The Brooklyn Nets are 12 games behind the New York Knicks and well into draft prep mode.
But it’s the Knicks who will be the team in crisis Wednesday night when they host the Nets in a battle of Big Apple rivals.
Both teams were off after losing at home Monday, when the Knicks were routed by the Dallas Mavericks 114-97 and the Nets fell to the Phoenix Suns 126-117.
The Knicks never led and trailed by as many as 30 points in the first half, where they were booed off the court at Madison Square Garden while losing for the ninth time in 11 games. Six of those defeats have been by double digits.
In perhaps the most foreboding sign, owner James Dolan — who said during a rare radio interview Jan. 5 that the Knicks “want to get to the Finals and we should win the Finals” — left his courtside seat at halftime and did not return.
Dolan approved the firing of Tom Thibodeau, who was dismissed just two days after the Knicks were eliminated from last season’s Eastern Conference finals — their furthest trip into the playoffs since 2001. New York hasn’t won an NBA title since 1973.
But instead of vying for the top seed in the East, the Knicks are seven games back of the first-place Detroit Pistons and just 1 1/2 games clear of the Orlando Magic and Cleveland Cavaliers, who are in a virtual tie for sixth place and the final guaranteed playoff berth.
“We have to go out there with a sense of urgency,” Knicks forward Josh Hart said. “At this point, 40 games in, normally you don’t put too much into struggles, because there’s highs and lows. But at this point, we have to play desperate, because that’s what we are right now.”
New York’s struggles are rooted in the defensive end of the floor. The Knicks are surrendering an average of 114.9 points per game, which would be their highest figure since 1979-80. They are also allowing opponents to shoot 37.5% from 3-point land, the fourth-highest percentage in the league, just behind the Nets (37.6%).
“We all need to do some soul-searching, some looking in the mirror,” Hart said. “Right now we’re playing embarrassing basketball. We’re not executing on the offensive end. Defensively, we’ve been abysmal. We’ve been terrible defensively all year.”
Things aren’t going much better for the Nets, who have the fifth-worst record in the NBA. But Brooklyn, which will likely miss the playoffs for the third straight season, is in the midst of a long-term rebuild — one signified last summer, when the team selected a record five players in the first round of the draft. Just one player on the roster, guard Terance Mann, is older than 27.
The inexperience has been apparent over the last three weeks. The Nets have lost 10 of 12 since a season-high three-game winning streak from Dec. 21-27.
Brooklyn led for just 1:24 early in the first quarter Monday before losing by at least nine points for the sixth time in the last 10 defeats. The Nets, whose opponents’ 3-point shooting percentage and overall field goal percentage (48.8%) are each the third-worst in the league, allowed Phoenix to shoot 57.1% from the field (44 of 77), including 51.3% from 3-point land (20 of 39).
“It’s all a growing process, growing pains,” Nets guard Ziaire Williams said. “The best part is we have a full locker room of guys who want to win and want to compete at the highest level.”
