For a little while Wednesday night, the Brooklyn Nets looked like the team most expected them to be this season.
And the Nets were not happy about it.
Brooklyn will strive to bounce back from a frustrating defeat Friday night when it visits New York in NBA Cup action.
The two rivals were off Thursday after losing at home Wednesday night. The Nets raced out to a 13-point first-quarter lead before falling to the Boston Celtics 139-114. The Knicks erased a 22-point deficit before Coby White sank three free throws with three seconds left to give the Chicago Bulls a 124-123 victory.
The game Friday will be the NBA Cup opener for the Nets and the second East Group A game for the Knicks, who beat the host Philadelphia 76ers 111-99 on Tuesday.
The Nets, whose streak of five consecutive playoff appearances ended last spring, appeared ready to embark on another rebuilding project when they made the rare intracity trade by dealing Mikal Bridges to the Knicks on July 6 for a package that included six draft picks and one pick swap. Brooklyn has multiple first-round picks in 2025, 2027, 2028 and 2029.
Yet the Nets entered Thursday are a respectable 5-7 through 12 games, within just 1 1/2 games of the third-place Orlando Magic in the Eastern Conference.
But Wednesday’s loss was the most lopsided and discouraging of the season for the Nets, who led for more than 18 minutes in the first half before being outscored 74-54 in the last two quarters. The defending NBA champion Celtics led by as many as 30 in the fourth quarter.
“I’m OK with losing but I’m not OK with at one point of the game, not fighting,” Nets head coach Jordi Fernandez said. “We played a pretty good half against a very good team and we come out of the half and we kept fighting. It was not going our way. But you can never, ever quit or look defeated, whatever the case may be.”
Ziaire Williams led the Nets with 23 points against Boston, his first time leading the team in scoring in a game this season.
The Knicks were a popular pick to contend for the NBA title after adding Bridges and Karl-Anthony Towns to a team that reached the Eastern Conference semifinals last season. Yet they are 5-6 through 11 games and have yet to win or lose more than two straight games.
New York seemed destined for a substantial defeat when the Bulls led for more than 34 consecutive minutes between the first and fourth quarters and opened up a pair of 22-point leads in the third quarter. But the Knicks scored 17 straight points to end the third and mounted an 8-2 run to take a 123-121 lead on Jalen Brunson’s layup with four seconds left.
The potentially seismic win turned into a disappointing loss when Josh Hart fouled White and Brunson missed a potential game-winning jumper at the buzzer.
“It was a tough one — it should have been a big statement win for us,” Hart said. “It (would have been) the first win where we really got hit and really turned to swing back. I’ve got to be better, That one is on my shoulders.”