Game 13 Recap: Nets 96, Knicks 88 (OT). The One Where The Crosstown Rivalry Began

Reggie Evans was everywhere, doing everything last night for the Nets.

The last Nets playoff game was a May 18, 2007 loss in the Eastern Conference Semifinals to the Cleveland Cavaliers, a team featuring LeBron James before the whole "Taking my talents to South Beach" thing. However, the game the (Brooklyn) Nets played last night at Barclays Center was probably more intense than that loss to Cleveland and wasn't even an elimination game in the NBA playoffs. It was just the first-ever regular season game between the Brooklyn Nets and New York Knicks, which just happened to be played in Brooklyn. 
 
The game was hotly contested right out the gates at Barclays as expected, as each team started out pretty hot from the field. Defense was mainly nowhere to be found as the home-team Nets managed to eke out a three-point lead after the first frame. Surprisingly, in the second quarter, mainly the Knicks bench-- shorthanded without backup point guard, and former Net, Jason Kidd, due to back spasms--outplayed the normally-reliable Nets reserves, as the Knicks won the quarter and took a lead into half. Contributions were varied, with Melo hitting a few shots, Tyson Chandler and Marcus Camby controlling the paint, and even the ageless Rasheed Wallace draining a deep three-pointer, sending the Knicks supporters at Barclays into a frenzy.

Then came the dreaded third quarter. In the ten games before this past homestand--so the games before this week's wins over the Clippers and Blazers--the Nets were a disgrace in that quarter, blowing games left and right with terrible performances coming out of the halftime intermission. That was not the case last night, even though the quarter didn't get off to the best start for the home team. Melo was unstoppable in the third, hitting jumpers and getting "fouled" when driving to the hoop constantly. Of course, the airquotes are necessary as the Syracuse product got away with more push-offs than I have probably every witnessed in my life. Regardles, Melo was so hot even Gerald Wallace couldn't stop him.

Game 13 Preview: New York Knicks (9-3) at Brooklyn Nets (8-4)

Before being traded to the Knicks, there was much speculation--and nearly a deal in place--stating that Carmelo Anthony was going to be a Net and open up the Barclays Center with the team. Like with Dwight Howard, it was nothing more than speculation.

When: 7:00 pm; Monday, November 26th, 2012

Where: Barclays Center; Brooklyn, NY

TV: TNT

Tonight's game may have been postponed nearly four weeks, but that doesn't mean it has lost any of its flair or any of the excitement that it's going to bring to both teams and the Barclays Center. The first-ever NBA regular season matchup of two New York City teams is momentous as a milestone for the league, the city, and these two teams, especially the Nets, in their maiden season as a NYC basketball team. The storylines are galore: Jason Kidd playing against the team he led to two Eastern Conference championships, Carmelo Anthony playing against the team he was almost traded to like three times, the fight for "Best Team in NYC" award, the fight for the Atlantic Division crown (Knicks are currently in 1st, Nets in 2nd), among many others. However, once it comes down to it, all the matters is the score when the clock hits 0:00 in the fourth quarter (or in the last overtime period they play, just in case).

As many of you know, the Knicks got off to a ridiculously hot start to the season, winning their first six games. Not even strength of schedule could be cited as the reason for the winning streak, as the Knicks beat the defending champion Heat and always-tough Spurs on the bookends of the six-game stretch, with wins over the 76ers (twice), Mavericks, and lowly Magic filling out the rest of the games. And this was all done without Amare' Stoudamire, who was, and still is, out with a knee injury. Contrary to preseason belief, the Knicks were unstoppable early on, draining tons of three-pointers per game at ridiculous clips, led by Carmelo, J.R. Smith, and even Raymond Felton. It defied logic, but won games.

Then, a loss to the Grizzlies (sitting at 9-2 right now) in Memphis shocked the Knicks right back to Earth and eliminated their chance at a perfect season. They rebounded well, taking care of the Pacers and Hornets but had a rough stretch through Dallas, giving up 122.5 points per game in back-to-back losses to Dallas and Houston and Jeremy Lin. Finally, an easy win over the hapless Pistons yesterday at the Garden brought them to their current record of 9-3. An up-and-down season to be sure, with more ups than downs so far for Mike Woodson's club.

Postponed Nets-Knicks Game Rescheduled for November 26th

The Nets-Knicks game, originally planned to be played yesterday, November 1st, has officially been rescheduled by the NBA to Monday, November 26th at 7:00 pm. The new date for the game means that it will be the second game of a back-to-back, as the Nets play the Portland Trail Blazers on Sunday, the 25th, at the Barclays Center as well.

