Game 39 Recap: Brooklyn Nets 103, New York Knicks 80. The One Where The Nets Dominated Mercilessly, And Reclaimed New York City

Andray Blatche, and nearly the rest of the Nets team, was totally unstoppable today, scoring 19 points on 9-of-12 shooting and grabbing 12 rebounds

Oh how the Nets and Knicks have changed since New York's December 5th demolition of Brooklyn at the Barclays Center. In that game, the Knicks hit 16 threes and ran the Nets out of their own building. Today, the Nets hit 14 threes and shoved the Knicks right out of the World's Most Famous Knicks Arena.

It started about a minute into the game. Carmelo Anthony hit the afternoon's first shot, a jumper that put Manhattan up 2-0. It would be the only lead Lame Duck Coach Mike Woodson and his "team" would see, as Alan Anderson drained a three with 11 minutes left in the very 1st quarter. Brooklyn then ran out to a 10-4 lead, forcing Woodson to call a timeout, and eventually extended said advantage to 27-16 as the first 12 minutes expired. The Nets controlled every aspect of the 1st quarter and forced the undisciplined Knicks to commit a ton of turnovers, making a lead easy to attain.

Brooklyn basically held status quo for the next two quarters, winning each by three and two points respectively. However, victory wasn't certain during this entire span. A 10-0 Manhattan run spanning between the 2nd and 3rd quarters cut the Nets' lead to just eight points. But, Alan Anderson said, not to worry, as he rolled off a personal 5-0 run–with a three-pointer and a pair of FTs–to bring Brooklyn back up by 13. From then on, the Knicks threw in the towel and the Nets continued to augment their lead, as a win was not in doubt anymore.

Up 71-55 entering the 4th quarter, Jason Kidd let his starters rest for his team's game against Orlando tomorrow, so Deron Williams and Andray Blatche took over. A D-Will crossover-into-a-jumper over Bargnani here, a Blatche shimmy-jumper there. A D-Will three here, a Blatche three there. It was a beautiful sight to see this Nets team so relaxed and confident as it systematically destroyed a sorry Knicks squad that is falling off the proverbial cliff as we speak. Demoralization was the theme of the Manhattan bench, while happiness and optimism permeated throughout that of Brooklyn.

This was Jason Kidd's first game back at MSG since he was a member of the Knicks last season, and it definitely was a triumphant one. His former team could only watch as its pair of point guards, Raymond Felton and Pablo Prigioni, combined for 11 points on 2-of-14 shooting. Admittedly, the Knicks missed Amar'e Stoudamire and Kenyon Martin–both out with sprained ankles–badly, but even the presence of those two wouldn't have been enough to stop the streaking force that is this Brooklyn Nets team, which is now 7-1 in 2014 and 7-0 in 2014 games played in countries not named "Canada."

Some other observations I had from the game: The Nets compiled 25 assists on 37 made field goals. The Knicks made just 24 field goals…..Joe Johnson played the most out of any Net (30 minutes), as Jason Kidd rested his players since Brooklyn has another game tomorrow night. Nine Nets played between 18 and 27 minutes while the final player, Mason Plumlee, just got three minutes of playing time as the 4th quarter came to a close…..All 10 Nets to play–Reggie Evans was the only to not get off the bench–compiled a positive +/- rating in this game while all 12 Knicks to play compiled a negative one. When something like that happens, you know the game was pretty lopsided…..For the 3rd time in four games, Joe Johnson scored at least 20 points in the 1st half. With All-Star voting ending soon, Joe is making a real case for a selection as he scored 25 points on 8-of-15 shooting (4-for-8 from three) to go with five assists and six rebounds, but no turnovers. About as perfect a game as a player can have….Deron Williams, as mentioned in the preview, returned to action for the Nets in this game, and looked pretty healthy. He didn't shoot particularly well (4-of-10 in 27 minutes) but got a lot of playing time, didn't get hurt, and was moving around the court decently. That's all that was wanted from Deron tonight. Now, how much he's going to play tomorrow is still unknown, but there's no reason he shouldn't be able to return to a normal playing time…..Finally, today was just another one of those "Andray Blatche plays like Michael Jordan" games. Dray achieved another double-double, drained jumpers over Knick defenders all over the court, and even dropped in a top-of-the-key three for good effect……The Raptors lost to the Bobcats earlier this afternoon, a result, which combined with a Nets win, brings the Nets to within 2.5 games of the top spot in the Atlantic Division. This team is doing juuuust fine.

Looking Ahead

The Nets are right back at it, as they play the Orlando Magic tomorrow night at Barclays. The Magic snapped a 10-game losing streak last night in a win over the Celtics.