The Knicks get their first look at the Brooklyn Nets Wednesday night when they travel to Nassau Coliseum for their final exhibition game before the regular-season opener — also against the Nets — Nov. 1 at Barclays Center. For the Nets, it will be a step in challenging the Knicks for basketball supremacy in New York. For the Knicks, not so much.
“I don’t know if that’s ever happened, but it’s going to be a good challenge for us,” Tyson Chandler said after practice. “It is the last [preseason] game, so hopefully we get some more bodies out there and get into a nice rhythm.”
The Nets were recently voted the most improved team by the NBA’s general managers after re-signing Deron Williams and Brook Lopez and trading for Joe Johnson.
One person who agreed with that assessment was Charles Barkley, who clearly wasn’t as high on the Knicks.
“If it was 2000, I would make the New York Knicks the favorite to win the NBA Championship,” Barkley said in a conference call yesterday,
Barkley, who loves to stick it to the Knicks every chance he gets, was referring to the age of offseason additions Marcus Camby (38), Rasheed Wallace (38), Jason Kidd (39) and Kurt Thomas (40).
Knicks coach Mike Woodson said he also is impressed with the Nets.
“I’ve watched them on tape throughout the exhibition season,” he said. “I like their team. I’m sure they’re not going to show us everything they’re planning on doing in the [regular-season] opener. We’ll play them and then we’ll figure it out when we open it up.”
* J.R. Smith, who missed the Knicks’ three-game road trip with an Achilles tendon injury, returned to practice without the protective boot he had been wearing. Smith, along with Wallace, participated in conditioning and one-on-one shooting drills. Though Woodson ruled out Smith, Wallace and Camby for the exhibition game against the Nets, Smith had other ideas.
Smith originally tweeted that he would play, before he removed that tweet and wrote, “I would like to apologize to all the #Knicks fans I wont be playing tomorrow! I know I said I was but its better for our team to rest! Sorry”.
Smith had 20 points in his only preseason appearance, and despite pleading with Woodson to be a starter, will be used off the bench. Woodson said Smith would take part in the team scrimmages, which will take place on Friday.
* Guard Ronnie Brewer, who underwent arthroscopic knee surgery in early September, started and played 16 minutes in Monday night’s 98-90 loss to the 76ers. He had four rebounds and three assists while going 0-for-2 from the field.
“[My knee] felt good. I felt like I hadn’t played in a year,” he said. “It felt good to play, and I’m looking forward to [today] and getting better with the team. I have to continue to work on my conditioning.”
Woodson said Brewer would see increased action tonight, probably playing between 20 to 22 minutes.
On Monday night, Lakers center Dwight Howard said he deserved to win the NBA Defensive Player of the Year Award that was won by Chandler last season. Howard finished in third place behind Chandler and Serge Ibaka of the Thunder.
When asked to comment on those remarks, Chandler said, “No, not at all.”