No Rivalry Here: Nets Prevail in Lethargic Game at the Garden

The win will count, even if the basketball was ugly, even if the arena was generally lifeless, even if the teams remained flawed.

In a battle between two clubs desperate for a victory - any victory - the Nets dispatched the Knicks, 98-93, Tuesday in front of a listless sellout crowd at Madison Square Garden.

The normal narrative of interborough rivalry was set aside this week in acknowledgment of both teams' deep struggles. The Knicks continued to spiral, as their record dropped to 4-15. The Nets improved to 7-9, but they will not be happy with how close they came to giving a game away to such an unimpressive opponent.

After trailing by as much as 16 points, the Knicks cut the deficit to 4 halfway through the final quarter. The Nets responded immediately with a 6-0 run, briefly restoring their comfortable advantage, but the Knicks fought back again.

Amar'e Stoudemire hit two free throws with 2 minutes 25 seconds remaining to cut the difference to 3. Deron Williams emerged from a timeout and sank a 3-pointer with 1:42 remaining, but Jose Calderon came down the court and hit one of his own, keeping the Knicks close.

With 41 seconds left, Calderon nailed a 15-footer to bring the Knicks again within 3. Kevin Garnett missed a layup on the other end, providing the Knicks an opening. But the result was sealed when Carmelo Anthony 's pull-up 3-pointer with 9.2 seconds left rattled in and out of the rim.

Brook Lopez led all scorers with 23 points, and his teammate Joe Johnson got hot in the second half to contribute 22. Garnett, who finished with 13 rebounds, was the only Nets starter who failed to score in double figures.

Anthony, in his second game back from a stint battling back spasms, led the Knicks with 20 points, 9 rebounds and 6 assists. His apparent good health may be the only consolation to fans of his floundering team.

The moods around both teams have been notably dour. Anthony said Monday that it was an ongoing struggle to keep negative feelings from seeping into the players' minds during the current poor stretch. Things will get harder for both groups hereafter: The Nets play the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday night, and the Knicks host the Cleveland Cavaliers on Thursday.

It was not an attractive game. Passes throughout were tossed too long or too short. Both coaches appeared to try out experimental groupings of players. Both teams' movements were wooden.

The vibe around the stands matched the tepid display on the court. Until the tense final moments, the most fired-up the crowd got was during a bizarre moment in the third quarter, when an apparently unruly fan was being carried up the aisle and out of the seating area by a group of security guards.

One of the few flashes of emotion from the players occurred midway through the third, when Garnett and Stoudemire were issued technical fouls when they tussled and argued after a whistle.

'We're at a point right now where we need wins,' Johnson said before the game, 'so I could honestly care less who we're playing.'

The teams the Nets have beaten, including the Knicks, started the day with a combined 19-69 record. The Nets entered the game with only two victories since Nov. 12 - one against the depleted Oklahoma City Thunder and another against the winless Philadelphia 76ers.

The Knicks are an unabashed work in progress. Coach Derek Fisher, for instance, brushed aside the notion - first floated last month by the team president Phil Jackson - that there was some date, perhaps Thanksgiving or the start of December, when it would become clear which players could learn and operate within the newly installed triangle offense.

'Every day is an opportunity to teach more and learn more about what we're trying to do offensively and defensively,' Fisher said. 'The change in culture and daily habits and approach to what we do is also new for guys, as well.'

The Knicks, on top of everything else, were short-handed, as J. R. Smith sat out with flulike symptoms. With his absence, Stoudemire moved into the starting lineup, forming the 10th different starting group the Knicks have used through 19 games.

The group was different, but the result was the same for the Knicks, who have lost five games in a row.

REBOUNDS

It remains unclear when the Knicks will have the services of forward Andrea Bargnani, who has been sidelined since straining his left hamstring in the team's first preseason game. 'Until he practices and is able to sustain the type of output, I don't think we can measure how close he is,' Derek Fisher said, adding that Bargnani was not expected to practice Wednesday.

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