When: January 13, 2016; 7:30 PM EST
Where: Barclays Center; Brooklyn, NY
TV: YES Network/MSG Network
Radio: WFAN 660 AM
It’s another cross-city New York meeting between Manhattan’s Knicks and Brooklyn’s Nets, with both teams heading in remarkably opposite directions. The Knicks, who beat the Celtics in an exciting 120-114 affair at Madison Square Garden last night, have won six of their last eight games and — behind the resurgence of Arron Afflalo, continued surprise of Kristaps Porzingis and the consistent play of Carmelo Anthony — have gotten to .500 and are right in the Eastern Conference playoff mix.
However, Anthony hurt his ankle in Tuesday night’s game and will be out for Wednesday’s meeting at Barclays Center. In his stead will be Brooklyn native Lance Thomas, who has turned his career around this season for New York, averaging nearly nine points per game on remarkable .469/.410/.909 shooting in around 21 minutes per game. The journeyman has bounced around the NBA, the D-League and even China before coming back to his home city, and he’ll probably get a nice raise this summer.
Meanwhile, after a 106-79 shellacking at the hands of the San Antonio Spurs at Barclays on Monday night, the Nets have fallen to a season-low 18 games under .500 and have lost five-straight games overall (and 10 straight at home). Things aren’t going to get easier for Brooklyn and interim head coach Tony Brown, but with Melo out, and the Knicks having played a tight, tiring game last night, this game is as good a chance for the Nets to steal a win as any.
Of course, in addition to the usual Knicks-Nets storylines, we have our second Lopez brother battle of the season. Robin signed with the Knicks this offseason, joining his brother, Brook, in New York but the two Stanford products don’t share an apartment, reportedly due to a dispute between the two’s cats. When Robin and Brook faced off with each other earlier this year in a 108-91 Knicks win at MSG, Brook won the individual matchup, scoring 21 points, but Robin won the game, as his team raced out to a 42-21 lead after the first quarter and never looked back. Tonight, Brook will look to even the ledger up.
Probable lineups
NYK- Jose Calderon (PG), Arron Afflalo (SG), Lance Thomas (SF), Kristaps Porzingis (PF), Robin Lopez (C)
BKN- Donald Sloan (PG), Wayne Ellington (SG), Joe Johnson (SF), Thaddeus Young (PF), Brook Lopez (C)
Final thoughts
The Nets, without multiple key players due to injury, are an even worse team than when healthy at the start of the season, so any win they can get at this point is crucial just for the players’ and fans’ sanity. With the Knicks on the second half of a back-to-back, without their best player, tonight is a great chance for one such win. Brooklyn needs to get out to shooters like Afflalo and Thomas and at least try to limit Porzingis’ perimeter defense and keep him off the glass if the Nets are going to have any shot at a win. And yes, of course, they’ll need to finally make some threes as well (looking at you, Bojan).
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