The Knicks should’ve stayed in London.
The lucky No. 7 belonged to the Brooklyn side Monday at the Garden. Joe Johnson, who wears No. 7, outdid Carmelo Anthony in the fourth quarter, hitting a go-ahead 12-foot pull-up with 22.3 seconds left to put the Nets into the lead for good at 85-84 and earn an 88-85 victory over the Knicks on MLK Day. The new city rivals finished the season 2-2 against each other.
Johnson’s bucket broke a five-minute Nets’ scoring drought and gave him 10 points in the fourth quarter as he finished with 25. Johnson drove on J.R. Smith and stopped on a dime, hitting the pullup.
Melo, with the Knicks down 1, couldn’t answer Johnson’s strike, throwing up an airball with 14 seconds left on a short jumper from the side of the lane.
Anthony, who also wears No. 7, finished with 29 points, but only two of those came in the final quarter, as he shot just 11 of 29 for the day. He was 0 for 6 from the field.
“We didn’t make shots down the stretch. Shots we normally make we didn’t make it tonight. Brooklyn and Joe Johnson did a good job making shots,” said Anthony.
Things just got a lot tighter in the Atlantic Division and in a certain New York City basketball rivalry. The Nets (25-16) moved to one game behind the Knicks (25-14) in the Atlantic Division.
“Our guys are obvioulsy elated. They should be really proud. Our guys made them work. Nothing came easy,” said Nets coach P.J. Carlesimo.
Smith had a chance to tie in the final seconds when he raced downcourt and threw up a buzzer-beating 3-pointer but this time it banked in and out. Smith has two buzzerbeating baskets this season.
Deron Williams added two free throws with 8.3 seconds left to put the Nets up 3. The Nets fouled Jason Kidd on the inbounds and he missed 1 of 2. But Williams gave the Knicks life when he missed one of his 2 free throws with 5.7 seconds left, keeping the deficit within 3. But Smith, who finished with 16 points, had no magic left at the end.
The Knicks rallied late in the third quarter when a struggling Smith made two straight jumpers. A Kidd steal, turned into Amar’e Stoudemire scoring on an inside move to put them in the lead for the first time since early in the third quarter, 61-60. Another Knicks steal resulted in Anthony hitting a midrange jumper to make it 63-60 with 2:03 left.
The Knicks closed the third quarter in style as Anthony dribbled down the clock, roared down the lane, got doubled and fed smartly to a cutting-down-the-baseline Stoudemire for an uncontested dunk to make it 68-65 after three.
Johnson hit back to back 3-poiners and the Nets led 81-77 with 6:45 left. Smith came down and missed a 14-footer. Johnson hit another jumper to lift the Nets into an 83-77 with 5:38 left but they couldn’t buy a bucket or a point for five straight minutes.
“Joe Johnson made some tough shots. The effort was there. You have to give him credit for hitting big shots. I thought we had the momentum going in the fourth quarter,” said Tyson Chandler.
The Knicks couldn’t break through, either. Stoudemire got blocked by Lopez at the rim with 2:30 left. Down 1, Melo backed in Johnson in the lane and was hacked on a fallaway. He went to the line with 40.9 seconds left and made both free throws to put the Knicks up 84-83 but that would be the Knicks last lead of the game.
The Knicks were out of sync in the first half, looking like they were still on London time. The Knicks trailed by as many as 10 points late in the first half as the Nets bludgeoned the Knicks on the boards, 27-16 as Brook Lopez and Kris Humphries dominated them.
The Knicks committed two turnovers but shot a sickly 34.9 percent. Smith led the brickfest show with 2 of 9 shooting. Iman Shumpert, in his second game, shot an airball on a corner 3-pointer in the opening minute. He was 0 for 3 in the half – all 3-point misses. Before the game, Mike Woodson commented Shumpert still had to work on his jumper. Shumpert finished with 2 points – 1 of 6 – in 20 minutes.
Humphries had his way on Stoudemire, who had a poor defensive and rebounding first half. During one sequence, Stoudemire had an offensive board bounce off his hands. On the other end, Humphries grabbed an offensive board right in front of Stoudemire, who was forced to commit a foul.
Stoudemire came on in the second half and finished with 15 points in 26 minutes.
Late in the second quarter, Humphries grabbed another offensive board over Stoudemire and whipped it to the perimeter, where Keith Bogans bagged a 3-pointer for a 36-29 lead.
Humphries capped his dominance in driving right past Stoudemire for an easy layup. Stoudemire left the game with three fouls in 9:10 minutes. He is coming off the bench and didn’t check in until 1:51 left in the first. He is permitted to play 30 minutes but his rebounding woes may prevent Woodson from playing him that much.
After a slow start, Melo got hot late in the half, trying to take over the game, even shooting a jumper over a triple-team. He finished with 7 of 15 for 18 points. The Knicks committed two turnovers in the half but shot a sickly 34.9 percent.
Johnson, who had struggled against the Knicks in the prior three meetings, racked up 11 points in the opening 8:30. Lopez and Humphries combined to shoot 9 of 12 in the half for 20 points and 13 rebounds.
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There were no evident parabolic microphones on the court for Monday’s game. Knicks owner James Dolan had miked the court the last two home games to record Anthony’s conversations on the court in the wake of his one-game suspension for his confrontations with Celtics star Kevin Garnett … Woodson was asked before game about significance of MLK Day. “He’s part of the reason I’m in my position today,’’ Woodson said.