Tonight's Nets-Knicks Season Opener Postponed

I know this is old news (as of yesterday) but as a Long Islander (an area of New York that was hit very hard by Hurricane Sandy) without power, the postponement of the planned Nets-Knicks regular season opener--official christener of the Barclays Center--is still huge news that deserved to get a post on the blog when I found a short amount of time that I could get internet access.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced yesterday that with all the mass transit disruptions caused by the storm, it would be unwise to play tonight's game as scheduled. Saturday's Nets-Raptors game at the Barclays will instead serve as the first-ever regular season game at the Barclays. Also, the Knicks will kick off their regular season on Friday night at Madison Square Garden against the Heat. 

Preseason Game 6 Recap: New York Knicks 97, Brooklyn Nets 95 (OT)

With a 22-point game in just 27 minutes, it looks like D-Will has finally found his shooting stroke, a stroke that wasn't present much of last season and even in this year's preseason as well.

A missed MarShon Brooks lay-up with the few seconds of overtime ticking away sealed the Nets' fate in their last preseason game for 2012 at Nassau Coliseum with a loss against that team in the "other" borough, the Knicks.

Wednesday's game was, simply put, determined by runs and streaks. The Nets had the first one in their favor, leading by a score of 23-16 after the first quarter. The Knicks had the next run, a more extended one, overcoming the Nets lead in the second quarter, held the lead by halftime, and then added on to that lead in the third quarter. The Nets shot back in the fourth quarter, going on a 17-3 run from 7:37 left in the quarter all the way until there was just one minute remaining in the final period, when Brooklyn held a 86-84 advantage. Just a few seconds later, two Chris Copeland free throws tied up the game at 86, sending it into that dreaded preseason overtime.

In the extra session, the Knicks' reserves overcame those of the Nets, on the strength of a few three-pointers by Steve Novak and Mychal Thompson. Those shots led to MarShon Brooks having the ball with one, maybe two, seconds remaining in the game. Then, Brooks, who was possibly fouled on the play, saw his potential game-tying layup rim out and the game end. The loss ended the Nets' recent three-game losing streak, which neutralized their three-game winning streak to start the preseason and evened up their record at 3-3. At least these games don't count.

Preseason Game 6 Preview: New York Knicks (2-3) at Brooklyn Nets (3-2)

The Coliseum; certainly no Barclays Center

When: 7:30 pm; Wednesday, October 24th, 2012

Where: Nassau Veterans' Memorial Coliseum; Uniondale, NY

TV: MSG Network

Radio: None


One week and one day (ok, eight days) from now, these two teams will play each other at the Barclays Center in both the Nets' and Knicks' season-opener and for the Nets, the first regular season game in their franchise's very limited history. However, today, the game they face each other in a game doesn't count at all in an arena that isn't even home to a NBA team, the Nassau Coliseum on Long Island. 

The Coliseum calls itself home to the New York Islanders, a NHL team for those of you who don't know. That league, like the NBA at this time last year, is currently in a lockout so for the near future, tonight's game will be the only professional sports contest left to be held there in 2012, at least until the NHL work stoppage ends.

Like the Nets, the last preseason game the Knicks played was a loss to the Philadelphia 76ers. The Knicks lost to Philly by a score of 98-90 on Monday night while the Nets fell to the 76ers 106-96 last Friday. In their loss to Philly, New York actually got 23 points from Carmelo Anthony and Raymond Felton each at Melo's former college arena, the Carrier Dome, where he played while at Syracuse and where Monday's game was at. On Friday night (a game which I actually didn't recap for the site, sorry), the 76ers were paced by Thaddeus Young, who hit 11 of his 15 shots on the evening to score 24 points, while also collecting nine rebounds.

Nets' Preseason Schedule Announced, 1st Game at Barclays is October 15th

This will be the place to be on October 15th, the first time the Brooklyn Nets will play a game there. I'll be in attendance, will you?

In a press release from yesterday, the Nets, among with all other NBA teams, announced their 2012 preseason schedule. This preseason, the Nets have six games, three of which are at the Barclays Center (10/15, 10/18, 10/19) and the rest are either on the road or at neutral sites (10/13, 10/16, 10/24). The first official game for the Brooklyn Nets franchise will be October 13th against the Philadelphia 76ers at a yet-to-be-determined site. The first official home game for the Nets at the Barclays Center will be October 15th against the lowly Washington Wizards.

