The Nets Need to Be More Competitive in the New York Rivalry Next Season

Brooklyn hasn't won versus their cross-borough rivals since January of 2023.

Mar 31, 2024; New York, New York, USA; New York Knicks forward Julius Randle (30) warms up before a game against the New York Knicks at Madison Square Garden. Mandatory Credit: John Jones-USA TODAY Sports / John Jones-USA TODAY Sports

New York is a Knicks town. The Brooklyn Nets went from sweeping the season series versus the New York Knicks in back-to-back seasons to getting swept in the season series for the first time since 2018 in the 2023-24 campaign.

Containing a surging Knicks squad that finished as the second seed last season is quite the task, but the Nets came close in two of their games. The one on Jan. 23 when they fell to the Knicks 108-103 and the one on April 12 when they lost 107-111. Brooklyn had four cracks at it in total though and lost all four. The last time the Nets settled for a series split in the season was the 2022-23 campaign.

New York is expected to get to the playoffs next year, while the Nets aren't. However, a signature win versus a team like that, especially at the start of the season, can surely flip the script for how the rest of Brooklyn's season goes. Homecourt advantage has always been viewed as the sixth man for every team in the league.

If the Nets can not fulfill winning homecourt advantage over their hometown rivals next year New York will be orange and blue once again for another season while more New Yorkers get on the Knicks bandwagon.

To spice things up even more, former Nets forward Mikal Bridges is now a member of the Knicks after one of the biggest trades this offseason. As the centerpiece on the exchange from the Phoenix Suns in the Kevin Durant trade in 2023, it will be a bad look on the Nets if Bridges becomes the reason the Knicks perhaps clinch the first seed next season, get to the Finals and sweep Brooklyn in the season series in back to back seasons.

Remember, in the 2020-21 season and the 2021-2022 season, FOX Sports had the Nets as one of the favorites to win the entire thing with Durant at the wheel.

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