It was a fitting end to the season for the Nets.
After a year that saw them pull out wins when their fans rooted for them to tank, they lost when a victory would’ve actually helped them in the draft.
And it was against their archrival no less, blowing a lead and falling 113-105 to the Knicks before a sellout crowd of 17,926 at Barclays Center that included team owner Joe Tsai.
The Nets (26-56) finished with the league’s sixth-worst record and the lottery’s sixth-best odds.
Thanks to last summer’s Mikal Bridges trade, they also hold the Knicks’ first-round pick, which fell to 26th after Sunday’s result.
If the Nets had held on against their rival, the pick would’ve been in a five-way tie for 22nd. Instead they suffered a costly defeat and did so relying mostly on players who may be in different uniforms next season, or at best on the end of the bench.
“I [told them] I was proud of them for the season, the work they put in, the good intentions they’ve had,” said head coach Jordi Fernández. “You know what we’ve built so far, and we have to keep moving on and keep working. And I was very, very happy for the guys. Obviously, [we] wanted to win that game but couldn’t make it happen.”
Bridges, who the Nets traded across the East River for a record five first-round picks and a swap, started and got ambivalent boos from the home crowd. But he wasn’t the former Net who came back to haunt his old team.
Landry Shamet carried the backup-heavy Knicks with a game-high 29 points on 7-of-13 from deep against his old club. Cam Payne added 21.
Trendon Watford and Tyrese Martin shared team-high honors for the Nets with 20 points and seven rebounds each.
Jalen Wilson, who led the team in minutes Sunday with 37:58 and this season with 2,031, added 18 points.
Nic Claxton started as usual, but sat the entire fourth. And there were a host of youngsters fighting to impress before the rebuild begins in earnest with this summer’s four first-round rookies.
“This summer, I was probably on my way out of my NBA career … Then, I just stuck with the grind, and the work started showing in games, and I got an opportunity,” Martin said. “They say you just need one coach to believe in you, and I feel like Jordi was that guy for me; [he] gave me a chance.”
The Nets led by 10 before allowing an extended 23-5 Knicks run in the third quarter. They never recovered.
Keon Johnson found Wilson for a 3 that put the Nets up 74-64 with 8:38 left in the period. But that’s when they let the Knicks seize the momentum for good.
Miles McBride started the run with a 3-pointer. And two-way Kevin McCullar Jr.’s free throws capped it with 2:28 left in the third.
The Nets trailed 87-79 and never led again. They were still down 105-98 with five minutes to play after McCullar’s layup. They tried to rally when Wilson found Drew Timme — who played the fourth quarter with Claxton sitting — then hit Watford for a 3-pointer.
That pulled the Nets within a deuce with four minutes remaining but no closer.
Noah Clowney, Cam Johnson, D’Angelo Russell, Day’Ron Sharpe and Cam Thomas, Reece Beekman and Ziaire Williams were out.
The Knicks played sans Karl-Anthony Towns, Jalen Brunson, OG Anunoby and Josh Hart.
The Nets have dropped 10 straight vs. the Knicks. That’s the second-longest run in the rivalry, after the Nets’ 11 in a row during the Jason Kidd era.
Sunday’s finale marked Emmy Award-winning Frank DiGraci’s last game as YES Network’s coordinating producer for Nets games. He’d been in the role for 26 years, and received a No. 26 Nets jersey from general manager Sean Marks.
DiGraci heads to NBC Sports to coordinate their NBA coverage.
Bridges extended his consecutive games played streak going at a league-high 556 with the same shenanigans he did two years ago.
In that season finale for the Nets, he played four seconds vs. the 76ers and fouled off the tap, immediately coming out. Sunday against his former team, he lasted just six seconds.
