There are certain entries you just don’t want on your resume. Like you wouldn’t want people to know you voted for Nixon. But most of all, you never want to be identified as a team that lost to the Nets in December 2009.
Well, at least all the Knicks are too young to have voted for Nixon.
The Knicks defense for three quarters was as ferocious as Tibetan monks on valium. And then the fourth-quarter offense was, well, Net-like. Six turnovers in the first 3½ minutes doomed any chance of a comeback.
“They’re going to win NBA games. They’re an NBA team, and it’s not like we’re the Lakers,” said a foul-plagued Jared Jeffries.
They showed that last night. So the Knicks, whose recent play has conjured playoff dreams, suffered the humiliation of being the third team in 32 games to lose to the Nets, who registered a 104-95 victory at the decidedly divided Meadowlands.
“We didn’t come out with the necessary toughness defensively,” said a ticked Knicks coach Mike D’Antoni, who claimed his gang didn’t “man up” until it was too late against the finally full-strength Nets.
“They’re just finally getting their guys back and they’ve had a tough year,” D’Antoni said, “but when they’re all there, they’re all healthy, they’re a talented bunch of guys. They put it together.”
Especially inside. The Nets rode Yi Jianlian (22 points, his third game of 22 or more in four since his return from injury) and Brook Lopez (21 points, 14 rebounds) to a season-high 60 paint points.
“The thing they do have is length and it hurts,” D’Antoni admitted.
This time, it killed and denied the Knicks (12-20) their first double-digit victory month since January 2003.
“Really, this was the first time we got to play together. We now have a pretty good rotation. Keyon (Dooling, 12 points) is healthy. Yi is healthy,” said Chris Douglas-Roberts (17 points), who returned from a sprained right ankle to give the Nets their starting unit intact for the first time since Game 2, Oct. 30. “I think we’ll be fine now. I really see it going on the up and up.”
How pumped were the Nets to be at (near) full strength?
“I looked down the bench at one point and there must have been seven, eight guys in sweats. It was good to see. It was crowded unfortunately,” said Lopez, who added four blocks, including one on David Lee (24 points, 15 rebounds, 8 assists — but just two points in the first 22:43 of the second half) after the Knicks were within 11 and threatening to get within single digits at 3:25.
“We came out with intensity. It’s not so much the starting five, but we played a full 48 minutes,” said Devin Harris (17 points, 8 assists, 7 rebounds). “Defense, I thought was the key.”
Or lack of. The final game of the decade for both teams saw the Nets become the first team to drop 100 points on the Knicks in 12 games. All five starters hit double figures as Courtney Lee added 10 points against a Knick defense that allowed the Nets .619 shooting over the first 24 minutes.
“We weren’t helping like we usually do,” said Al Harrington (25 points).
And the Knicks’ offense wasn’t all that swell. At the start of the second half, they shot 1-of-11 and fell behind, 72-55.
The Nets stretched the lead to 18 points — at 83-65, their largest spread since a 19-point edge in their opening-night loss at Minnesota — before settling in to an 85-72 lead entering the fourth. And having shot themselves in one foot, the Knicks finished the job with a bullet to the other one with seven fourth-quarter turnovers, including six in the first 3:32.
“It was a tough game for us,” Lee said.
One they don’t want to admit to.
Nets were outrebounded for 20th straight game (45-43). That ties record for longest streak since 1986-87.