NBA Twitter Roasts Knicks for 'Flat' Play in Blowout Loss to Nets

The New York Knicks entered Wednesday's road game against the Brooklyn Nets as the NBA's most average team, as KnicksMuse and John Hollinger of the Athletic noted:

The Knicks would have settled for "average" Wednesday but instead looked like the unquestioned worst team in basketball in the first half, which saw the Nets jump out to a 69-44 lead en route to a 112-85 win for the visitors.

Julius Randle excelled with 19 first-half points en route to 24 overall, but the rest of the team combined for just 25 points before halftime. Jalen Brunson only had four points and one assist, and RJ Barrett scored just five through the first 24 minutes.

Meanwhile, the Nets led wire-to-wire and took a 24-8 lead to start the game. Kevin Durant finished the half with 15 points and nine assists, while Edmond Sumner (15 points) and SethCurry (14 points) combined with KD to score as many points as the entire Knicks team over the first half.

This tweet summed up what went down.

It only got worse for the Knicks in the fourth quarter, when they scored just two points in the first 7:23 and five in the first nine minutes before a trio of garbage-time threes for 14 points in the final frame.

New York ended the game shooting 32.2 percent from the field and 12-of-43 from three-point range. Meanwhile, Durant ended up with a 29-point, 12-assist, 12-rebound triple-double, while Sumner (18 points in 19 minutes) and Curry (23 minutes in 23 minutes) did incredible damage despite neither Net even playing half the game.

This was an unmitigated disaster for a Knicks team against a Nets squad in turmoil, given the ongoing Kyrie Irving saga and suspension as well as the parting of ways with head coach Steve Nash.

But in his first game without the "interim" tag, new head coach Jacque Vaughn has his team playing great basketball (3-1 since taking over). The same can't be said for head coach Tom Thibodeau and his Knicks, who dropped to 5-6.

Here's how some of Twitter reached to the Knicks' performance.

The Knicks should be favored in upcoming home games against the young and rebuilding Oklahoma City Thunder and the Detroit Pistons, but they will have to play much better shortly if they are to survive an impending five-game Western Conference road trip, which starts Nov. 15 against the Western Conference-leading Utah Jazz.