The Nets earned a split of their season series with the Knicks thanks to their 88-85 victory over their intra-city rivals inside Madison Square Garden. In addition, it also allowed the Nets to move within a game of the Knicks for first place in the Atlantic Division.
Here are some of my thoughts on the game:
— I wrote in my preview blog Monday morning that the Nets needed to do two things in order to beat the Knicks: keep the Knicks from hitting 3-pointers and attack them inside.
So, what did the Nets do? The Knicks shot just 6-for-21 from 3-point range, and the Nets outrebounded them 52-37, including getting double-doubles from both Brook Lopez (14 points, 11 rebounds and four blocks) and Kris Humphries (11 points and 13 rebounds).
Lopez, in particular, was a force defensively. He’s been much maligned in the past for his work at that end of the floor, but he had two crucial blocks in the fourth quarter Monday afternoon, first stoning Amar’e Stoudemire on an attempted dunk (which shows just how far he’s fallen since his back injuries) and then blocking an attempted layup by Carmelo Anthony.
Humphries, on the other hand, played his best game in quite some time. He had much of his success at Stoudemire’s expense, attacking him on the offensive glass, in particular, and even got a ton of time down the stretch in the fourth quarter.
— Speaking of that, I’ll be curious to see how the big man rotation continues to evolve in the coming games. Humphries played 27 minutes yesterday, his most since before Avery Johnson was fired. His best game under interim coach P.J. Carlesimo before this one was against the Thunder, when he again played very well before turning his ankle in the game’s final moments, an injury that lingered for some time.
I think the best combinations for the Nets are Lopez and Humphries playing together and Reggie Evans and Andray Blatche playing together, like they did early in the season when the Nets were rolling in November. I can understand why Carlesimo wouldn’t want to (and likely won’t) change things right now in terms of his starting lineup given how successful the Nets have been with Evans starting at the four. But I could definitely see a switch to Humphries happening gradually over time, especially if he starts playing like he did against the Knicks on a consistent basis.
Regardless, this is how the Nets need to play – by being physical and grinding teams out in the halfcourt. That’s how they are built. It’s why I never was a huge fan of switching to the small lineup when they did last month by moving Gerald Wallace to power forward. Playing big is what got them off to their hot start, and it’s helped them get back on track this month.
The one thing that does seem to be true, as I thought it might, is that there isn’t room in the rotation on a consistent basis for Mirza Teletovic. He’ll get chances when someone goes down, or when either Humphries or Evans doesn’t have it on a given night. But when everyone’s there, he’s going to be on the outside looking in.
— Joe Johnson gets a lot of grief for a lot of things, none of which are his fault. One is for his contract, which fans seem to think he forced the Hawks to offer him. But that’s not the only reason.
Fans attacked him in Atlanta when he returned last week, really for no reason at all. When I voiced my dismay at this on Twitter, I got a few Hawks fans to respond with two major refrains: 1) he didn’t care and 2) he never got it done in the playoffs.
Well, on those two points: the first is nonsense (because he’s the opposite of Tyson Chandler or Joakim Noah doesn’t mean he doesn’t care) and the second doesn’t take into account the fact that the Hawks ran every play through him and that he lifted that franchise from being a laughingstock into a perennial playoff contender.
With that being said, the criticisms leveled at Johnson all ignore the most important thing about him: the guy is a terrific player. Johnson proved that again against the Knicks, when he carried the Nets down the stretch, including hitting the game-winning shot over J.R. Smith with 22.9 seconds left.
Johnson may not get the same kind of attention that players like Anthony or Kobe Bryant or Paul Pierce in late and close situations, but having gotten a chance to watch him play 41 games this season, there are few players I’d prefer to have the ball in the game’s final moments than him.
— The one worrying thing to come out of this game was how careless the Nets were with the ball. Given their dominance in so many other statistical areas (hitting twice as many threes, holding a big edge on the boards, shooting better from the field and hitting more free throws) there was no reason for the game to be as close as it was.
But the Nets gave the ball away 19 times, compared to just five for the Knicks. That’s a recipe for disaster in any game, let alone against a team with the weapons the Knicks have on offense.
— And one final note on these four games. Outside of the first game at the Garden last month – and even that game was fairly close into the fourth quarter – each game came down to the final moments, and were tense affairs. I will gladly sign up to watch a seven game series between these two teams this spring. It would be terrific for basketball, and even more terrific for sports in New York. Hopefully we’ll get a chance to see it.
tbontemps@nypost.com