To change into a serious rivalry, coaches for the New York Knicks and Brooklyn Nets consider assembly in a playoff sequence would improve issues.
For now, either side will accept jockeying for playoff place within the Eastern Conference because the Nets search their tenth straight win over the Knicks on Monday evening when the intracity foes meet at Madison Square Garden.
Brooklyn hasn’t misplaced to the Knicks since Jan. 26, 2020. Seven of these wins are by single digits and the Nets have scored at the very least 110 factors in every win, together with their 122-115 victory in Brooklyn on Jan. 28 in what turned out to be Kyrie Irving’s last massive recreation as a Net.
“Probably a playoff series, something like that,” New York coach Tom Thibodeau mentioned earlier than his staff allowed 22 3-pointers within the final assembly. “Usually you need both teams to be really good. Hopefully we can get there.”
“I lean more in that direction of meaningful games,” Brooklyn coach Jacque Vaughn mentioned lats month. “We need to grow more and have some more meaningful games before it gets to that level.”
Irving scored 21 of his 32 factors within the fourth quarter to avoid wasting the Nets from blowing a 19-point lead. He performed two extra video games with the Nets earlier than looking for and in the end getting a commerce to Dallas, with Kevin Durant following out the door to Phoenix.
When it had Irving and Durant, the Nets had been seen as being within the higher echelon of the East with the likes of Boston, Milwaukee and Philadelphia, however the trades might push it into the center of the pack with the Knicks.
Brooklyn is 8-11 since placing collectively 12 straight wins from Dec. 7-Jan. 2, with 14 of these video games being performed since Durant sprained his proper knee. The final two have seen combined outcomes from the revamped lineups.
After scoring 37 factors within the fourth quarter in Thursday’s 116-105 house win over Chicago, the Nets had been held to 16 factors within the fourth of Saturday’s 101-98 house loss to Philadelphia. Brooklyn was outscored 16-4 over the ultimate 7:43 and misplaced when Spencer Dinwiddie’s triple on the buzzer was dominated to be late.
Mikal Bridges scored 23 in his Nets debut whereas Cameron Johnson added 12 towards the 76ers, however Dinwiddie was held to 9 factors on 2-of-10 capturing.
While the Nets struggled to search out scoring within the fourth quarter, the Knicks scored a lot down the stretch. An evening after being held to fifteen within the last quarter at Philadelphia, New York scored 39 factors within the last 12 minutes of its 126-120 victory over the visiting Utah Jazz on Saturday.
Jalen Brunson scored 38 factors and is averaging 32.0 factors in six video games because the final assembly with the Nets. Julius Randle added 31 and is averaging 26.3 factors in his previous six contests.
New York additionally welcomed Josh Hart to its rotation, and he scored 11 factors in 25:39 towards Utah whereas additionally hitting a tiebreaking 3-pointer with 6:44 left.
