No Carmelo Anthony. No life. And no winning record at the season’s midpoint.
The Derrick Williams Aerial Show came to Brooklyn and it was thrilling to watch, but turned out short of a winning performance as the Knicks put forth a stinker.
With Anthony on the Knicks bench with a sprained right ankle, Williams made up for his scoring absence with a career-high-tying 31 points, but Kristaps Porzingis didn’t join the fray in a limp outing as the Nets pulled off a 110-104 upset at Barclays Center on Wednesday.
Close to three-quarters of the crowd pulled for the Knicks, including team president Phil Jackson, making a rare appearance at a road game, but they were unable to celebrate the night.
Anthony was missed terribly and Porzingis admitted he looked ragged without him, finishing 5-of-17 for 12 points and missing a fast-break dunk in embarrassing fashion.
The flat Knicks had a chance to move over .500 at the season’s mathematical midpoint, but instead fell to 20-21 and 0-3 without Anthony. The moribund Nets moved to 11-29, snapping a 10-game home losing streak.
“He always make the game easier for us, me and Arron [Afflalo],’’ Porzingis said of Anthony. “Thaddeus Young was getting in my jersey, playing tight defense. Without [Anthony] it’s obviously different. I can’t have a bad shooting night like this.’’
“[Anthony] gets the ball and gets the defense tired and us wide-open shots,’’ Porzingis added. “I could tell the difference when Melo is on court and when I’m by myself.’’
The Nets, in shambles after their shake-up this week, led most of the game as center Brook Lopez finished with 20 points, outplaying his twin brother, Robin. The Nets center’s put-back dunk with 1:00 left as his brother watched was the clincher, putting Brooklyn up 102-95.
Robin Lopez was steaming afterward, more brief in his answers than usual, saying, “We didn’t play defense.’’
Porzingis shot just 2-of-10 in the first half, but wouldn’t blame the back-to-back set as being the difference. Porzingis even got flagged for his first goaltending call of the season early in the fourth quarter. But his missed driving dunk — becoming a pattern — gnawed at him.
“I hate those kind of plays,” said Porzingis, who added he has no problem palming the ball. “I need to jump higher and not dunk it as hard.
“We didn’t bring it from the beginning and it carried on in the game.’’
Knicks coach Derek Fisher said: “I thought at times we didn’t play hard enough in order to really win this game and take control of it.’’
Williams (11-of-17) was the bright spot, but didn’t get many chances in the final two minutes. He had a wild first half, scoring 17 points and had the play of the evening on a fast-break tomahawk dunk off a great feed from Langston Galloway, who delivered a between-the-legs back pass.
The Nets cheering section chanted “Matt Barnes’’ periodically and the Knicks did seem to be looking ahead to Saturday’s game in Memphis. That will be when coach Derek Fisher and Barnes are in the same place for the first time since October’s melee in a Los Angeles backyard. The fans even sang “Gloria,’’ referencing Barnes’ wife whom Fisher was dating.
Lance Thomas started for Anthony at small forward but had a dud evening with six points on 2-of-10 shooting.
“He’s our best player,’’ Jose Calderon said of Anthony. “But I think today it was more us. Energy maybe, tired at some point. Back-to-back. It’s always weird to play in Brooklyn with the traveling.’’