Nets 103, Knicks 80: "Everything is terrible."

Well, here I am writing another recap thing in the middle of the fourth quarter. The Knicks did what they do against the Nets. They switched and doubled unnecessarily, leaving the Nets to kick out to open threes, which they did, because that's very easy to do. The game stayed somewhat competitive early because the Nets hit merely some of their open threes, but then they started hitting most of their open threes and it got out of hand.

On offense, Carmelo Anthony battled for 27 points, but nobody else did a goddamn thing. Everyone who shot with any regularity shot poorly, including Iman Shumpert (trying to be aggressive, but really just forcing stuff), J.R. Smith (just miserable shot selection), Andrea Bargnani (missing open shots), and Raymond Felton, whose parade of air-balled layups (yes, plural), rim-slamming jumpers, and was-that-a-pass-or-a-shot floaters bordered on performance art. The Knicks suck a whole barrel of ass. Everything is terrible, like BJabs said. Some notes:

- I was happy to see the Knicks' two-point-guard lineup start the game at long last. It didn't go so hot, though, because the Nets are actually quite big with Shaun Livingston and Joe Johnson in the backcourt, and the Knicks didn't trust their littles to defend those guys individually. The doubles led to open stuff.

- Melo had apparently hit 27 consecutive free throws going into this game, but then he stepped to the line and Mike Breen dared to invoke the cursed name of Chris Duhon, Knicks free throw streak record-holder. Melo immediately missed his next three with The Specter of Du haunting him.

- I love the way Melo's been navigating doubles recently. He's eating some potential kick-outs because, well, everyone sucks, but he repeatedly manages to shake the help with a fake pass or a half-spin one way then the other way or a fake back-out or something. He's playing pretty effective, entertaining fuck-everyone-ball. Can't blame him.

- Tim Hardaway Jr. failing to beat the buzzer with a dunk at the end of the first quarter was kinda perfect.

- Pablo Prigioni, either because his minutes were limited in his return or because he's been James White'd, started the first few minutes of each half only to sit rather promptly (for all bout the last 30 or so second of the first half. He'd return for a couple minutes in the second half.)

- Iman Shumpert exchanged some shouting with the Knicks' bench, then appeared to get chastised by Darrell Walker once he sat down. I dunno what that was about, but Shump played very poorly.

- Mike Breen told the story (one I didn't know) of Andray Blatche getting tickets in New York because he'd been using the EZ-Pass lane without having an EZ-Pass. Clyde chimed in that he used to do that all the time in New York because he had Georgia plates and wouldn't get in trouble for it, not.

- I dunno why some starters came back for a few minutes in the totally uncompetitive fourth quarter. Mike Woodson trying to hurt his best players would fit alongside many of his other decisions, though, so I won't question it.

- Is Clyde's Wine and Dine doing okay? We're getting a LOT of in-game promos from our announcing team. Doesn't offend me, it's just...noticeable.

- If you're not watching MSG, you may have missed Kenyon Martin tenderly stroking Jason Kidd's beard after the game. It sure was tender.

- Update: One thing I forgot to mention: The turnovers. This team, even through much of an awful season, has been many awful things, but not turnover-prone. Recently, they've been turnover-prone, too. Just dribbling the ball into opponents' hands, tossing passes into oblivion.. like, basic bad basketball shit. It's uncharacteristic even for a terrible team. Well, it might be becoming characteristic.

In closing, here's this from Matt Moore:

I nominate I Ought To Get The Hell Out Of This Miserable Organization for Best Director 2014. And masked Fiji bottle for best supporting actor.

<3. Be kind to one another. Have a lovely rest of your day.