Nets coach Kenny Atkinson admitted his team had been lucky in squeezing out a pair of wins in its first two meetings with the Knicks. But the Nets were so bad Thursday — with the single sorriest shooting performance in the NBA this season — no amount of good fortune would have helped.
The cellar-dwelling Knicks trudged into Barclays Center with the worst record in the Atlantic Division and on a three-game losing skid. They sauntered out with a 94-82 rout of their rivals, bludgeoning the Nets in their own building before a sellout crowd of 17,732.
“I wouldn’t say there’s a new focus: I think we have good focus every day,” Knicks interim coach Mike Miller said before the game.