The New York Knicks will travel from Manhattan into Brooklyn on Thursday night to play their New York City rivals, the Brooklyn Nets at Barclay's Center. The game will be broadcast and live streamed at 7:30 PM ET.
This is a battle for New York with both teams struggling mightily.
These are two teams who were favored to go deep into the NBA playoffs. Brooklyn signed aging stars Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce from the Boston Celtics and hired a new coach in NBA legend Jason Kidd, who played for the Knicks last season, to lead them from the coaching sidelines. But, everything has fallen apart for the Nets. Garnett seems to be on his last legs as a professional athlete. Pierce is not playing close to his previous levels. And, Kidd, after just 16 games into this season has just fired his assistant coach, Lawrence Frank, claiming they have had a difference in philosophy about how to coach this team.
Kidd also was fined by the NBA, $50,000 dollars for using an illegal tactic to gain a timeout his team didn't have at the end of a game. Kidd told second-year player, Tyshawn Taylor to knock into him, causing Kidd to drop his cup of soda all over the court. It caused a stoppage of play, and allowed Kidd to set up a final play for his team despite not having a timeout.
It's been a mess, to say the least for the Nets.
But, that's nothing compared to what is going in at Madison Square Garden and the New York Knicks. With a record of 3-13, the Knicks are tied for the worst record in the league. Despite having such stars as Carmelo Anthony, Tyson Chandler (currently injured with a fractured leg), Metta World Peace, and Raymond Felton, the Knicks have discovered their roster does not have the same chemistry this season it did last year, when they won 54 games in the regular season.
With Chandler out for several weeks, the Knicks defense has fallen apart without having a big man protecting the basket on their defensive end. Opposing teams are driving to the basket for layups against the Mike Woodson's team without fear of anyone stepping up to block their shots or impede their progress to the hoop.
At the same time, nobody on the Knicks seems capable of scoring the basketball other than Anthony, who is averaging 27 ppg, but is only shooting 41% from the floor.
Tickets for the game, which have always been in great demand, are not jumping out of the Brooklyn box office for this game. Losing records will tend to do that to fan interest.
The game will be live streamed on TNT at 7:30 PM ET.
