Nets, stop me if you’ve heard this one before, beat Knicks again, 122-115

Death, Taxes, Owned Nets Knicks The era of clean sweeps. He entered Saturday night with a Nets record of 13-3 against Manhattan since the start of the 2018 season, including an eight-game winning streak.

And Brooklyn did not disappoint. Never do it when playing against New York. Final scores: Brooklyn Nets 122, New York Knicks 115. Kevin Durant and Ben He Simmons and TJ Warren are fine. All they needed was what they got from Kyrie Irving.

It started early by taking a 62–49 lead at halftime after Brooklyn led by as much as 18 points. And while there was certainly an element of his shooting hot out of Brooklyn (from the Deep he’s 11-21), their 13-point lead was an accurate reflection of each team’s process. Scoring just three points in transition, Brooklyn’s pace was excellent thanks to Yuta Watanabe’s bombshell, and their half-court offense featured copious dribbling handoffs and guard-to-guard screens, sending the ball left and right. Continuing to swing, the Knicks were forced to execute his plan the game on every possession. In most of their possessions, it was not.

Jacque Vaughn appreciated the simplicity of Brooklyn’s offensive output above all else. 31 assists, 8 turnovers, ability to share basketball, play pace, spray that thing, space out and drive and kick. ”

Kyrie Irving dodged double-teams and traps, while the Knicks chased Patty Mills, Joe Harris, and more.

NBA guru dribbling maestro sums it up succinctly: And being part of it is a beautiful game. ”

Meanwhile, Brooklyn has opted out of a common defensive strategy against the Knickerbockers, especially Julius Randle. They let him work one-on-one with minimal distractions instead of loading the ball and showing help early on, except for the rim where Nick Craxton was waiting. I was happy with that. Most of the time it worked. Royce O’Neale gave Randle everything he could handle.

“I was mostly protective of my man, but I was also protective [Randle] At the same time… Royce did a really good job protecting him as well,” Claxton said.

Even his head coach agreed. All his appearances were contested. Part of it allowed Nick to walk around a bit and give Lois some comfort if Julius could drive. ”

Overall, Randle scored 19 points on 16 shots, but few came easily.

But more important than his personal numbers, New York fell into a trap. Every possession looked like his ten seconds of grinding isolation from the mid-post. A similar situation played out, as it often did in the first half, when Brooklyn switched Nick Claxton to Jalen Brunson on the perimeter. It was a fan to watch his two crafty left-handers of different builds attack, but while Branson had a tough shot, the Knicks’ offense was far from “humming.” Sure, it was a simple offense, but it’s far from the type of simplicity Coach Vaughan praised on his own team after the game.

That part didn’t change as the game went into the late stages. To say the Nets have stopped executing his plan for the game is not true. The difference between the Knicks winning his 32-26 first half and the third quarter was that the bench mob that stabilized the ship in the first stint was unable to replicate that level of success.

Day’Ron Sharpe was respectable enough, but made too many mistakes in the first half without producing any of the real value-added plays he made (including three tip-in layups!). , but the attack carried out by the second unit, which featured screening sharps and performing handoffs around the high post, was less successful. For example, Edmund Sumner recorded his two turnovers in his third. Patty Mills was out in the second half despite hitting some tough jumpers in the first half and scoring seven points when needed.

But the end of the third quarter wasn’t a total disaster, but it was more than that. Brooklyn took his 7-point lead in the 4th quarter and the rotation decision paid off. Irving and Claxton were there to play the entire final. flame. So did Joe Harris, who extended the Nets’ lead to 5-8 with a 3 in the 4th that night. It was something Joe Harris used to do, and it was the first vintage performance in a long time. When Brooklyn’s chest felt a little constricted, he hit a three – off his movement, off his swing his pass, in transition – exhaled deeply.

And it’s Kyrie Irving time. With Mariano Rivera at home, when Enter Sandman was introduced to thunderous applause on the video board, it was just him one of the NBA’s best closers. Catch-and-shoot triple (from a nice Joe Harris baseline drive-and-kick), two fadeaways, Seth Curry three assists. Then his own step his back three pushed the lead to his 14th. it’s not. It was certainly the era of Kyrie Irving, but it still wasn’t a complete, transcendental acquisition: his lim-in-and-out threes are one too many for him to easily clean up the contest.

