Brooklyn Nets beat New York Knicks to end home losing streak

NEW YORK -- Thoughts of their 16-game home losing streak never entered the minds of the Brooklyn Nets.

Instead, the emphasis was answering the challenge to bring energy to the first game back from a lengthy road trip.

The Nets succeeded in doing so and it resulted in their first home win in over two months as Brook Lopez scored 25 points and the Nets made enough plays down the stretch to end their franchise-record home skid with a 120-112 victory over the New York Knicks Sunday night.

"We didn't even talk about it," Nets forward Trevor Booker said. "We just felt like we had a couple of games on that road trip where we started playing some pretty good basketball. So we wanted to come home and just build off of that."

The Nets returned from a 2-6 road trip that covered over 8,000 miles and picked up their first home win since Randy Foye's buzzer-beater against the Charlotte Hornets on Dec. 26. They ended a skid that was three shy of the 1993-94 Dallas Mavericks' NBA record, and the Nets did so by tying a season high with 19 3-pointers.

Lopez hit his first six 3-pointers and shot 6 of 9 overall from long range. He joined Toronto's Serge Ibaka and New York's Kristaps Porzingis as the third player this season to get at least 100 3-pointers and 100 blocked shots.

"We weren't thinking about that at all," Lopez said of the skid. "We felt we closed the road trip decently. We definitely felt we could have done better. We definitely think we're turning the right way and we needed to continue to do the right thing and have belief in each other as a group and as a team."

Lopez led six players in double figures as the Nets built a 22-point lead, led for the final 44:41, survived a lull in the third quarter and executed late in the fourth quarter.

None of Brooklyn's previous 16 home games was played with Jeremy Lin, who reinjured his left hamstring Dec. 26. Lin added nine of his 13 points in the fourth quarter and helped stave off a Knicks comeback that cut the deficit to five with about 4 1/2 minutes remaining.

"I didn't even know that," Lin said. "I really had no idea at all. I just felt like this was going to be for us and what we were talking about as a team was, 'Hey we just need to get as much energy as we can coming off the road trip.'"

Carmelo Anthony led the Knicks with 27 points on 10-of-26 shooting in another frustrating loss for the Knicks, who are 3-6 since the All-Star break and 10-31 in their last 41 games since Dec. 11.

"It's a bad one," Anthony said. "That's all I can say about it. It's a very bad one.

"I don't think it's just this one. I think it's just an accumulation of losing games and the way we're losing games. It's challenging to kind of keep it tight, keep everyone positive around here knowing that some frustration has kept into the locker room."

The Knicks were within 106-101 when Anthony hit a 3-pointer with 4:37 left during a stretch where he scored 12 straight points for New York. Anthony hit two more jumpers to keep the Knicks within single digits, but Lin converted a three-point play with 3:25 left for a 116-105 edge and clinched it with a step-back jumper in the lane with 28.4 seconds remaining.

Before executing down the stretch, the Nets hit 14 3-pointers, scored 39 points in the first quarter and built a 67-49 lead. They allowed the Knicks to get within single digits in the third quarter and settled for a 91-80 edge going into the fourth.

"I don't know what the thinking was to start of the game," New York coach Jeff Hornacek said. "We gave Brooklyn wide-open shots. They kept making three after three.

"There were one or two of those pressure threes. It was like practice shots for Brooklyn."

NOTES:

-- After New York's Saturday's loss in Detroit, F Kristaps Porzingis told reporters he thought the Knicks were running the triangle offense about 90 percent of the time. Asked to follow up Porzingis' assessment with a percentage, coach Jeff Hornacek said while drawing a few laughs: "I don't know. I think 61 and three quarters."

-- Brooklyn G Joe Harris (concussion/sprained left shoulder) missed his fifth straight game, though coach Kenny Atkinson said Harris is improving.

-- Hornacek said he did not feel a need to talk to F Carmelo Anthony after he took a season-low nine shots for the third time this season Saturday.

-- Former Knicks F Charles Oakley attended the game as a guest of Ice Cube's Big3 League. Oakley is playing in the league, which starts this summer.