This one really hurt, riding a - game winning streak and creeping closer to the final playoff spot, the New York Knicks faced the Cleveland Cavaliers knowing the team they are chasing (Atlanta Hawks) had already lost earlier in the day. That news seemed to bolster the Blue and Orange from the very beginning as they jumped out to a 34-27 first quarter lead paced by Carmelo Anthony's 12 points.

The bench kicked in scoring a combined 17 points between Pablo Prigioni, Tim Hardaway, Jr., and Shannon Brown to take a 1- point halftime lead. For a change, it appeared that New York regained the home court confidence they established last year. Then, Cleveland led by Jarrett Jack's (31) and Dion Waiters' (22) points played with the mindset that if they can't make the playoffs, neither should the Knicks.

The comeback began with the Cavs outscoring the Knicks 28-23 in the third getting within 7 (84-77). Then, New York could not hit a shot and could not defend the pick and roll. They missed 13 shots while turning the ball over 5 times. Meanwhile, Cleveland took advantage on the inside, scoring 40 points in the paint. They shot a ridiculous 77% in the second half erasing a 17-point deficit after a Jack 3-pointer with 3:54 left gave them their first lead of the game.

Waiters scored his last points with a trifecta and Anderson Varejao victimized the Knicks with yet another pick and roll ending in his slam extending the lead to 6 (100-94). A J.R. Smith jumper and two Anthony free throws got the Knicks within 2 (102-100) but that's as close as they would get.

As a unit, the Knicks knew they blew an opportunity to not only extend their winning streak to 8 but to get within 2 games of the Hawks. Especially knowing they are about to embark on a 5 game western swing that starts Tuesday night against the Kobe-less Lakers.

Head coach Mike Woodson wanted this game as a springboard to the upcoming trip.

"This was like a getaway game for us to get us set up for the road," he said afterward. "We didn't close it out. So we got to go on the road and win all 5 if we can."

Center Tyson Chandler (4 points) coming off the game against Philadelphia in which he scored 17 points in the win gave kudos to Jack.

"Jarrett Jack took control of the pick and roll in the second-half. He made some tough shots especially down the stretch."

The New York Knicks have 12 games left in the regular season, eight of them on the road.

If they do make the playoffs, they will face either Miami or Indiana. They will be facing teams that are still jockeying for playoff positions. That's why games like last night were one they could not afford to lose.

Sidelined by injury, Jarrett Jack won’t make his return to the Brooklyn Nets

As expected, the Brooklyn Nets have requested waivers on guard Jarrett Jack.

This past season, Jack appeared in and started 32 games, averaging 12.8 points, 4.3 rebounds, and 7.4 assists in 32.1 minutes per game before suffering a season-ending right knee injury on January 2.

In two seasons with the Brooklyn Nets, Jack saw action in 112 games, posting averages of 12.2 points, 3.4 rebounds, and 5.4 assists in 29.2 minutes per game.

An 11-year NBA veteran, Jack has played in 803 career games with Portland, Indiana, Toronto, New Orleans, Golden State, Cleveland, and Brooklyn, recording averages of 11.1 points, 2.9 rebounds, and 4.5 assists in 28.1 minutes per game.

Jarrett Jack surgery deemed successful; expected back with team for 2016-17 NBA season

Brooklyn Nets guard Jarrett Jack underwent anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction surgery on Wednesday at the Hospital for Special Surgery in Manhattan.

The surgery was performed by Nets’ Medical Director, Dr. Riley J. Williams and Dr. David Altchek. A full recovery is expected, and it’s anticipated that he will be ready to participate in full basketball activities for the 2016-17 season.

Jack, who sustained the injury during the second half of the Nets’ game at Boston on Saturday, January 2, played and started in 32 games for Brooklyn this season, and posted averages of 12.8 points, 4.3 rebounds and a team-high 7.4 assists per game.

