3 reasons Knicks were humiliated by Nets in blowout loss

2: Poor defensive effort

There are two things that you can always count on the New York Knicks for: They won’t guard the perimeter and a role player on the opposing team is going to have one of the best games of his career. Both of those things were true in Wednesday’s loss to the Nets, and it all started with Brooklyn scoring 38 points in the first quarter.

Edmond Sumner, who’s averaging less than six points per game in his five-year career, had already hit a career-high 13 points in the second quarter. Sumner finished with 18 points, which is nearly more than what he scored in the previous three games combined (21). Entering the evening, he was shooting 20% from the three-point line, but of course, he shot 3-for-4 from deep against the Knicks.

New York had no easy task in trying to contain Kevin Durant, and although one of the Knicks’ best defenders in Cam Reddish started the game on him, KD was able to do whatever he wanted. Even when New York helped over on him, he found an open teammate. There was no stopping him or the Nets, but the Knicks didn’t even try.

New York’s defense was a little better in the second half, but at that point, the damage had already been done. It’s yet to be determined if this team can figure out how to get stops on the defensive end.