Let the buildup begin.
The Nets lost to the Knicks in overtime last night, falling 97-95 in overtime to their crosstown rivals at Nassau Coliseum in the final preseason game for both teams.
Now, with the preseason out of the way, everyone’s attention turns to next week’s season opener between the teams at Barclays Center, the Nets first regular-season game in Brooklyn.
“It’s probably going to be a crazy week,” Nets coach Avery Johnson said afterward. “We’ve got to try to keep the guys’ anxiety levels down, and focus on our team and focus on getting better.
“I know on one hand guys are going to be excited and happy when the game comes around, and a lot of them are probably going to be excited when it’s over with, so they can move on.”
Last night’s game was billed as a home contest for the Nets, who wore their home white ABA jerseys from when they called the Coliseum home in the 1970s. But the crowd definitely had a pro-Knicks feel, and made its presence felt.
That was especially the case down the stretch and into overtime, when — despite the starters for both teams being finished by the early moments of the fourth quarter — the teams traded the lead several times.
After the Nets had tied the game with a late rally in the fourth quarter, they couldn’t quite do the same late in overtime when MarShon Brooks’ attempted layup as the clock ran out just slid over the front of the rim.
“I got to the cup, and I didn’t see any help,” said Brooks, who finished with 11 points and six rebounds. “I knew [my man] was coming from behind me … I should have finished strong.”
The Nets, who have struggled against lineups featuring small power forwards, did a good job against Carmelo Anthony, forcing him to go 4-for-13, and Johnson also said he was pleased with the improvement in his team’s pick-and-roll defense from where it was late last week.
“I thought our effort was there,” Johnson said. “We had a lot of looks on the pick-and-roll coverage tonight … some we like, some we don’t. It was a low-scoring game there for awhile, until things got going there at the end.”
The Nets defense overall was a focus over the past few days of practice, after the Nets gave up more than 100 points to the Celtics and Sixers last Thursday and Friday.
Though last night’s game wasn’t perfect, it was a big improvement, as the Nets held the Knicks to 42 percent shooting from the field and outrebounded them, 47-37.
“Everything was [better] in stretches tonight,” said Deron Williams, who finished with 22 points and two assists. “We just need to get more consistent stops. We’re more trading baskets right now.
“We get a stop here and there, and then we trade baskets. We’ve got to try to get three, four, five stops in a row, and then build on that.”
They’ll have a chance to work on that for the next week, when they’re back on the court against the Knicks and the Brooklyn era of Nets basketball officially begins.
“We’re ready for the season,” Williams said. “We have a week now to prepare and get ready for the Knicks. We’ll look at this film and see some changes that can be made.”