The Nets entered the Garden Wednesday night with a chance to not only deal their crosstown rivals’ playoff hopes a serious blow, but to remain in the race for both the Atlantic Division title and home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs.
But by the end of the Nets’ 110-81 loss, not only had the Knicks moved into a virtual tie with the Hawks for the eighth and final playoff spot in the East, but the Nets — by virtue of both the Raptors and Bulls winning — fell 2 ¹/₂ games behind both for the third and fourth seeds in the East.
The Nets are two games behind Toronto and Chicago in the loss column with eight games to play, while both teams have very soft schedules the rest of the way and hold tie-breakers advantages over the Nets, giving Brooklyn little chance of passing either by the end of the regular season.
“You try to win as many as you can, but at the same time, we never controlled our own destiny,” Paul Pierce said. “It wasn’t like we were ahead of them anyway.
“But the goal is finishing up the season, win as many games, but we have to get better at what we do. It’s all about the little things in the playoffs. Everybody knows how hard it is to win in the playoffs and win a series, and just try to focus on telling the guys we have to do a better job of coming out at the start of games, especially on the road.”
The Nets (40-34) couldn’t have done much worse early on, or really at any point, in their debacle against the Knicks. After getting off to a decent start, and even taking a 20-19 lead with 2:14 to go in the first, the wheels not only fell off, but exploded.
The Knicks (33-43) proceeded to go on a 45-18 run over the rest of the first quarter and the entire second, taking a 63-38 lead into halftime that only increased after a technical foul shot prior to the start of the second half. Joe Johnson was whistled for a technical after the first half ended.
Brooklyn blew the game on the defensive end, as the Nets allowed the Knicks to shoot an absurd 66.7 percent (24-for-36) from the field in the first half, including giving them several easy breakaway layups and dunks thanks to nine turnovers the Knicks turned into 16 points.
“I had those two turnovers at the end of the [first] quarter that definitely hurt us,” said Deron Williams, who had no assists for just the second time this season and the sixth time in his career.
“They grabbed the momentum and kind of took it on into the second quarter. That second quarter was not a good quarter for us. To go in down 25, that’s tough to come back from.”