Nets loss to Spurs comes one day after organizational shake-up

The San Antonio Spurs entered the Barclays Center in Brooklyn Monday night to take on the Brooklyn Nets with a seven-game winning streak since December 26th. On the other hand, the Nets, already without injured starting point guard Jarret Jack for the rest of the season and injured defensive player Rondae Hollis-Jefferson who is not scheduled to return until March, were now playing for the first time without Lionel Hollins as their head coach.

Hollins parted ways with the Nets organization yesterday and assistant coach Anthony Brown took the reigns as head coach for this contest and for the remainder of the season. One of Brown’s first decisions as head coach was to insert Wayne Ellington and Donald Sloan into the starting lineup.

Spurs power forward LaMarcus Aldridge got off to a hot start by scoring ten straight points at the open of the contest, but the Nets limited the Spurs’ scoring opportunities by rebounding and capitalizing on fast break opportunities. Newly minted point guard Shane Larkin used his quickness to penetrate the defense to score points or to create scoring opportunities for open teammates. By being effective on both sides of the ball, the Nets kept the score close, trailing by seven points at halftime.

San Antonio extended its lead to 21 points by the end of the third quarter with a balanced attack aided by five offensive rebounds and allowing none for the Nets. The Spurs never relinquished the lead winning the game 106-79.

Brook Lopez won the battle of the centers, holding Tim Duncan to eight points for the evening while scoring a team-high 18 points. LaMarcus Aldridge led all scorers with 25 points.

The Nets fell to 10-28 and Coach Brown offered this perspective for the rest of the season by stating “I think our guys’ mentality right now is pretty good, they want to get in, they want to work and you know try to use that to my advantage.”

The Nets drop 8th straight at home with 91-74 loss to Raptors

It’s a bit unsettling, but it appears that the Brooklyn Nets are in free-fall motion, losing their eighth straight home game against the Toronto Raptors. 91-74.

The Nets haven’t won at home since they played the 76ers on December 10; which is quite troubling. Also, the team’s 74 points are the lowest points scored all season. Somebody ring the alarm bells.

Toronto came into this game, having lost two games, but are still first in the Atlantic Division and tied for fourth place in the Eastern Conference with Atlanta. The game started off decently enough for the Nets, considering they are playing without Jarrett Jack and Rondae Hollis-Jefferson. They ended the first quarter with only a seven-point deficit (24-17) and 4 of 7 shooting from behind the arc in the first half.

In a game that was tied three times and with three lead changes, it became increasingly clear that the Nets just didn’t have the firepower to keep it close even in defeat. Three Nets players scored in double digits, Brook Lopez led all scorers with 24 points and 13 boards; Bojan Bogdanovic, who is rumored to be on the trading block, scored 12 points, and Thaddeus Young chipped in 11 points and seven rebounds. Newly-minted starting point guard Shane Larkin put up nine points, five rebounds, four assists and three steals. Four bench players scored a total of 13 points.

Joe Johnson’s level of production has been dismal this season. He seems to have been missing in action in far too many games. At least this game, he had a stated reason for only scoring five points and two rebounds – a bruised left quad. Johnson was scoreless until hitting a 3-pointer in the third quarter.

On the other hand, the Raptors, a team that the Nets have matched pretty evenly in the last several years, bounced back from its two losses rather convincingly. Jonas Valanciunas returning from a broken finger lifted Toronto with his 22 points, 11 rebounds. Kyle Lowry added 17 points from field goal range, along with eight rebounds and six assists, and DeMar DeRozan appended 15.

Brooklyn Nets head coach Lionel Hollins summed up the Nets loss this way, “Their quickness just dominated. We couldn’t move the ball from side to side; they took away a lot of our ball movement. We had spurts where we were able to do it, but we weren’t able to do it consistently. We missed a lot of easy shots and it got us in a hole and then we battled back and in the second half they just kept grinding us out.”

With Jack out for the season, Hollis-Jefferson out until March, and Johnson providing minimal production, it’s going to be an ugly season for Brooklyn.

