The Nets could not have manifested this second. However they’ve had a hand in all of it the identical — a direct one — because the Knicks stagger right into a must-win matchup in opposition to their cross-bridge rival on Wednesday amid a skid of 9 losses of their final 11 video games.
Two summers in the past, the Knicks despatched the Nets 5 first-round picks for Mikal Bridges. Now Sean Marks, Jordi Fernández and Michael Porter Jr. have an opportunity to do the funniest factor ever — and at this price, the Knicks could allow them to.
It may very well be the very last thing this group, as at present constructed, ever does.
Endurance is sporting skinny at Madison Sq. Backyard, the place the staff that lifted the NBA Cup lower than a month in the past now finds itself practically thrice nearer to the Play-In Event (2.5 video games) than it’s to the Jap Convention’s top-seeded Detroit Pistons (7.0 video games).
The warning indicators had been all there on Monday. At full power, the Knicks misplaced to a Dallas Mavericks staff whose damage record stretched additional than the Williamsburg Bridge. They let two gamers they freely labeled “hot” shooters — Max Christie and Klay Thompson — mix for 9 made threes on 11 makes an attempt within the first half, 12-of-17 mixed on the night time, together with an 8-of-10 night time from Christie that landed him in a 14-way tie for third on MSG’s all-time single-game three-point leaderboard.
Which brings us to Porter Jr.
He has no regard for contests. He averages 10 three-point makes an attempt per recreation. And he’s in the course of a profession 12 months because the lone veteran scorer in Brooklyn’s youth motion. If there’s anybody who would love nothing greater than to aura-farm the stays of his fan base’s greatest opponent — even when it’s the final act of his transient however productive Nets tenure — it’s him.
Porter Jr. has 12 video games this season with 5 or extra made threes. He has 9 extra with 4. The Knicks know this. In addition they knew Christie and Thompson had been scorching. They know Porter Jr. went simply 2-of-10 from deep in Brooklyn’s final recreation in opposition to the bodily Phoenix Suns. And so they know what comes subsequent.
He will likely be looking threes Wednesday in opposition to a Knicks protection that has cratered in all places — however particularly alongside the arc — over the previous three weeks.
That is the sort of embarrassment the Knicks must “collaborate” to keep away from. As a result of everybody has pores and skin on this recreation — from possession to the entrance workplace to the gamers on the ground.
On Jan. 5, James Dolan broke his radio silence and stated he expects the Knicks to succeed in the NBA Finals for the primary time since 1999. The Knicks are 2-6 since what some on social media now seek advice from as “The Interview.”
Mike Brown has already felt the warmth twice. His staff laid an egg in his first recreation again in Sacramento after the Kings fired him final season. They didn’t present up till halftime Monday in one other dwelling dud — this time in opposition to Jason Kidd, the top coach who was the Knicks’ first, failed selection after firing Tom Thibodeau.
Lose Wednesday, and it will get even stranger: That loss would come in opposition to Jordi Fernández — Brown’s mentee — the coach he introduced over from Spain to start an NBA profession throughout his time with the Cavaliers in 2009.
“Mike let me use a car, a gas card, paid for the room where I lived,” Fernández as soon as stated in an ESPN report detailing their relationship. “And I ate pretty much every meal at the [Cavs] practice facility.”
Nonetheless, nobody has extra at stake on Wednesday than Leon Rose and Bridges.
Karl-Anthony Cities can’t be the scapegoat for this one. The Knicks’ and Nets’ futures are ceaselessly intertwined by the deal that altered the trajectories of each franchises.
Had the Knicks not surrendered 5 first-round picks for Bridges, they might have had Giannis Antetokounmpo final August. As an alternative, they doubled down — 4 years, $150 million — on a participant who hasn’t met the usual set by both the acquisition price or the contract.
Bridges has been inconsistent at finest offensively — hesitant on the rim, invisible at worst — and too gentle defensively, caught on screens and crushed by shoulder-first drives into his chest, typically even only a fast first step.
In the meantime, the Nets flipped his “twin,” Cameron Johnson, into Porter Jr. and one other first-round decide. Porter Jr. has a greater shot at an Jap Convention All-Star reserve spot than Bridges and earned extra All-Star votes than Bridges, Josh Hart and OG Anunoby.
Which is why he — together with Marks and Fernández — can flip Madison Sq. Backyard into the Comedy Cellar on Wednesday night time. In lots of respects, Joe Tsai has amusing at stake, too.
Six years in the past, Tsai’s Nets rode the identical curler coaster the Knicks now acknowledge — lottery staff to contender again to lottery staff in a blink. That Nets group went all-in on star energy. What may probably go incorrect with Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving and James Harden on the identical staff?
A world pandemic, for one.
Tsai and Marks can at the least level there — even when the Nets later compounded issues by capitulating to Harden in a deal for an injured Ben Simmons. With out COVID-19, that Massive Three could very nicely have gained a title.
The Knicks don’t have that excuse. If Porter Jr. lights up MSG — if the Knicks lose — they’ll run out of locations to level besides the mirror.
And the boos gained’t be the worst half. As a result of there’s yet one more get together with an opportunity to spoil issues at Madison Sq. Backyard on Wednesday: the so-called nonexistent Nets fan base — a fan base that has already made itself heard at MSG as soon as earlier than, again when Durant and Irving got here to city.
Knicks followers are already fed up. They booed their very own staff 4 separate instances within the first half of Monday’s loss alone. However by the fourth quarter, the boos pale — not as a result of issues improved, however as a result of a lot of the constructing had already checked out.
That’s the true hazard on Wednesday night time.
One other disappointing loss will likely be secondary to the embarrassment that may observe if a 12-win Nets fan base can say it wrecked a championship Knicks season halfway by means of. The audible “Brook-lyn” chants echoing by means of Madison Sq. Backyard — the sound of victory from a corporation that offered excessive on a participant it acquired within the Durant deal and left the Knicks holding the bag.
Make no mistake: The Knicks don’t have any selection however to cease Porter Jr. on Wednesday. He and his group have the possibility to spoil every thing the Knicks have labored for.
And if their efficiency in opposition to Dallas is indicative of what’s to come back on Wednesday, the Knicks will let Porter Jr. just do that: wreck their season and usher within the adjustments very nicely on the horizon.
