The Nets and Knicks don’t seem to be getting any extra stimulus in their rivalry across the river. Their plight in the standings will be enough motivation on Sunday.
It’s easy to see how one team – or both – can be flat for a nationally televised game at the Barclays Center (1:00 p.m., ABC). The Knicks are in the last leg of a grueling seven-game journey. The Nets would take an emotional victory in Philadelphia, facing former teammate James Harden and fan hatred for the new Net Ben Simmons.
But the desperate position of the two teams in the play-in race (the Nets came in eighth in the East on Saturday, the Knicks in 12th with 15 games to go, including Sunday) means neither can afford a hangover.
“We need 15 games urgently,” Nets defenseman Patty Mills said. “We have just played three games with almost all of our pieces. We have enough reason to urgently link these games together.
“Like I said, the Holy Grail is the championship and time is not on our side, but we have a huge opportunity here with these 15 games to keep getting better. Those three games were great, now we’re going home – where we haven’t been good at home all year – to be able to build on that. So it helps [to play a rival]? May be. But I don’t think that’s a factor.”
Julius Randle & Kevin DurantGetty Images (2)
The Nets were 2.5 games behind Toronto ahead of Saturday’s game against the Raptors in Denver and 1.5 ahead of both No. 9 Charlotte and No. 10 Atlanta.
The Knicks’ six-game journey across all four time zones has come to an end, but it’s technically not their road game.
When the Knicks (28-39) visit the Nets, they’ll play their seventh straight game away from the Garden, but it’s a “road game” in name only.
As usual, Barclays Center will be full of Knicks fans. The James Dolan franchise still dominates the market.
But this will not guarantee dominance in the game. The Knicks took off from Memphis, landed early Saturday morning, and will lose an hour to change the clock before the Brooklyn matinee.
The Nets will gut the 76ers behind Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant, but Irving won’t because he won’t be vaccinated. Simmons will also not play because the rookie is not ready to compete yet.
The Knicks have a respectable 3-3 lead this tour, but there’s no room for error with 15 games left. The three-game winning streak could have been a four-time season high if they had simply defended a 15-point lead in the third quarter in Memphis on Friday, rather than being knocked out of the building by Ja Morant’s blue streak. Instead, the Knicks lost 4 and a half games to the Hornets and Hawks.
“We’re playing at the top of the league,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said of their journey. “We do a lot of good things and learn a lot. We must continue to improve. And so the next challenge is in Brooklyn.
“And they are winning a huge victory. And they sit for a couple of days of rest. … We have to be ready every night in this league. That’s why strength is so important.”
Asked if he saw the Nets’ carnage against the Sixers on Thursday, Thibodeau said: “I watched it a bit. You know how good any team with such a high level of talent is. You watch this game and you look at the three guys that Philadelphia has and the guys that Brooklyn has, they’re top notch players. It’s hard”.
R. J. Barrett lamented the Knicks’ inability to close games in which they had a large lead. It cost them in Memphis and in their last meeting with the Nets.
“We had a good trip,” Barrett said. “I feel that we played very well, including against the best teams. We let them run for their money, just learning to keep figuring out how to close games. That’s all we’re going to do.”
They hope to do better than they did against the Nets on Feb. 16, when they squandered a 28-point lead at the Garden. Rookie Cam Thomas scored 16 of 21 points in the fourth quarter to win the Nets, and he’s eyeing another shot at his opponents.
“I’m looking forward to it,” Thomas told The Post.