3 reasons Knicks were humiliated by Nets in blowout loss
Wednesday night’s contest in Brooklyn certainly wasn’t a must-win for the New York Knicks, but it would’ve been a perfect ending to an otherwise rough stretch of games. The Knicks haven’t lost to the Nets in nearly three years and that trend continued with a 112-88 rout by Kevin Durant and Brooklyn at Barclays Center.
Entering the night, New York was 5-0 against opponents below .500, but the team still managed to make the 4-7 Nets look like a squad full of All-Stars. Across the board, it was an abysmal effort on both ends of the court for the Knicks.
Brooklyn isn’t a good team either, so it’s not as if this wasn’t a winnable game for New York. It was evident early on though that the Knicks were in for a long evening, as the Nets jumped out to a 24-8 lead. The only category that New York had an advantage in over Brooklyn at the half was the team’s number of fouls.
You can place the blame on Tom Thibodeau if you’d like because there’s a valid argument to be made about him not being the right coach for this team, but he isn’t wholly responsible for the product that the Knicks put out on the floor in the loss.
It’s still early in the year, but this was the kind of L that should make the Knicks do some self-reflection in the mirror.
3 reasons why Knicks were embarrassed by Kevin Durant and Nets in Brooklyn
3: Kevin Durant
It doesn’t matter if the Nets are without Kyrie Irving or not, but all that does matter is if Kevin Durant is on the court. His last loss to the Knicks happened in 2013 when he was still with the Thunder, meaning that he’s won 13 straight contests over New York.
We saw how Brooklyn unraveled when he was out for a few weeks with a knee injury last season, which is what typically happens when a team is down their generational player amid endless off-the-court drama. Here we are this year, and KD’s the first player in history to score 25+ points in his team’s first 12 games. It’s impossible to stop him unless you’re the Celtics in the playoffs, of course.
Durant had a game-high 29 points on 10-of-19 shooting, but perhaps more importantly for the Nets, he finished with 12 of Brooklyn’s 30 assists and only one turnover. He rounded out his triple-double performance with 12 rebounds. If it weren’t for him leading the charge against New York, Knicks fans would’ve maybe been able to appreciate another classic Kevin Durant outing.
There was nothing that KD couldn’t do against the Knicks, except lose.