New York Knicks: 3 takeaways from preseason opener vs. Nets

2. The Knicks’ weak defense

The New York Knicks were successful in making their opponents look elite from beyond the arc. If not for the awful, despicable, atrocious and unaware defense on the perimeter, this game would have been much closer. In memorable Knicks fashion, every time they closed the gap, a wide open shot from the outside would be left available for the Nets.

As a team, the Nets shot an incredible 16-for-32 from beyond the arc. Five players were able to convert 50 percent of their attempts or better, so it was simply not an excellent performance by one Brooklyn player, it was their entire squad.

Jeff Hornacek noted recently that Kurt Rambis would not be involved in the defensive gameplan, and he also noted it would be different then last year. How different? Well, it was hard to be found in this debut against a team who is supposed to be further toward the bottom of the barrel than the Knicks themselves.

Although it was just a debut, even the crowd seemed to have seen enough with “defense” chants erupting as loud as you would hear them in a regular season game during the second half. As a result of poor defense, the Knicks were outgunned in the third quarter especially, with the Nets scoring 34 points to the Knicks’ 21.