The New York Knicks dominated the Brooklyn Nets on Wednesday night on both sides of the ball.
The Brooklyn Nets came to Madison Square Garden on Wednesday night with one goal in mind:
Keep the New York Knicks' downward spiral going.
Both teams entered the night with a 2-9 record in their last 11 games, making it believable that a close matchup could be on the horizon.
That goal was very quickly thrown to the side, and it would instead change drastically towards the closing moments of the Knicks' unbelievably dominant 120-66 victory, their largest margin of victory in franchise history.
Brooklyn narrowly avoided reaching some of the worst single-game marks in their franchise's history, including the least points scored in both a single quarter and an entire regular season contest.
To begin the night, Brooklyn's rookie guard Egor Dëmin (six points, three assists) connected on his first two three-point attempts to give the Nets an early 6-4 lead, but a 14-0 run by New York gave the home team an early 18-6 advantage.
New York's superstar duo of Jalen Brunson (20 points, five assists) and Karl-Anthony Towns (14 points, eight rebounds) continued to push the pace and increase their physicality as the first quarter wound down, and that mindset spread to the rest of the group.
On the backs of Brunson and Towns (18 points, 6-for-11 shooting combined), the Knicks' run-and-gun style and hot three-point shooting saw them take a whopping 38-20 lead heading into the second.
Incredibly enough, this was the second time Brooklyn trailed New York by 18 points after one frame, as the same occurred during their Nov. 9 matchup at Barclays Center.
The Knicks' eye-popping shooting figures only continued to rise, while the Nets struggled immensely to find and sort of rhythm on offense.
New York took a 60-38 advantage into the halftime locker room, and it was evident that the Nets would not be able to muster a response after scoring their fewest points in a first half this season. Brooklyn's Michael Porter Jr. (12 points, six rebounds) struggled through the first two quarters, scoring nine points on 3-for-9 shooting from the floor.
As if their early struggles were not enough to deal with from a mental standpoint, the Nets were no match for the Knicks' confident and motivated attitude in the second half.
New York's lead stood at 88-56 by the conclusion of the third quarter, but the game still hadn't fully flown off course, somehow. Although, the Nets did manage to find a silver lining while watching Ziaire Williams work.
Williams finished the night as the only Net with any form of spark, scoring 11 points on 50.0% shooting and driving with an aggressive, but controlled mindset.
Simply put, the Nets' fourth quarter effort was embarrassing. It was not until the 5:38 mark in the fourth that Brooklyn scored the first points of the period, as a pair of Day'Ron Sharpe (six points, two rebounds) free throws made the score 104-58 Knicks.
Offense wasn't just hard to come by in the final frame, it was completely non-existent to the point that the team was in serious danger of tying a franchise low mark for points in a quarter (5) nearly suffering their worst margin of defeat in team history (59 points).
By the game's conclusion, the Knicks walked out the victor in unreal fashion. The Knicks held Brooklyn to 23-for-79 shooting from the field (29.1%) while knocking down an even 50.0% of their 32 looks.
The Nets fall to 12-30 on the season, and the Feb. 5 trade deadline now looms larger than ever.