Kyrie Irving dropped 34 points on 13-of-18 shooting, James Harden posted a triple-double with 21 points, 15 rebounds and 15 assists as the Brooklyn Nets defeated the New York Knicks 117-112.
Despite the Nets leading by a large margin for much of the night, the Knicks really showed some grit towards the end of the game. The Knicks, down by 5 with about 15 seconds left in the game, forced the Nets into a jump ball as Julius Randle won the tip against Harden and tipped it to RJ Barrett. Barrett then gave it back to Randle as Randle took it in for the two-handed dunk.
New York then trapped Joe Harris and forced him into yet another jump ball. Before the jump ball was called, the Knicks were called for the foul. Thankfully for the Knicks, they were able to challenge the call and get it overturned.
The Knicks won the second jump ball and called a timeout. Out of the timeout, the Knicks got the ball to Randle behind the arc to try and tie up the score. However, Randle was called for the traveling violation after failing to release the ball while in mid-air. Irving appeared to get a hand on the ball, but we’ll wait and see what the last two-minute report will have to say about that particular call before fully judging it.
Randle was clearly upset about the call, as he had to be held back by several of his teammates and security from going after the referees after the game.
“I was just frustrated,” Randle said. “Obviously we fought so hard to come back and try to win the game, so I was just frustrated and that was pretty much it.”
Randle proved in that moment that he’ll fight for his team and what he feels is right. That’s what you want to see from your best player.
Jeff Green was feeling it in the first quarter, as the 6-foot-8 forward had 14 points with much of his damage coming inside the paint off of great passes. Four of the five first-quarter assists from Harden went to Green. Green finished with 20 on the night.
With the Nets holding on to a 17-point lead with just under 1:20 left in the third, one point off their largest of the game, the Knicks went on a 10-0 run that bridged the third and fourth quarters.
After Harden and Randle traded buckets to keep it a 7-point game, the Nets called a timeout as Irving checked back into the game. Irving immediately drilled a 3-pointer, making viewers at home thinking the Nets should easily pull away from there.
However, after a few minutes of the Knicks keeping the difference in score pretty much the same, the Knicks cut the Nets’ lead to four with just under 4:30 left in the game, forcing them into a timeout.
While the Knicks fought to the very end, the Nets were able to do just enough to secure their 13th win out of their last 14 games.
“We can’t be the pretty, easy-going, shot-making team we’ve been,” Harden said. “We’ve gotta get dirty a little bit… greedy.”
Harden is absolutely right. While it’s nice to have the luxury of having elite shot makers on your team, you got to go out there and do the little things such as playing hard on the defensive side of the ball in order to build a sustainable culture around winning.
