Something had to give Monday night as the Brooklyn Nets took on the New York Knicks at the Barclays Center. The Nets have been winless at home, and the Knicks have not played well away from The Garden. The Knicks would go on to defeat the Nets for the 12th consecutive time in the series.
Sunday night, it took until the latter part of the fourth quarter before the Brooklyn Nets ran out of gas and lost to the Toronto Raptors.
Monday night was a different story.
The tank went dry in the third quarter as the Nets were outscored 38-27 en route to a 113-100 loss to the crosstown rival New York Knicks.
"I thought we started with the right intentions, the energy was there and then as the game went on our energy and purpose started to fade," Nets coach Jordi Fernandez said after the game. "I can use examples in transition, dribbling into a crowd, making those mental mistakes that you cannot afford to make when you want to win a game in the NBA."
Brooklyn has now played three games over the last four nights. Fernandez refuses to use that as an excuse for his team's poor performance Monday night.
"There's no excuses here with playing three games in four nights, it doesn't matter. You still have to come out with a purpose and sustain it. We did come out with a purpose, but we could not sustain it all the way through. Winning the first quarter and the last quarter are not enough."
For the Nets, Noah Clowney scored a career high 31 points and hit seven triples to pace the Nets, who have now lost eight straight at home. Clowney was 7-of-13 from downtown on the night. The remainder of the Nets needed a remedial course on dialing long-distance as they shot just 37.9 percent from beyond the arc.
Nov 24, 2025; Brooklyn, New York, USA; Brooklyn Nets forward Noah Clowney (21) shoots the ball during the second half against the New York Knicks at Barclays Center. Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images"He shot 7-of-13 which is pretty good. Just his presence. We played through him for 39 minutes and it shows the impact he has on the game. I am really, really proud of him. He just has to sustain it and improve it and not sit back and feel good about it. That's our goal."
Karl-Anthony Towns had a double-double to lead the Knicks with 37 points and 12 rebounds. He scored 11 points during a 17-2 first-half run that delighted most of the fans who were celebrating the Knicks.
"KAT is a very good player and we have to find ways to fight him better," Fernandez said. "We tried, and it just didn't work out to well for us. It was not good enough with the communication to be on point. Credit to him, we definitely should have been better."
Jalen Brunson added 27 point for the Knicks in the victory. The Knicks have now defeated the Nets the last 12 times the teams have played.
"We knew that they do a good job protecting the paint and they are physical," Fernandez said. " I just thought that our spacing was not very good and the shots were off target and our passing was not that great."
Brooklyn showed plenty of energy from the opening tip, but by the second half it was beginning to fade. They were diving for loose balls, on target defensively and looked like they were the better team.
Then the third quarter hit and it was all for naught.
The Nets came out with pressure in the third quarter, but could not contain the Knicks hot shooting from the perimeter. Towns and Mikal Bridges were making shots from beyond the arc and in the lane as New York shot 63.6 percent for the quarter.
New York headed into the fourth quarter up by 14 and never looked back. They got their lead as high as 19 with 6:37 remaining before the Nets tried to crawl back into the game.
"I am still happy with the way we played, we never gave up, played all the way through the end and competed for the most part."
The Nets fall to 3-14 win the loss. They will try for victory number one at home, once again, on Friday when the Philadelphia 76ers come to town.