My How the Tides Turn in New York.
Four summers ago, the Nets made a clean sweep, signing superstars Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving for the 2019 offseason, while the Knicks modestly signed Julius Randle to a three-year deal.
This season, the only thing the Nets have been swept in is their four-game series against the Knicks.
The Knicks defeated their cross-bridge rivals, 105-93, in a morning game held at Madison Square Garden on Saturday.
They are now 3-0 on the Nets this year with an average margin of victory of 12 points and a series finale at The Garden on April 12 in the second-to-last game of the regular season.
How does that work for culture?
Culture, of course, is how and why the Nets found themselves in this predicament. The Nets wanted to re-establish culture after the chaos Irving brought to Barclays Center.
Nineteen more losses than wins and a star player who never suits up tells you everything you need to know about the situation in Brooklyn.
The Nets have gone through Kenny Atkinson, Steve Nash, Jack Vaughn and likely soon-to-be interim coach Kevin Ollie, all while Tom Thibodeau puts together a coach-of-the-year-worthy season at The Garden.
Not to mention Brooklyn cornerstone Mikal Bridges who always puts on a sad face after Nets losses, while his former Villanova teammates Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart and Donte DiVincenzo are headed to the playoffs.
“It's like the SpongeBob meme when Squidward looks out the window and sees SpongeBob and Patrick having fun,” Hart said. “[Mikal] He is Squidward.
While championship aspirations and the bright lights associated with stardom are an afterthought for the Nets, there is a deep playoff run on the table for the Knicks, who remain in contention for the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference if they can rack up enough wins — and get some Help from fellow conference rivals – with 12 games remaining on the schedule.
The Knicks have a winning culture that the Nets were never able to find.
Meanwhile, Brooklyn's championship window has closed: a byproduct of a floundering opportunity at Barclays Center.
The Nets assembled one of the most fearsome trios in the league, Durant, Irving and James Harden, and then blew it away in the blink of an eye.
They gave up the kitchen sink for Harden, only to turn around and trade him to the Philadelphia 76ers in exchange for Ben Simmons.
They traded Irving to the Dallas Mavericks for Spencer Dinwiddie, Dorian Finney-Smith and draft capital (Dinwiddie has since been traded for Dennis Schröder), then moved Durant to the Phoenix Suns in exchange for Mikal Bridges, Cam Johnson and four draft picks.
In short: Durant, Irving and Harden are back in the title chase as separate Western Conference championship contenders, while the Nets are back to toiling at the bottom of the East, thanks to a poorly constructed roster and a superior player suffering from a hamstring injury. The list has a salary of $40 million next season.
As for Knicks? They are back. a point.
While the Nets are five games behind the tenth-seeded Atlanta Hawks, the Knicks are tied with the fourth-seeded Orlando Magic and are only three games away from second place in the East.
While the Nets continue to clamor for a true 1A star to lead the franchise from the depths of basketball purgatory, the Knicks have found their star in Brunson.
The names on the back of the jersey were not a deciding factor for the Knicks without three key players in OG Anunoby (elbow), Randle (shoulder) and Mitchell Robinson (ankle).
Culture remains the biggest difference between the two New York franchises. Culture, of course, is what the Nets wanted to get back after moving on from Durant and Irving last season.
The Knicks returned home after a four-game road trip and had a short day of rest before an early tip-off against a Nets team hoping to catch the 10th-seeded Hawks to sneak into the Play-In Tournament championship.
What was a close game in the first half became a no-contest in the Knicks' favor in the final two quarters because the Knicks have made a habit of winning – while the Nets are finding new and creative ways to get themselves out of games on a nightly basis.
“It says a lot about [the players] “I like the mental toughness of our team and the ability to persevere through things,” Thibodeau said after the win. “When things don't go our way, just keep going, then make things go our way and then in the end, find a way to win, whatever we have to do, that's what we have to do. And that's credit to them.” [the players]. That's the build of these guys and their willingness to commit to playing for the team first and putting everything they have into it. It says a lot about them.”