The Nets play Orlando on Friday.

Celtics’ Crowder's Big Night Dooms Nets; Shane Larkin Stumbles in Starting Role in Jarrett Jack’s Absence

As the temperature drops in Brooklyn so has the climate surrounding the Brooklyn Nets. On Saturday in a win against the Boston Celtics, 100-97, the Nets lost their starting point guard Jarrett Jack for the remainder of the season, to a torn ACL which he suffered late in the third quarter. On a freezing Monday night in Brooklyn, the Boston Celtics took advantage of Jack’s absence and just added to what has become a miserable season for the Barclays Center’s only professional basketball club.

The Celtics' Jae Crowder and all of his dreads scored a team-high 25 points and six rebounds, leading the C’s to a 103-94 victory over the Nets, winning the other half of the home-and-home series. Crowder started his big night as early as the first quarter, scoring 14 points which helped facilitate the Celtics (19-15) in creating distance, ending the first 12 mins of the game with a 37-22 lead. Despite his strong start, the play’s Crowder made towards the end of the game hurt the Nets (10-24) the most and proved to be the deciding factor in the games result.

When the Nets made their attempts to threaten the Celtics dominance in this game, as well as their chance at winning, Crowder answered the bell. Joe Johnson, who did a little bit of everything scoring 21 points with six rebounds and four assists, drained a big eight-foot jump shot with three mins left in the 4th which cut the Celtics lead to five, 90-85. In response, Crowder sinks a long-range bomb, increasing the C’s lead to eight, 93-85 with a little under three mins left in the final quarter.

“He’s hit big shots for us all year,” Celtics Head Coach Brad Stevens said reflecting on Crowder. “He’s not afraid of the moment and he stepped up.”

A minute later, the Nets would find themselves needing a stop, trailing by six, 95-89 and there was Crowder again, making the Nets pay-converting a driving layup and an and-1 to put the C’s up for good 98-89. And for the exclamation point, the Celtics next two points highlighted Marcus Smart, who drove to the rim with a minute left in the 4th and added a beautiful-acrobatic-reverse layup, avoiding Brook Lopez, which put the C’s up by nine, 100-91.

Late game execution continues to be a problem for the Nets but there is no doubt that Lionel Hollins and co. did not get off to the start that they would have hoped to. In the 1st quarter alone, the Nets committed eight turnovers which led to 10 Celtics points.

“We turned the ball over a lot, and that got them out on the open court kind of playing the game at their pace and so, obviously, it’s tough to put yourself in that position and come back from it,” Brook Lopez said post-game, scoring 19 points to the Nets cause.

Fortunately for the Celtics, their strong start was enough to propel them to the win, as their first quarter alone was more points than the Nets could ever rival throughout their entire game. To their credit, the Nets did outscore the C’s in every quarter following the 1st, but the damage was done.

“We just couldn’t make enough plays to get all the way back,” a disappointed Hollins said post-game. Hollins also does not want to associate the Nets lack of ball-control to the loss of Jack, stating that “there is always a rationalization for anything bad that happens” and simply, “we have to keep working and get better.”

In Jack’s place, Shane Larkin assumed the starting role and didn’t have the most dazzling performance like his counterpart, Isaiah Thomas, who added 19 points and seven assists, the second leading scorer on the C’s.

Larkin struggled to create for himself and for his teammates, ending his night with four points, two assists while criticizing his lack of aggressiveness to his low production.

“I’ve just got to go out there and play my game and stop thinking so much and just play,” Larkin said post-game. “I’ve shown I can do it. I’ve had great games this year, I’ve had not so good games this year. I’ve just got to stay being aggressive and just be consistent for my team and it’ll be better for sure.”

