Knicks extend dominance over Nets to historic level as Karl-Anthony Towns pours in 37 points

Monday was a reminder that the Nets and Knicks are separated by more than just five miles, and the East River.

The Nets’ 113-100 defeat against the Knicks ran their losing skid against their rivals to 12 straight, now the longest slump in the history of this series.

The Nets stayed winless at home, though with orange-and-blue clad fans taking over the sellout crowd of 18,019 at Barclays Center, it felt like a road game. The Nets haven’t won in this series since Jan. 28, 2023.

Jalen Brunson #11 of the New York Knicks reacts after hitting a 3-point shot during the first quarter. Charles Wenzelberg for The New York Post

“We started with the right intentions, and the energy was there. Then as the game went on, I thought that our energy and purpose started to fade,” Nets coach Jordi Fernández said. “There’s no excuses here with playing three in four nights, doesn’t matter. You’ve still got to come out with a purpose and sustain it. And we did come out with a purpose and we didn’t sustain all the way through. So winning the first quarter and the last quarter, that’s not enough.”

The Nets got bullied by Karl-Anthony Towns for 37 points and 12 rebounds, and he scored 11 in a 17-2 first-half run that gave the Knicks (10-6) the lead for good. Jalen Brunson added 27 points, and the horrid Nets shooting did the rest.

“Yeah [Towns] is a very good player, and we have to find ways to fight him better. We tried, it just didn’t work out very well for us. He scored 37 points and 12; just not good enough,” Fernández said. “Credit to him. We definitely should have been better.”

Noah Clowney had a career-high 31 points on 7-of-13 shooting from 3-point range. But the Nets got held to just 37.9 percent overall and 14-of-48 from deep.

“When we came out instead of trying to get the quick points in transition and playing in the flow of the game, we immediately slowed down and went into half-court sets instead of what we were doing to keep us in the game in the first place,” Clowney said.

“That’s a common trend. We don’t really want to slow down with a team like that and just play half-court execution versus execution game. Get the free ones and get ourselves and advantage.”

Granted, it was a better effort than the 134-98 pasting the Nets took on Nov. 9 in the Garden, but they fell to 0-8 at home and 3-14 overall.

Karl-Anthony Towns of the New York Knicks looks for an opening as Noah Clowney #21 of the Brooklyn Nets defends during the first quarter. Charles Wenzelberg for The New York Post

The Nets were fourth in the lottery standings, now a game behind the third-place Pacers (who lost to the Pistons) and 1 ½ behind the Pelicans.

Towns had 11 points in a 17-2 blitz, during which the Knicks defense smothered the Nets to just 1-of-10 shooting.

Clowney’s free throw had given the Nets a 31-28 edge with 9:09 left in the half, but they couldn’t hold it.

Towns worked inside for a bucket to start the run, and no Nets defender — not Clowney, not starting center Nic Claxton, not Michael Porter Jr. — could slow him. And Brunson’s short jumper capped the spurt for a 45-33 lead with 4:56 in the half.

The Nets tried to respond with eight unanswered, Porter hitting his only 3-pointer of the night off an Egor Dëmin feed to pull Brooklyn within 45-41 with just under three minutes in the first half. And Terance Mann’s and-one pulled them even just 18 seconds into the second, knotting it at 51-51.

But the Knicks reeled off the next seven points, and never trailed again. They extended the run to 21-7, and eventually padded the lead to 19.

Rookie Drake Powell had a career-high 15 points for the Nets, and Porter added 16 but hit just 1-of-9 from behind the arc.

Mikal Bridges #25 of the New York Knicks jokes around with Noah Clowney #21 of the Brooklyn Nets during the third quarter.

Charles Wenzelberg for The New York Post

The Knicks played without forward OG Anunoby (hamstring) and guard Landry Shamet (shoulder), but Miles McBride played despite an illness.

The Nets once won 11 straight in the series during the Jason Kidd era, but they’re a far cry from that, now tanking and having dropped 12 in a row in this rivalry.