Film director Spike Lee gives and Immanuel Quickley celebrate as the Knicks and their fans took over Barclays Center Wednesday. AP Photo by Frank Franklin II
The Knicks ended a six-game losing streak at Barclays Center Wednesday night.
The Nets suffered their season-high fourth straight loss in their much-anticipated return to Downtown Brooklyn.
And Mikal Bridges still couldn’t shoot his way out of his ongoing slump.
Bridges misfired on all but four of his 21 field-goal attempts as Brooklyn slipped below .500 with a disheartening 121-102 loss to New York in the opener of this season’s Battle of Boroughs series in front of a sellout crowd of 18,071 fans on the corner of Atlantic and Flatbush.
Julius Randle poured in 26 points and Donte DiVincenzo added 23 as the Knicks (16-11) won in Brooklyn for the first time since the day after Christmas in 2019.
Having finished their disappointing West Coast trip with a 1-4 mark, the Nets (13-14) were trying to avoid their first four-game slide since dropping five in a row from March 14-23 last season.
They failed in epic fashion, watching helplessly as Knicks reserves put together a 14-0 run spanning the third and fourth quarters with starters Jalen Brunson and Randle enjoying the view from the bench for New York.
Quentin Grimes’ 25-footer capped the burst with 9:56 remaining, assuring Knicks fans bragging rights until the teams meet again here on Jan. 23.
Immanuel Quickley scored 19 points off the bench and recent Net nemesis Brunson had 16 for New York, which has won three straight against its East River rivals after losing nine in a row to Brooklyn when Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving were headlining the Barclays marquee.
Bridges, who went a dismal 13-for-41 from the floor in the Nets’ previous three losses, was even worse after insisting Monday he’d not let his teammates down again.
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