Knicks, Nets Have Different Thoughts on Fight

The New York Knicks and Brooklyn Nets’ Friday night showdown at Madison Square Garden partly served as a de facto prelude to UFC 309 held on the same floor just about 24 hours later.

The metropolitan civil war got a little too close for comfort in more ways than one: not only did the Knicks have to fight for their lives after Brooklyn erased a 21-point deficit a little too quickly but the two sides engaged in extracirriculars at several points throughout the final period.

New York eventually prevailed by a 124-122 final thanks to a three-pointer from Jalen Brunson with six seconds remaining. But the battle is far from over: an immediate rematch between the Knicks and Nets is slated to be staged on Sunday night at MSG (7 p.m. ET, MSG).

While fisticuffs were avoided, the most notable incident occurred in the fourth when Dorian Finney-Smith knocked down Knicks star OG Anunoby, leading to a melding of the metropolitan minds. Despite Finney-Smith appearing to stand as the instigator, both were charged with a technical. Several smaller disagreements peppered the final period, one that saw the Nets outscore the Knicks 40-21 before Brunson’s triple restored Manhattan sanity.

Both sides’ leaders responded to the chaos in varied ways: Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau, for example, used it as the foundation for his latest rant against officiating, which has become a staple of his Manhattan tenure.

“Don’t get me going. We’ve been a low-fouled team for a long time now. I see what’s going on and I don’t like it,” Thibodeau said, per Phillip Martinez of SNY. “It can’t be the physicality that’s being displayed on Jalen when he’s bringing the ball up the floor with the grab, the hold, all that stuff. I don’t care how they call it. They can call it tight, they can call it loose, but it has to be the same for both teams.”

Thibodeau has long been critical of the policing around Brunson, who has developed a reputation as one of the top drawers of offensive fouls in the modern NBA. On Friday, Brooklyn was, in fact, charged with more fouls (22-21) and each team was offered 28 opportunities at the foul line. Brunson himself was 10-of-12, the second time he earned a dozen tries this season.

But the season-long results likely don’t please Thibodeau: entering this week, only two teams have averaged fewer free throws than the Knicks and New York opponents have been charged with just over 18 fouls a game, which ranks 24th. To the credit of the Knicks, and the officials, for that matter, they’ve stayed out of trouble themselves, as their 17.5 in that department is the fifth-fewest.

In contrast to Thibodau’s displeasure, new Nets boss Jordi Fernandez was indirectly enthused by his team’s fight in both a literal and metaphorical sense: Brooklyn (5-8) may not be playoff bound at its current pace but the rebuilding Nets have been hard to beat. Five of their eight losses have come by less than 10 points and two of those defeats have required overtime.

“Losing hurts and it hurts all of us. But right there we showed our identity and nobody can take that away from us,” Fernandez said, per Zach Braziller of the New York Post. “The fight that we just put together, that’s something that we have to appreciate.”

“Now losing the game, you go into the locker room, and nobody is happy for losing a game, and I’m the first one. I want to win every game and we’re going to fight to win. But at the same time, if you see how we’re working every day and what we’re trying to build and how, today I’m proud of my guys. The other day I wasn’t all the way through.”

If anything, the Nets will look to end some bad karma against their crosstown rivals: the Knicks have won each of the last seven meetings and Friday’s game allowed them to take a 108-107 lead in the all-time series.

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