Brook Lopez comes up with an emphatic block against Amar’e Stoudemire to help the Nets to a Martin Luther King Day win over the Knicks. (UPI)
Carmelo Anthony had a chance to make Martin Luther King Day his own. Instead, he allowed Brooklyn’s other No. 7 steal the afternoon.
Joe Johnson and the Nets owned the Garden’s annual holiday matinee, and they may soon own the Atlantic Division.
As J.R. Smith put it, “It stinks.’’
In the Knicks’ first game back from London, Johnson ended his former coach Mike Woodson’s jolliness. Johnson hit a go-ahead, 12-foot pull-up over Smith with 22.3 seconds left to put the Nets into the lead for good at 85-84 and spur an 88-85 victory over the Knicks.
Smith, who had two buzzer-beating game-winners in December, couldn’t make the third time a charm. With the Knicks down 3, he sprinted downcourt in the final ticks and his 28-foot 3-point heave over a triple team banked off the glass and bounded off the front rim as the Nets celebrated.
Kings County’s team now is breathing down the Knicks’ necks, trailing by one game in the Atlantic after the first season series between the city teams ended in a 2-2 tie.
“Two and two against them stinks,’’ Smith said. “Just like kissing your sister.’’
The final downturn left Anthony in as somber a mood as he’s been all season. He scored just two of his 29 points in the fourth quarter, going 0-for-6 in the final frame. With the Knicks down 1, Anthony couldn’t answer Johnson’s strike, throwing up an airball with 11.9 seconds left on a 10-footer from the right baseline.
“I missed it,’’ Anthony said. “I didn’t execute. I didn’t make shots down the stretch, shots I normally make down the stretch. Brooklyn and Joe Johnson did a good job making shots.’’
Smith said, “Whenever Melo shoots, that’s the shot we want.’’
Not yesterday. Making 11 of 29 field-goal attempts to notch his 29 points is far from efficient.
If the Knicks (25-14) and Nets (25-16) finish with the same record, the Atlantic tiebreaker is conference record. Anthony, from Red Hook, takes great pride in this new intra-city rivalry,
“It’s over, we won’t see them anymore,’’ Anthony said. “It is the beginning of something that will be around for a long, long time, playing against Brooklyn. As a Knick, we’re definitely looking forward to that challenge, playing them every year four times.’’
Knicks center Tyson Chandler said he suspects the Nets will be in the hunt for a while. They are 11-2 under P.J. Carlesimo.
“I definitely think it will be a nice fight to the end,’’ Chandler said. “It’s good for the city.’’
Johnson’s big bucket broke a five-plus-minute Nets scoring drought and gave him 10 points for the fourth quarter to finish with 25. Johnson drove on Smith and stopped on a dime, hitting the fallaway.
“This was a big game for us,” Johnson said. “It’s like two wins for us. In a game of this magnitude, in this atmosphere here, that was a big shot. My teammates had the ultimate confidence in me down the stretch to make plays, and I try not to let them down.”
After backup point guard Pablo Prigioni jammed his toe in the third quarter, Anthony was forced into point-guard work down the stretch. He wound up with seven assists, but it wore him down, especially with London jet lag a factor. (Prigioni said manual tests revealed he has just a toe bruise.)
The Knicks eagerly await the return of starting point guard Raymond Felton, probably Saturday in Philly.
“It could have been,’’ Anthony said of fatigue. “I don’t want to make no excuses. I should’ve made the shots.’’
The Knicks were out of sync in the first half, looking like they were on London time and falling behind by 10 points.
“We always have to fight back in the second half and it’s unacceptable,’’ Smith said. “It’s disrespectful to the fans more than anything, and we should be embarrassed by it.’’
The Nets bludgeoned the Knicks on the boards, 52-37. Brook Lopez (14 points, 11 boards) and Kris Humphries (11 points, 13 rebounds) dominated inside.
It was a subpar defensive performance by Amar’e Stoudemire, nor was it a good second game — and home season debut — for Iman Shumpert (1-of-6 shooting).
During one sequence, Stoudemire had an offensive board bounce off his hands. On the other end, Humphries grabbed an offensive board in front of Stoudemire, who was forced to commit a foul.
Stoudemire came on offensively in the second half to finish with 15 points in 26 minutes, but he had just six rebounds.
“The group with him, I thought as a whole, struggled defensively,’’ Woodson said.
marc.berman@nypost.com