Jason Kidd and Joe Johnson — usually the two most mild-mannered members of the Nets — got into it with the officials during Wednesday night’s blowout loss to the Knicks.
Both Kidd and Johnson were hit with technical fouls — Kidd for arguing an out of bounds call early in the second quarter, and Johnson for arguing about a foul call after the halftime buzzer sounded — to add insult to injury on a night the Nets were routed by their crosstown rivals, 110-81.
“Frustration,” Kidd said in explaining his first technical foul as a coach, after initially joking it was an “accidental” technical. “I thought the ball went out [off J.R.] Smith. I was wrong.
“I pressed it too much, and got [a technical]. No big thing.”
Johnson’s technical was equally surprising, as it came after the half had ended and he walked over to speak his mind about what he thought should have been a foul call late in the second quarter.
“It was just about a call,” he said. “That was it.”
Johnson added he got an apology from the referees because he made a mistake on the original call, but said, “It means nothing.”
Marcus Thornton returned after missing his second game in less than a week because of a sore lower back, and finished with eight points and three rebounds in 21 minutes.
“It’s good for the most part,” said Thornton, who has now missed two full games and parts of two others since initially injuring his back on a hard fall in the first half in a loss in New Orleans on March 24. “I took a fall on it in the game, and it kind of reacted, but it’s something I have to push through.”
Thornton said he wasn’t sure how his back would react when he woke up Thursday.
“The first time when I hurt it and tried to come back and play, it reacted the wrong way,” he said. “We’ll see how it reacts [Thursday] and go from there.”
While Thornton made his return, both Andrei Kirilenko, who missed his sixth straight game with a sprained left ankle, and Kevin Garnett, who missed his 18th straight with back spasms, sat out once again.
In a radio interview, general manager Billy King said Kirilenko likely is to return Friday at home against Detroit, while Garnett could come back this weekend, as well.
“We’re targeting this weekend to get him back playing and then once he gets back, he’ll be [playing] probably limited minutes a little bit,” King said of Garnett. “The goal is to get him back on the court this weekend.”