzingis and fellow rookie Jerian Grant committed back-to-back turnovers, setting off the Nets on fast-break points, drawing the end closer.

Rambis credited his backcourt off the bench, Grant and Langston Galloway, for their defensive pressure, but nobody else.

?We are going to have to find five guys who can sustain that sort of defensive intensity,? Rambis said.

Just finished watching the 2AM replay of this game. We stink. The only good news is that we'll likely be done with lame duck coach #2 Rambis after the rest of this season and we can at least hope for a real head coach for the start of next season.

Seriously, PJ, hire Thibodeau.

htr10 said:

Seriously, PJ, hire Thibodeau.

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while tibs would be the man to hire, he stresses "D" tooo much for this motley crew... u think Me-Lo is going to play "D".. or jose if he's still around next year... ok... I give u... jose can't play "D"... tooo old n slow...

htr10 said:

Just finished watching the 2AM replay of this game. We stink. The only good news is that we'll likely be done with lame duck coach #2 Rambis after the rest of this season and we can at least hope for a real head coach for the start of next season.

Seriously, PJ, hire Thibodeau.

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PJ hire Thibs, I'll believe it when I see it. I said in the preseason that if the team struggled with the triangle PJ would be crazy to use it but here we are still using it. Its going to be triangle coaches as long as he's around.

tiger0330 said:

PJ hire Thibs, I'll believe it when I see it. I said in the preseason that if the team struggled with the triangle PJ would be crazy to use it but here we are still using it. Its going to be triangle coaches as long as he's around.

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You create a system to match your players, you don't try to force your players to fit a system. We made this mistake with Dantoni (SSOL) and now again with JAX (Triangle).

It's basic coaching 101... Evaluate players and assess their skills and talents, what they can and cannot do, and then create a system that maximizes their strengths while masking their flaws.

Sure, in time, you can mold your players to fit your system and then look for guys to play those parts...

Just incredible... For basically a decade... We stubbornly try to do what should never be attempted.

Oh, and we still haven't grabbed a PG in the last decade. Geez.

Melo was good last night but defenses go out of their way to make anybody else beat them in the 4th... KP, as another poster wrote, hasn't shown to be an Inpactful 4th Q player... Calderon is a ghost come the 4th...

Amazing to say it... The only player who has shown even the slightest propensity to step up when game is hanging in the balance is Affalo... But this is too inconsistent to rely on.

Truth is: Galloway, Grant, Thomas, and Williams are they key X factors... Knicks are an average to above average team when 2 of those 4 are clicking on any given night... And when 1 of them is making plays in the 4th...

If those 4 are non-factors, as they've pretty much been the last 3 weeks... We are a bad, bottom feeder team.

Defenses double Melo and force him to pass... How do we score then? There have been moments we can go to Lopez or Affalo in the post... But not often enough. KP usually has nothing left by this time... What are the other options?

I blame Melo, as many do to... For not "closing" games. But he has little left in the tank and he is clearly the focus of our opponent... We all need a little help from our friends.

This is why LT and DW and JG need to play at least 20 minutes a game. We need their offense late in games.

paris401 said:

while tibs would be the man to hire, he stresses "D" tooo much for this motley crew... u think Me-Lo is going to play "D".. or jose if he's still around next year... ok... I give u... jose can't play "D"... tooo old n slow...

Click to expand...

Actually Thibs was the front man in wanting Melo to join the Bulls the past summer. If Thibs defensive culture breaks this "Clearance Rack" team down starting with Melo then good. He'll want on and we can get on to doing what we should have done after his first half season with us when we went 14-14. Get rid of this Grease-Meatball Face(short of trading for him to begin with)!