Nets Suffer Historic Loss to Knicks
The Nets’ defeat was not just embarrassing—it was record-setting.
Brooklyn fell 120-66 to the Knicks in front of a sold-out crowd of 19,812 at Madison Square Garden, marking the largest victory margin in Knicks history. This season has been particularly tough for the Nets, as they’ve struggled offensively, even managing a worse scoreline than Indiana’s 121-78 loss to Detroit earlier this year.
The defeat puts the Nets at just one point shy of the worst overall record in the league for this season. Brooklyn’s fleeting 5-0 surge in the final moments, while the Knicks sat their starters, barely masked the sting of having avoided an even greater embarrassment than last year’s record 59-point loss to the Clippers.
In short, it was a rough night.
“That’s totally unacceptable,” Noah Clowney remarked. “Nothing like that will ever happen again. At all.”
Coach Jordi Fernandes took the blame for the team’s performance, as both he and veterans like Nick Claxton, Michael Porter Jr., and Ziare Williams addressed the lack of effort in the locker room.
“The first thing I did was fight,” said Drake Powell, but Clowney added that they all understood a loss like this shouldn’t happen, stating, “Defensively we were miserable. We couldn’t respond early on, but it seemed like they sparked something in us with their scoring.”
It was clear from the start that the Nets were struggling. They shot only 29 percent overall and made just 11 out of 40 shots from beyond the arc, with Porter becoming the leading scorer for Brooklyn at a mere 12 points.
Meanwhile, the Knicks took advantage, shooting 57 percent from the field and sinking 16 of their 32 attempts from deep. The Nets were also overwhelmed on the boards, losing the rebound battle 56-27.
Now, Brooklyn is facing a 13-game losing streak against the Knicks, the longest in this rivalry’s history.
After a previous 36-point defeat on November 9, this loss surpassed that one. “Tonight was worse, and I take responsibility for that,” Fernandes said. “We need to improve both defensively and offensively—that’s on me, not the players. They must understand our values and how we want to play.”
Unfortunately, it didn’t materialize.
While they were in contention for a better lottery position, sitting one game behind Sacramento, that fact didn’t excuse such a dismal showing.
Initially, they led 6-4 but then allowed a 14-point run without an answer. Even with the score at 30-20, they let an 8-0 spree slip by.
Rather than mounting a comeback, the Nets fell apart, entering the fourth quarter down 16-0 and trailing by 59 points against a Knicks team that had recently been struggling.
“I thought we had a shot, given how poorly they were playing,” Clowney reflected. “Even at halftime, we felt we could turn it around, but we didn’t respond when they came at us again.”