Of special note, the Nets' 4th and last home preseason game will not be played at the Barclays Center but instead at the Nassau Coliseum on Long Island where the New York Islanders play their home games during the NHL season. A possible attempt to spread the Nets' fanbase onto Long Island? If so, I love the idea. As a Long Island resident, I can first-hand tell that most Long Island basketball fans support the Knicks, but if the Knicks have another disappointing season, that barometer could easily shift in favor of the Nets. The more fans, the merrier.

Full preseason schedule for the Nets after the jump, courtesy of BrooklynNets.com:

Game 63 Recap: Knicks 104, Nets 95

You know that old saying, if you don't join them, score 33 points on them and beat them

The Nets are normally the team that lives and/or dies from the 3-pointer, but tonight, the Knicks ended up as the living team. The Nets' crosstown rivals won the final Hudson River game in New Jersey on the strength of a ridiculous scoring performance from Carmelo Anthony, who scored 21 points in the first quarter alone. Even with the return of Gerald Wallace from injury and inspired defensive play from DeShawn Stevenson, the former Denver Nugget still went nuts on offense and simply couldn't be stopped. Without D-Will in the line-up, the Nets just couldn't keep up.

Granted, the Nets outscored the Knicks by seven points over the last three quarter of the game but with the 38-point 1st from New York, the lead was insurmountable. Sure, it got really close at some points (especially in the 3rd quarter when the Knicks were only leading 76-71) but the undermanned Nets just didn't have enough offense, and defense for that matter, to keep up with the star-studded Knicks. However, that doesn't mean that the Nets didn't play well at all.

Game 34 Recap: Nets 100, Knicks 92

This simply says it all, D-Will shows Lin who the best point guard in the Tri-State area is   Photshop creds to @NJ4Life of SBNation

Simply wow. I have to keep this recap a little short cause its kinda late but all you need to know is that the Nets, especially Deron Williams, walked into a jam-packed MSG and shut-down the confident Knicks who had won 8 of 9 games overall and the last 5 meetings between themselves and the Nets. Carmelo Anthony's return from injury was also spoiled but he was mainly ineffective in the New York offensive system.

Overall, it was a really physical and scrappy game but was taken over and decided by the unconscious shooting effort by D-Will, who scored a season-high 38 points with a career-high eight 3-pointers. After a slow start to the game in which New Jersey found itself down 13-3, the Nets mounted an extended 77-48 run which extended their lead to 19 points by the end of the 3rd quarter. In the 3rd, Deron simply went off from long-range and built up the large lead with 18 points, 10 of which came during a one-minute span of the quarter. During that minute, D-Will hit three 3-pointers and even a free throw to convert a 4-point play off of one of the shots.

Jeremy Lin got his 21 points on poor 7-for-18 shooting along with 9 assists and 7 rebounds but mainly seemed to be bottled up by D-Will and the other Nets to guard him, especially DeShawn Stevenson who played his best game as a Net. DeShawn hit a few huge 3-pointers in the 1st half to give the Nets their original lead. He ended up with 14 points while Marshon Brooks found his shooting stroke again with a solid 18-point performance. Kris Humphries controlled the interior with 14 points and 14 boards as he and Shelden Williams were able to relatively limit Amare and Tyson Chandler's rebounding and scoring impacts on the game. The duo also got Chandler in early foul trouble which made the game much easier for the rest of the team.

Game 34 Preview: Nets (9-24) at New York Knicks (16-16)

Personally, I think that Lin is more hype than actual talent.  Boy do I hope that I'm right.

The Nets look to rebound from one of their worst performances of the season, a crushing home loss to the injury-plagued Milwaukee Bucks, against the Linsanity-led Knicks. Even though Brook Lopez made his season debut last night in the loss, Avery Johnson has said that he will hold the star center out of tonight's game, so the Nets will be once again without a true 5. That might be a tough task as the Knicks have a solid rebounding and shot-blocking center in Tyson Chandler who will pose a major match-up problem for New Jersey. The Nets also might have trouble in containing Jeremy Lin, who started his crazy tear through the NBA two weeks ago in a win over this very New Jersey team. Oh yeah, and New York also has Amar'e Stoudamire and Carmelo Anthony, who is coming back from injury. Yes, it would be accurate to say I'm not the most confident that the Nets will leave MSG with a win later tonight.