Larkin’s comments could be the theme of the Nets profile as a team this year. One of the few bright spots on the Nets continues to be the play of Thaddeus Young who chipped in a double-double, 23 and 15 rebounds to lead all Nets scorers. Jack's injury will force the Nets to take turns being the playmaker, especially in the backcourt, which could result in Johnson handling the ball a little more and tonight was a perfect example of that.

The Nets will host the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday night at 7:30 pm.

The Brooklyn Nets seem to be catching all the breaks in a bad way, starting point guard Jarrett Jack will be out for the rest of the season. Jack suffered an ACL tear and small medial meniscus tear in his right knee. The injury occurred during the second half of the Nets’ game at Boston on Saturday, January 2. He will undergo surgery on a date that has yet to be determined.

Jack has played and started in 32 games for Brooklyn this season, posting averages of 12.8 points, 4.3 rebounds and a team-high 7.4 assists per game.

On Saturday, December 5, 2015, Brooklyn Nets guard/forward Rondae Hollis-Jefferson broke his right ankle during practice.

Hollis-Jefferson is not expected back with the team until after the NBA All-Star break.

VIDEO: Jack also wishes his parents a happy 42nd wedding anniversary; praises teammates for collective effort

Joe Johnson still underachieving, scores only nine points for Brooklyn Nets

Despite having three players with double-doubles, the Nets lost to the Washington Wizards 111-96, at the Barclays Center on Sunday. Brooklyn Nets center Brook Lopez led his team with 19 points, 11 rebounds; Thaddeus Young scored 16 points 14 boards, and Jarrett Jack chipped in 15 points and 11 assists.

Although Bojan Bogdanovic, a member of the Nets starting five, didn’t have a double-double, he registered 14 points, five boards, and two assists.

As with other games, the final score doesn’t give the total story. The Nets were hanging close and even went up six late in the third quarter. Young even had 12 of his 14 rebounds in the first half.

However, Washington turned into real wizards going on a 16-2 run late in the fourth quarter. The Wizards were up 19 points with less than four minutes remaining and outscored the Nets 32-19.

The Nets starting five outscored the Wizards starting five 73-71. However, Washington’s bench saved the day, beating back the Nets’ reserves 40-23. Even Kris Humphries, who was married to Kim Kardashian for all of 72 days, chipped in 10 points for the Wizards.

Washington’s Marcin Gortat led all scorers with 25 points, seven rebounds, three assists, and one steal. John Wall added 22 points and 13 assists.

Nets Breakdown in the fourth quarter

The Nets entered the fourth quarter down two points and then things began to unravel. It was as though the team had lost its compass; they had eight turnovers in the fourth quarter alone.

“I think they were kind of unforced,” Lopez explained about the turnovers in the fourth quarter. “I could’ve come to the ball more- I should’ve. I think we got up to playing at their pace a little bit and got away from our game. But, it definitely started defensively. I did a poor job on the pick and roll, and that led everything.”

”They hit a few big threes,” Lopez continued. “I don’t think we did a good job really of adjusting to what they were doing. It kind of just fell apart from there. They got hot and kept going.”

Losing is taking its toll on the team; the Nets (8-22) have lost their last six home games.

"We're the team we are at the moment," Brooklyn Nets head coach Lionel Hollins said of the Nets being 14 games under .500. "We're struggling to get better. We have starts of moving forward and then we have lags where we go backwards."

Next up: The Nets will play the Miami Heat on Monday.

Too Much Barea; and Dirk Makes History, passes Shaquille O’Neal to place 6th on the NBA’s all-time scoring list

For a moment, it almost looked like the Brooklyn Nets were going to give their fans an early Christmas gift. After battling for 48 mins, the Nets pushed the Mavericks to an extra five, but too much J.J. Barea and Dirk Nowitzki proved to be the secret sauce that allowed the Mavs to escape Brooklyn with an 119-118 OT win, two days before Christmas.

The Nets fell to 8-21, (6-9 at home) while the Mavericks improved to 16-13, the 4th seed in the Western Conference.

