With eight minutes left in the fourth quarter yesterday afternoon, the crowd at Barclays Center began chanting “Brooook-lynnn … Brooook-lynnn.”
Perhaps not so coincidently, the Nets launched an 11-2 run that secured a 98-85 victory over the Blazers yesterday and reinforced the notion Barclays Center is fast becoming the kind of home-court advantage they envisioned since the first shovel was turned to build the place.
“When the crowd starts to holler, ‘Brooklyn … Brooklyn,’ we all love it,” Nets coach Avery Johnson said with a smile. “This is what we wanted. This is what we’ve been waiting for and we knew that our fans would have that type of effect on our games and I hope it continues.”
Just how loyal and passionate Barclays Center is for the Nets will be tested tonight when the Knicks visit for the first Subway Showdown of the season. In past years when the Knicks played the Nets at the Meadowlands or the Prudential Center in Newark, there seemed to be as many if not more fans dressed in orange and blue.
The Nets hope that ends tonight when the two teams play a make-up game of the season opener postponed by Hurricane Sandy.
“I hope there’s a difference,” said Nets guard Deron Williams. “I think there will be a difference. There’s definitely going to be some Knicks fans there, but I don’t think it will be as bad as it was last year and the year before that.”
Perhaps it’s better for the Nets the game was postponed. The season opener would have been filled with unfamiliarity and uncertainty. The Knicks and Nets were stocked with new faces. The Nets were playing in a new building. Now nearly a month into the season, the Knicks and Nets have established themselves as likely playoff teams, who figure to battle for positioning in the Atlantic Division.
“It’s a big game from those purposes,” Williams said.
The Nets improved to 6-1 at home yesterday, including quality wins over the Celtics and Clippers. The crowds dressed in their black and white have been enthusiastic and vocal. Johnson’s ideal vision of Barclays Center is to be like the Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City, where the raucous crowds impact games.
“Our fans are an integral part of what we’re all about,” Johnson said. “Oklahoma City, those fans and that crowd, if you asked Kevin Durant, he’d say they’re a major part of their success.”
Nets-Knicks has always been a rivalry based more on proximity than competition. When the Knicks were good, the Nets were never really competitive except during the Drazen Petrovic years. When the Nets were good under Jason Kidd, the Knicks were bad. With both teams, apparently headed toward the playoffs, the New York-Brooklyn rivalry is getting off to a heated start.
“During the course of an 82-game season, there’s only a handful of games that you can get fired up for,” NBA broadcaster and New York native Mike Breen said. “When you’ve got a close rival, that’s good and fighting for the division title, it makes the regular-season games fun and anticipated. The whole key is they all have to be good at the same time. Otherwise it doesn’t mean anything.”
It will mean something tonight.
“What I love about Brooklyn is all the fans are cheering for us,” said Kris Humphries. “Hopefully the Brooklyn chant will come out and we’ll get it going. For us and me as a player, we want to put ourselves in position to win games at home and hold it down for the people that come out and support us.”
For too many years, games against the Knicks always felt like road games even when the Nets were on their home floor. That figures to change tonight when the Knicks come to “Brooook-lynnn.”
george.willis@nypost.com