“So I was doing little things, trying to pick up the pace so I could hit timely shots,” Kyrie said of his fourth-quarter start. I tried to get off, but they wouldn’t. ”

Thus, the Knicks had real momentum at various points in the stretch, peaking when Quentin Grimes’ putback dunk cut the lead to three. :

8 points in less than a minute. This includes his two highly contested three pieces of his own work. Irving scored a total of 21 points in the fourth quarter, almost all of which were excellent. Suddenly he had another 30 points his game. After all, this is the Knicks Nets, and Black and White Irving is simply no match for these guys.

One Knicks fan gave me a strong suggestion on the way home. I don’t want to disappoint, it’s true that the Knicks could have played a better game, but this was a total Nets victory. Brooklyn’s best player soundly beat New York’s best player on the back of a much better executed game plan. (Jack Vaughan said, “I don’t care if there are 10 more. I said in the huddle, ‘Let’s get 50 people’…as long as they’re good people.”)

It doesn’t seem to matter what has to be done right for the Nets in this matchup. Flashy shooting numbers without Kevin F. Durant. It’s reassuring to see things go well, and that’s not something people often say about the Nets. Unless they’re playing against the Knicks.

About rivalry

Kyrie Irving had both the coldest, calculating and most personal answers to questions about the Knicks-Nets rivalry. “If the NBA calls it Rivalry Week, it’s a rivalry, so I’m fine with that,” Irving quipped, but he also made one thing clear.

But as we know, Irving’s feelings for basketball in this part of the globe stem from a personal connection, not just a professional connection. He expanded it in great detail with answers that some East Coasters might feel strongly connected to.

On Jacque Vaughn’s part, he’s simply happy to be here as it fits his brand in terms of what he’s gained from this matchup. I think it’s cool. I think there is a little bragging rights between the two teams and good competition. ”

Nick Claxton said the same thing not too long ago with a wry smile when pointed out that the Nets hadn’t lost to the Knicks in over three years. We’re here at Barclays and they have a lot of fans and it’s definitely been a good vibe,” he added, adding, “I haven’t lost to the Knicks since I’ve been in the league.” he didn’t! (Unless you don’t want to unfairly count the days he spent on Long Island when a big league team loses.)

film room

How did Brooklyn reach 40 3-ups? all Help fill the gap and keep the shooter wide open:

This is Lois O’Neill taking on Julius Randle (yes, great these days) tonight and surpassing expectations.

Oh, and “Rockstar Rolls” (O’Neill claimed it as his superhero name on the video board during timeouts) shot 4-7 from deep. One, he was glued to Saturday night.

Yuta…the…shooter! No, it’s not so geeky to put in a clip of a guy in the “movie room” section having threes in a row. But just because Yuta has become trustworthy from corners makes him a bonafide all-purpose shooting threat that must always be accounted for. I’m here.

It concludes with the epitome of Brooklyn’s offensive success, a beautiful possession with the ball reaching both sides of the floor, an extra pass and a driving closeout.

Simply excellent.

milestone watch

• Kyrie Irving became the fourth player since 1996 (whose first season had quarterly stats tracked) to record four 20-point 4th quarters in a season. No other NBA player in his 4th quarter has surpassed 20 points this season.
• The nine-game winning streak over the Knicks is Brooklyn’s longest active winning streak. They recorded 11 straight wins from his 1984 to his 86.
• The Nets’ record for most games played in the regular season against the Knicks is currently 107-101.
• Brooklyn’s 22 3-pointers were the most in a game this season.

Wozi reiterates Nets want big backup

Adrian Wojnarowski reiterated before the game that the Nets want to ramp up their frontcourt rotation between now and the trade deadline.

“Along their front line, you see what Nicholas Claxton has done this year — a Borderline All-Star — had his best week as an NBA player last week,” Wodzi told Mike Greenberg. NBA countdown“But when he’s off the floor, you can see how vulnerable the Nets are up front. you’re looking for the size of

At least it doesn’t have a name yet, but reading the tea leaves, the Nets appear to be more along the lines of young athletes than old veterans.

next

Another home game between LeBron James and the Lakers on Monday, January 30th. Tip off is 7:30 PM ET.

go to Post and Cheers I’m sure they’re just excited to read more about this from a New York perspective.