When it boils down to the nitty gritty, late game execution is the only thing that cost the Nets on Wednesday night. The Nets led 118-117 with 41.7 seconds left in the OT period when Brook Lopez scored on a hook shot assisted by Shane Larkin, who made his return to the court after missing the last four games with a concussion. Twenty seconds later, Dirk returned the favor, giving the Mavs the go-ahead score up 119-118 with 19.2 seconds left in OT. It was all up to Jarrett Jack to win the game for the Nets and unfortunately, he came up short.

Photo (left to right): Brooklyn Nets center Brook Lopez and guard Jarrett Jack 

Brooklyn Nets guard Shane Larkin

After draining back-to-back threes earlier in the OT period that put the Nets in a position to have a shot for the win, Jack missed a fade-away jump shot just inside the three-point line and the game was decided. The tit-for-tat, you score, I score of what transpired in OT mirrors what the first 48 minutes entailed. The Mavericks controlled the first half of this game, enjoying leads of up to 16 points, thanks in large part to Barea and Nowitzki. At the 9:51 mark in the 2nd quarter, Dirk drained a baseline jump-shot, assisted by Barea to give the Mavs a 40-28 lead at the time, and in doing so, made history. With those two points, Dirk passed Shaquille O’Neal to move into 6th place on the NBA’s all-time scoring list.

‘That was a moment that I will never forget for the rest of my life,” Nowitzki said post-game. “It’s surreal passing Shaq; all-time great, legend. Was able to compete against him for a long, long time…..I’m really going to enjoy this one when my career is over.”

In addition to Dirk, Barea made his own history. He scored a team-high 32 (career-high) points in 41 mins, added 11 assists, and burned the Nets every chance he could, hitting big shot after big shot, filling in for Deron Williams who recorded a DNP due to a hamstring strain. With the game tied 105 all and 1:26 left in the 4th quarter, Barea penetrated the lane, beating Larkin on a high pick-and-roll, shot a floater and received the foul for the and-1, putting the Mavs up by three, 108-105 with 12 seconds left in the 4th.

“I was just trying to take good shots and take advantage of guys setting good screens for me, Coach giving me the ball in high pick and rolls and it was working,” Barea said.

It was something the Nets could not stop but head coach Lionel Hollins targeted free-throws as a significant problem in the Nets most recent loss.

“If you want to just analyze stats, I think going six-for-14 from the free throw line was the game changer when you look at it in simplistic terms,” Hollins said. “But they played, we played and somebody, unfortunately, had to lose and it was us.”

If the Nets had won, Thaddeus Young would’ve received the game ball. The forward scored 29 points on 14-20 shooting and like Barea-made big play after big play. Young drained the desperation three to send the game into OT and also blocked Barea on the other end, on his desperation fade-away to win the game as time expired in the 4th.

Brooklyn Nets forward Thaddeus Young

“Just a tremendous effort,” Hollins said regarding Young. “His numbers stand out over other people, but I thought that we got the efforts that we needed and the extra efforts and getting on the floor for loose balls. It was just a great basketball game.”

During Young’s post-game session with the media, he said that there are no moral victories, but there is something the Nets can take from this game and it was their intensity and ability to recover and fight back. There were plenty of times during this game where it looked like the Nets were going to pack it in, look forward to the Christmas holiday, and save their energy for Saturday’s game hosting the Washington Wizards, but they didn’t.

They hung in there and Jack, who scored 13 points follows Young’s sentiments.

“It felt good to fight, it felt like we left it all out there, but like you said we’re not into moral victories. When we put that type of effort on the court we have to come away with Ws.”

Lopez who also scored 13 points believes the Nets can build on their effort against the Mavs.

“The way we’ve played for six quarters, you know these last games, roughly is how we want to play out the rest of the season. We really feel like we’ve come together as of late.”

Like Jack said, hopefully the effort the Nets are displaying as of late turns into wins and Saturday evening will be their chance to walk-the-walk.