Background on New York

As mentioned above, the Knicks are on a completely different spectrum than the Nets are right now as they have won eight of their last nine games, don't have any injuries to important players to deal with, and have multiple scoring weapons that they can count on. With the recent signing of swingman J.R. Smith, New York has tons of weapons that can score and shoot at lethal rates which is terrible news for the Nets, who haven't been able to guard the perimeter well the whole season. There is a silver lining for the Nets as the Knicks still haven't put together great chemistry with all of their new pieces. New York also has an odd propensity for home losses to really bad teams like the Bobcats, Raptors, Bucks, and even the Hornets, a category in which the Nets definitely apply. 

Game 25 Preview: Nets (8-16) at New York Knicks (8-15)

For the Nets to leave MSG with a win, Deron is going to need to make his shots

Each of these teams looks to right their respective ships tonight with a win against their hated rivals and soon-to-be crosstown foes when the Nets make the move to Brooklyn next season. We will see if Anthony Morrow can continue his unconscious shooting stretch and if the vaunted Knicks "Dream Team" with Amare, Carmelo, and Chandler can beat a team that most people view as their subordinates but are only a half game back in the standings.


Background on New York
In my opinion, the Knicks are the most disappointing team int he NBA right now as they undoubtedly have a ton of star-power and aren't seeming to be doing anything with it. The Knicks, with stars Amare Stoudamire, Carmelo Anthony, and Tyson Chandler, are only a half-game ahead of the Nets in the standings even with the Brook Lopez injury and the fact that on most nights, the only consistent Nets' scorer is Deron Williams. With that being said, the Knicks still have a lot of talent of offense that, against a poor defensive team like the Nets, might usurp their widely-noted struggles on defense. The Knicks haven't been playing well lately, but they are very dangerous nonetheless and aren't a good match-up for the Nets at all.

Netlinked 1/30/12- Marshon Breaks Toe, Dwight to the Bulls?, S-Jax to Return to New Jersey?

Could Stephen Jackson's possible return to NJ help a trade for Dwight?

This is the first installment of Netlinked, the series of link-dumps involving the Nets and general NBA stuff that I will post from time to time here on Brooklyn Balling.

First off, we have some interesting news from ESPN's Ric Bucher who says that the Nets might have to pull off a trade for the Milwaukee Bucks' Stephen Jackson in order to get Dwight Howard to New Jersey. Jackson played for the Nets in the 2000-01 and averaged 8.2 PPG while playing in 77 games for New Jersey in that season. Since leaving the Nets via free agency in 2001, Jackson has bounced around the NBA with a few teams but hasn't really found a permanent home. Bucher also reported that Howard and Jackson have been talking about possibly teaming up somewhere, including with Deron Williams in New Jersey as a possibility.

Now for some bad news. It appears that Marshon Brooks has broken his toe and that he will be out "indefinitely", according to the official Nets' Twitter account. The toe injury is unrelated to his sore Achilles for which he missed a few games to recover from. The injury could potentially be devastating for the Nets and it brings up the question as to why Avery Johnson rushed him back from free agency to play in the Nets' loss last night against the Raptors.

Latest in Absurd Trade Rumors: Stephen A. Smith Says D-12 to the Knicks?

Dude looks like he would make up a trade rumor

Notoriously biased ESPNNewYork.com writer Stephen A. Smith, who has shown an incredible anti-Nets sentiment since joining ESPNNewYork (remember this article?, how's that D-Will to the Knicks thing working out for you Stephen A.?), has concocted an incredibly absurd trade scenario in which the Knicks trade Amare Stoudamire and Tyson Chandler to the Magic for Dwight Howard. To try and give his report some semblance of validity, Smith says that "his sources" inform him that the Magic have inquired to Knicks' management about this possible trade idea.

First off, this trade makes little to no sense as of right for the Magic as Amare hasn't even been playing well as of late (only one 20-point game in his last 6 overall games, all Knicks losses). For that matter, Chandler has only scored in double-figures in 2 of his last 7 games.Why would the Magic trade their franchise player for an over-priced, over-rated, injury-prone power forward and a complementary defensive center who are making nearly $30 million combined this season? I thought that GM Otis Smith was trying to save the Magic organization money/cap space while also building the team for the future. Building a team around a fading scorer with terrible knees and a light-scoring rebounder doesn't seem like the best move for a GM trying to keep his job.

Ok, I'm done ranting now. I just wanted to say how ridiculous I think this trade possibility would be for the Magic as it makes no sense from multiple angles. Regardless, I seriously can't believe how biased Chris Broussard and Stephen A. Smith are as writers and yet they are still employed by the Worldwide Leader in Sports, also known as ESPN.