Knicks squeak out win against rival Nets to clinch at least top-4 playoff seed

The Knicks didn’t come out resembling a team seeking to finally secure home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs, instead looking like a gassed one playing the tail end of back-to-back games following an eight-day road trip. 

But like they have done throughout this season, the Knicks clawed back from a sizable first-half hole and overran the eliminated Nets in the second half for a 111-107 victory Friday night to clinch no worse than the No. 4 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs. 

Tom Thibodeau’s team (49-32) still has a chance to steal the No. 2 spot in the East with a win Sunday over the Bulls and a loss by the Bucks in their final game after Milwaukee lost Friday night.

Jalen Brunson scored a team-high 30 points in the Knicks’ win against the Nets. Charles Wenzelberg

They also would sew up the No. 3 seed with a win Sunday in their regular-season finale, but a loss could push them down to the No. 4 position in a three-way tiebreaker scenario with the Bucks and the Cavaliers. 

Jalen Brunson overcame a sluggish first half to post a team-high 30 points, including two game-sealing free throws with 4.1 seconds left after a hard-foul by Cam Thomas. 

OG Anunoby got into Thomas’ face after the foul to loud chants of “OG,” and he scored all 15 of his points after halftime for the Knicks, who swept the four-game season series with their Brooklyn-based rivals. 

OG Anunoby scored all 15 of his points in the second half for the Knicks. Charles Wenzelberg

Mitchell Robinson also thwarted the Nets’ late “hack-a-Mitch” strategy by sinking 5-of-8 free throws in the closing minutes. 

The Knicks, who outscored Brooklyn 30-13 in the third quarter after trailing by as many as 17 in the second, improved to 19-3 in 22 games since Anunoby was acquired in late December in a deal that sent RJ Barrett and Immanuel Quickley to the Raptors. 

The Knicks missed their first five shots — four by Brunson — and spotted the Nets an 11-0 lead. After managing the next five points, the Knicks allowed another double-digit splurge for a 21-5 Brooklyn advantage. 

Brunson came in averaging a whopping 39.4 points over his previous five games, but the should-be MVP candidate was held without a point in 11 first-quarter minutes. 

Cam Thomas led all scorers with 41 points during the Nets’ loss
to the Knicks on Friday. Charles Wenzelberg

The Knicks were outscored 30-14 while shooting 25 percent (5-for-20) from the field through one.

Thomas scored 11 of his game-high 41 for the Nets. 

Thomas stretched the lead to 17 with a 3-pointer in the opening minute of the second. 

The Knicks still have a chance to climb to the No. 2 seed in the Eastern Conference after Friday’s win. Charles Wenzelberg

But Bojan Bogdanovic netted nine off the bench until Brunson finally registered his first points of the game after missing his first six shots with a floater in the paint with 4:15 left in the first half. 

Brunson netted seven more points for nine in the half, including combining with Josh Hart on back-to-back 3s to cut the lead to seven with barely two minutes to go. 

The Knicks put up 40 in the second, but Thomas finished the half with a game-high 22 on 9-for-13 shooting as the Nets carried a 63-54 advantage into intermission. 

Mikal Bridges celebrates a basket against the Knicks on Friday. Charles Wenzelberg

Still, the Knicks ratcheted up the intensity to open the third quarter.

They poured in the first nine points in barely two minutes on a bucket by Hart, a traditional three-point play by Brunson and two dunks by Anunoby off turnovers to tie the score. 

Anunoby added two 3-pointers and finished the quarter with 15, while shutting down Thomas at the other end, helping hold him scoreless in the period for an eight-point cushion entering the final quarter. 

Still, Thomas responded with 10 points in the first six minutes of the fourth, and the Nets climbed within one at 99-98 on Trendon Watford’s drive with 2:50 remaining. 

The Nets intentionally fouled Robinson — a 56.2 percent free throw shooter this season — four times in the closing minutes, but he sank five of eight from the stripe, including a pair with 2:03 left before Brunson sank two short jumpers and four free throws to close it out.