Nets coach Kenny Atkinson admitted his team had been lucky in squeezing out a pair of wins in its first two meetings with the Knicks. But the Nets were so bad Thursday — with the single sorriest shooting performance in the NBA this season — no amount of good fortune would have helped.

The cellar-dwelling Knicks trudged into Barclays Center with the worst record in the Atlantic Division and on a three-game losing skid. They sauntered out with a 94-82 rout of their rivals, bludgeoning the Nets in their own building before a sellout crowd of 17,732.

“I wouldn’t say there’s a new focus: I think we have good focus every day,” Knicks interim coach Mike Miller said before the game. “There’s times in games maybe … you don’t execute the way that you need to. … When you have to make an adjustment, it’s what they see on the floor.


“Players make the adjustments on the floor with what the game needs: Time and score. Our focus has been really good. I’ve been pleased with it. These guys have showed up every day. We’ve got guys that really care about getting better. And we’re looking forward to playing.”

Nets fans tried halfhearted chants of “Brooklyn’s better” and “We got KD and Kyrie.” But injured stars Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving watched from the bench in street clothes — along with also-injured Caris LeVert, David Nwaba and Nic Claxton — as their shorthanded team took a caning, hitting just eight two-point field goals all night, the lowest total in an NBA game since 1950 according to Elias Sports Bureau.
After outlasting the Knicks by four points in the second game of the season and by two Nov. 24, the Nets trailed by as many as 23 this time and got throttled. The Knicks held them to their lowest scoring output of the season and the lowest field-goal percentage in the NBA this season.

The Nets had won four of five while the Knicks had dropped three straight, but the tables turned. Mitchell Robinson’s putback gave the Knicks a 77-54 lead with 2:01 left in the third quarter. The fourth was just garbage time.

“We got lucky,” Atkinson had said of the earlier meetings. “They could’ve gone either way. We made some shots, they missed some shots. They played us tough. I expect them to play us tough again.”

It went beyond tough to humbling. The Knicks smothered the Nets defensively. Or maybe the Nets just couldn’t hit the broad side of Barclays Center, shooting 26.9 percent and 13 of 50 from 3-point range.

The previous lowest shooting percentage this season had been .299 by the Bulls.

Julius Randle poured in a game-high 33 points and grabbed eight rebounds for the Knicks, while Marcus Morris Sr. had 22 points and eight boards and Elfrid Payton chipped in 13. But really it was the Knicks defense — or the Nets’ offensive malaise — that turned this one-sided.

“[They’re] different. They’re different schematically, especially defense they’ve changed some things, which is normal,” Atkinson said. “[A] few things offensively. Nine-game sample size [under Miller], they’ve played well. Elfrid Payton coming back, that’s helped. But we’ve struggled with them twice, so I expect [Thursday] to be another nip-and-tuck game.”

It wasn’t. More like hammer-and-nail, or smash-and-grab.

Spencer Dinwiddie had a team-high 25 points and eight assists, but no other Net cracked double-figures. Taurean Prince had just three points on 1 of 10 shooting, all from deep. He did have one strong drive and got whistled for a charge. Yeah, it was that kind of night.

As soon as the Nets took an early 13-9 lead, their offense went right in the tank. They allowed a 15-2 run, barely able to hold onto the ball much less work for a decent shot.

The Nets missed a dozen straight shots and had five turnovers to close out the first quarter. They were 0-for-6 with three turnovers after Dinwiddie sat down with 3:47 left in the period.

Trailing 24-15, the Nets made a mini-run to briefly retake the lead at 39-38 on Prince’s 3-pointer, his only bucket. But it was fleeting.

Randle sent the Knicks into the locker room with a 46-41 halftime lead. And they came out of the break on fire as well, with Morris stretching that to 62-45.

Morris’ three-point play made it 69-49 with 4:29 left in the third quarter, and Robinson’s putback padding the lead to 23.

Ref;nypost.com