The Nets had a chance to clinch the fifth seed with a win over the Knicks at home Tuesday night. But, with the way they played, it looks like the Nets would be perfectly content to settle for sixth.
It’s hard to find another way to describe the 109-98 Knick victory inside Barclays Center, one that saw the visiting team dominate practically from start to finish while playing without Carmelo Anthony, who the Knicks announced before the game has a small tear in his right labrum, and with Tyson Chandler playing just five minutes before sitting the rest of the night.
“Fifth, sixth, same thing,” coach Jason Kidd said. “You know we’re going to play Toronto or Chicago. You play 82 games to get a seed, and we’ll be fifth or sixth.”
That was an easy thing to say after being blown off your home court, allowing the Knicks (36-45) to shoot 11-for-21 (52.4 percent) from 3-point range and force the Nets (44-37) into 20 turnovers in a game where four of their starters played, including giving their starting backcourt of Deron Williams and Joe Johnson about 30 minutes each.
Tim Hardaway Jr. finished with 16 points for the Knicks, one of six players in double figures, while Marcus Thornton had 24 points off the bench for the Nets.
The loss, the third in the last four games for the Nets since winning at Miami last week, leaves everything up in the air as far as positioning in the Eastern Conference playoff picture heading into the final night of the season. The Nets will be in Cleveland Wednesday, where a win would lock them into the fifth seed.
But a combination of a loss to the Cavaliers and a Wizards win in Boston would drop the Nets into sixth place in the East — which would currently put them in line to face the Raptors in the first round, considered to be an easier opponent than the notoriously difficult Bulls, the team that eliminated the Nets in the first round a year ago.
However, even that isn’t set in stone yet. The Raptors will face the Knicks at the Garden Wednesday night, and a win would wrap up the third seed as a result of owning the tiebreaker over the Bulls by virtue of being Atlantic Division champions. But a Raptors loss, combined with a Bulls win in Charlotte, would mean Chicago climbs up to the three seed.
Either way, Tuesday night’s result was a satisfying one for the Knicks, who claimed their third victory in four games against the Nets this season. And while their season will come to an end against Toronto after they were eliminated from the playoffs over the weekend, they at least have bragging rights now over their cross-town rivals.
“Hell yeah,” J.R. Smith said, as if winning the season series mattered at this point. “I’m cool with some of those guys over there, so I can still say something when we’re in the gym this summer.
“As long as I can say they didn’t beat us three times, and we did.”
The Nets have had little to play for since beating the Heat last week, but it’s still been glaring how far their level of play has dropped over the past four games after playing so well ever since the start of 2014.
Though they have rested various players over the past few games — including Shaun Livingston (sprained right big toe), Alan Anderson (sore abdominal muscle) and Mirza Teletovic (personal reasons) — it doesn’t change the fact the Nets aren’t playing anywhere near the way they would like to be heading into the playoffs.
“Well, yeah,” Paul Pierce said when asked if there’s any frustration with the team’s recent struggles. “Going into the playoffs, you want to start building good habits, and tonight was an example of how not to take a step forward.
“We were off our game offensively, and that’s not how you want to go into the playoffs. No excuses about it. We have to get better.”