VIDEO – Nets Recap: #Nets 88 – #Knicks 85 NY Series Tied 2-2

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Updated: January 21, 2013

Nets 88 – Knicks 85

The Battle of the Boroughs regular season series ends in a 2-2 tie as the Brooklyn Nets went into Madison Square Garden this afternoon and beat the New York Knicks 88-85. The Nets went into a hostile environment and tried to give the game away with too many turnovers but managed to hit the big shots and get the big stops to grab a victory and draw within one game of the Atlantic division lead.

Joe Johnson came out shooting well and hit three 3-pointers in the first quarter as the Nets took the early lead and played good defense while dominating the Knicks on the boards. Brook Lopez had a good first half with 11 points and 6 rebounds and Deron Williams controlled the game by probing the defense finding the mismatches. Carmelo Anthony was the Knicks only offense in the half and led them with 18 points while no other Knicks scored more than Jason Kidd’s six points. The Nets held a 47-41 lead at the break and were beating the Knicks on the boards 27-11.

Knicks stormed back after the Nets took a 10 point lead and went on a five minute run to close the quarter where the Knicks took the lead 68-65. P.J Carlesimo did not panic and let the Nets play through the run and did not call timeout.

[quote_box]PJ – “Our guys are obviously elated and they should be really proud. Our guys made them work and that’s all you can do. Nothing came easy they made them work. Similar to the Oklahoma game it wasn’t like they came back but they took the lead and we certainly had chances to go south but we didn’t do that.”[/quote_box]

The Nets drew confidence from that and responded with their own run to take back the lead early in the fourth behind Keith Bogans roller coaster 3-pointer and two more of Johnson’s big threes. Anthony was keeping the Knicks in the game with his 29 shot attempts and occasionally found a cutter for a layup or foul. JR Smith did his best to help Anthony but the Nets played great team defense and rebounded the ball at an amazing rate. The Nets finished with 52 rebounds compared to the Knicks 37.

The game was within three points both ways late in the game and the emotion flowed from the sellout crowd as they battled back and forth when Lopez decided to get nasty. Lopez denied Amare Stoudemire at the rim and followed that rejection up with a huge block of Anthony on a break with the Nets up 83-82 with 1:20 to play. On the next possession Anthony went to the line and sank two big free throws to give the Knicks a one point 84-83 lead with 40.9 remaining.

Enter Joe Johnson. Johnson got the ball on a swing pass from Williams and made a strong drive to the right baseline and elevated over Smith and to hit a pull-up pop from 16 to give the Nets the lead for good. The big shot left .22 seconds remaining and the Nets had Wallace guard Anthony (29 points and seven assist) on the next possession. Wallace forced him into an airball from the baseline and the Nets once again grabbed the board. Williams hit 3-of-4 free throws (ended his 52 straight FT’s streak) to ice the game and Smith’s last second heave did not go for the Knicks. Nets win 88-85

GAME CHANGER: Kris Humphries played a big role in this game coming off the bench with energy and solid rebounding to end the game with 11 points to go with 13 rebounds (also had 4 dunks on the Knicks)

STAT OF THE NIGHT: Nets shot 12-24 from three-point range and the Knicks only shot 6-21 from three-point range.

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