Brooklyn Nets needed to be embarrassed in loss to Knicks

The Brooklyn Nets were thoroughly embarrassed on Thursday night losing to their cross-town rivals the New York Knicks at home in a mediocre fashion.

The NBA regular season is filled with various types of performances from teams any given night. The Brooklyn Nets had a night they’d love to forget in their woeful defeat to the New York Knicks at home in front of a festive Barclays Center.

The Nets shot an abysmal 26.8 percent from the field and trailed by as many as 23 points in the 94-82 loss. The shooting is widely considered one of the worst team performances in years as fans watched stunned as the heavily favored Nets were dominated by the struggling Knicks team. The offense since Kyrie Irving‘s injury has gone through Spencer Dinwiddie, who is having his best season as a professional.

Dinwiddie is averaging 22.7 points per game so far this season, but even his efforts weren’t enough in the loss. The game exposed Brooklyn’s lack of scoring punch if Dinwiddie or Irving are unavailable for extended periods. The name Kevin Durant isn’t expected to be heard this season, and Joe Harris is primarily a catch and shoot player that rarely creates his opportunities off the dribble. The bench is filled with players that specialize in versatility and defense, leaving little firepower to fight through a tough scoring night.

Nets head coach Kenny Atkinson described the poor performance in his post-game press conference.

"“When we started missing the ball stopped moving. Then we stopped taking open shots when the ball stopped moving … there was too much ball holding, didn’t move it side-to-side,” Kenny Atkinson said."

"“It affected our morale, it affected our spirit, it affected our physicality. That’s the difference between an average team and a really good team, and they brought us down to average.”"

The Nets spirit is one thing, but the lack of scoring personnel is genuinely a concern that will need to be addressed before the trade deadline. Irving will return to the lineup soon to quiet the immediate worries, but this embarrassing defeat should get general manager Sean Marks considering other scoring alternatives.

There are some well-known talented scorers available in free agency for the immediate impact. It’s more of a when then if scenario for the Nets brass as the new year approaches.