Brooklyn Nets: One writer’s 10 favorite first-half Nets moments
By Phil Watson
Oct. 19: LeVert too much for the Knicks
After losing their season opener in gut-wrenching fashion, the Brooklyn Nets returned home to host New York’s other team — the similarly rebuilding New York Knicks.
The Knicks had swept the Nets the previous season and Brooklyn wanted to make sure the club from across the bridge knew that this campaign was going to be different.
The Nets got out early, leading by as much as 12 in the first half, but the Knicks hung around behind the play of Tim Hardaway Jr. and Enes Kanter.
New York led by two entering the fourth quarter and opened with four straight points to take an 80-74 lead.
That’s when Caris LeVert went to work.
LeVert canned a 3-pointer to cut the deficit in half, sparking an 8-0 run that gave the lead back to Brooklyn with 8:48 to play. With 4:56 remaining, LeVert found Jared Dudley wide open above the break and the veteran canned a 3-pointer to give the Nets their biggest lead of the period at 93-88.
The Knicks didn’t go quietly. Kevin Knox‘s 3-pointer with 4:03 left tied things back up and the teams would play hot potato with the lead to the end.
Kanter tied it with a conventional three-point play with 15.9 seconds left before LeVert said it was over.
The basket gave the Nets a 107-105 win and capped a massive fourth quarter for LeVert, who scored 15 of his then-career-high 28 points in the final period.
And it also gave the Nets the upper-hand in the city rivalry after an 0-4 goose egg the previous season.