Sports

NOTHING BUT NETS JERSEY SWEEP BURIES KNICKS

GAME 4: Nets 100 – Knicks 94

Stephon Marbury hit a right-wing 3-pointer to give the Knicks an 82-79 lead, and Frank Williams followed with a left-wing trey for a 85-79 lead with 6:50 left.

This is way the Garden is supposed to sound in spring – deafening. The Giants’ new franchise quarterback, Eli Manning, sitting with his blonde fiancée on celebrity row, heard what New York can sound like during the heat of the playoffs.

But nobody was surprised that the six-point lead evaporated in a jiffy. Less than two minutes later, the Nets were back in the lead and the Knicks’ season was soon dead.

The Knicks were defiant to the end, with Tim Thomas still talking smack in the locker room afterward, but the Nets are the Lincoln Tunnel Series winners in a four-game sweep following their 100-94 victory at the Garden.

With the Garden crowd spending much of the night chanting “Kenyon [bleeps],” Kenyon Martin exploded for 36 points and 13 rebounds to power the Nets.

Knick owner James Dolan was chomping on a cigar as he slid into his limousine, but it was no victory cigar. The Knicks are now without a title for 31 straight years. The Nets, vying for their first NBA title, move on to the second round, likely against the Pistons, who lead the Bucks 2-1.

The Knicks gave the Nets two all-out wars in the final two Garden games, but it was not good enough. Marbury was just not good enough against long odds, without having his two weapons in Allan Houston and Tim Thomas.

Thomas was knocked out of the series in Game 1, taken out by Jason Collins, and he kept his mouth going when it was over. Thomas, who had couple of blockbuster outings against the Nets in the playoffs last spring as a Buck, hinted afterward the Nets purposely were looking to take him out.

“Just look at last year’s series,” Thomas said. “They had no one on that club could guard me. They knew that coming into this. You mean to tell me they didn’t?”

Oh, there is plenty of bad blood here, spilling out in the third quarter when Frank Williams and Richard Jefferson nearly came to blows and a brawl almost ensued with 1:11 left in the third and the Knicks up 66-65.

Williams pushed Jefferson off him after the whistle. Jefferson went straight up to Williams, bumping him with his chest when Williams gave Jefferson a hard shove backward. The officials got between them. Martin grabbed Vin Baker and order was restored. When Williams left the game early in the fourth, he received a standing ovation, displaying toughness all series.

After having a big second half, an exhausted Marbury did not have a field goal across the last six minutes as the Nets embarked on a series-clinching 15-4 run.

The Knicks settled for tough shots from the perimeter and missed five 3-pointers in the last five minutes, including a Marbury airball that began the Nets’ surge from 85-79.

Jason Kidd went down for a fastbreak layup and foul to make it 85-82. Penny Hardaway missed a leaner in the lane and Jefferson came down for a fastbreak reverse dunk to cut it to 85-84. Marbury again missed a trey and Martin grabbed an offensive rebound for the dunk and an 86-85 lead.

“The way they play, they pack it in, they force you to take jump shots,” Marbury said. “They played smart. Lawrence Frank is one of the top coaches in the league.”

One half-hour after the buzzer, Marbury sat in a private room next to the interview room, waiting for Martin to finish. Kidd came into the room saw his point-guard rival and said, “I’ll wait after Steph.”

They shook hands strongly and talked amiably for a few minutes. There is no hatred between New York’s two star point guards but there’s no mistaking: these teams don’t like each other. Perhaps next year it will be competitive, too.