Jalen Brunson had just made a deep 3-pointer with about three minutes left in the third quarter.
Instead of his trademark celebrationhe simply threw his hands in the air in exasperation – a movement that could have been directed at himself for an out-of-this-world shooting game or for his obvious frustration with the officiating.
It was that kind of afternoon for Brunson.
He didn’t play well.
And it didn’t matter.
The Knicks, besieged by injuries, are deep, good and playing for something.
The Nets, losers in six straight games after Saturday’s 105-93 defeat at the Garden, let go.
“They just wanted more,” Nets interim coach Kevin Ollie said. “You could see that.”
Deuce McBride and Donte DiVincenzo more than invented for Brunson’s misses, combining for 57 points on 10 triples as the Knicks ran away in the fourth quarter.
“We needed it. Both guys got to the baskets at the right time,” said Tom Thibodeau. “Deuce has been great defensively, because he chases [Cam] Thomas is there and Thomas is a burden to deal with.
With Patrick Ewing at home, McBride played all 48 minutes and dropped 26 points on 9-of-16 shooting.
DiVincenzo added 31 on 12 of 24 shooting, including 13 points in the fourth quarter and a nice layup in traffic that capped a 12-0 run to give the Knicks a 92-80 lead with eight minutes remaining. END.
“I wasn’t even paying attention to the score,” DiVincenzo said. “I was just trying to make the right play, be aggressive, and the right play they gave me [was] space at the edge, and I took advantage of it. I didn’t know the score. I was just trying to make saves and play the right way.
Thibodeau called DiVincenzo’s performance “maybe his best game.”
“Just timely baskets,” the coach said, “big plays.”
Isaiah Hartenstein also continued his upward trajectory while managing his Achilles pain, finishing with 17 points and nine rebounds while logging 25 minutes.
Brunson scored just 17 points — his lowest total since Jan. 9 (not counting the 47 seconds he played in Cleveland before injuring his leg).
“It says a lot about them and I love the mental toughness of our team, the ability to persevere in situations,” Thibodeau said. “When things don’t go our way, keep going, then make things go our way, and in the end find a way to win, no matter what we have to do, that’s what we must do. And that’s to their credit. It’s the nature of these guys and their willingness to commit to playing for the team first and putting everything they have into it. That says a lot about them.
The Nets (26-45) stopped fighting in the fourth quarter, folding once again while recovering 18 points from Mikal Bridges.
Brooklyn is a wreck.
This is the continuation of a lost season under a lame-duck interim coach destined for the draft lottery, just a year removed from the trade of Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant.
But there’s always extra juice coming from the upper levels of the organization to turn around the Knicks.
This is due to younger sibling syndrome, which is a constant reminder to New York that the Nets are No. 2 in the boroughs, at least in terms of popularity.
It didn’t matter on Saturday.
After the Nets dominated the rivalry while Durant wore black, the Knicks now own a five-game winning streak against the team from across the Manhattan Bridge.
“It’s frustrating, for sure,” Nets forward Cam Johnson said. “We have to keep it under control. DiVincenzo shot 13 3s, made four, but he also gets to the rim and scores in the paint. These are just possessions that we cannot allow.
Still, the Nets stayed close until the fourth quarter, even tying the score on a Dennis Smith Jr. triple early in the final period.
The end of the half was like a circus performance.
DiVincenzo hit an off-balance layup/prayer that bounced off the top of the backboard.
Bridges then swept a 62-footer – not a typo – which he took well before the midfield logo.
Thomas hit another buzzer-beater 3-pointer for the Nets to end the third quarter, and it was pretty much downhill for the visitors after that.
