Brandon Knight botches easy, game-winning layup (VIDEO)

Milwaukee Bucks guard Brandon Knight went from hero to zero faster than Jason Kidd as a Nets coach against Brooklyn Wednesday night at the Barclays Center.

With the game tied in the final seconds of the first overtime, Knight intercepted a pass by the Nets' Joe Johnson. Knight was able to get a look at a wide-open layup, but he put a little bit too much on the ball and missed the bunny.

And the reaction from the Bucks' bench is priceless:

So the game went to double overtime tied at 105-all.

Luckily, the Bucks guard redeemed himself with a clutch shot in the second OT and the Bucks pulled out an exciting 122-118 victory in the third overtime. 

Paul Pierce happy to be 'glorified role player' with Nets

There is an "I" in Paul Pierce but, when it comes to the Brooklyn Nets, the NBA star claims there won't be one there this season.

If you look at the old version of the Nets, you might see an NBA squad already loaded with big names — up-and-coming Brook Lopez, one of the best shooting guards in Joe Johnson, and a top point guard in Deron Williams — and wonder how they could fill the roster with any more.

Mix in newcomer veterans Pierce and Kevin Garnett and it now leaves the Nets with a Klieg light-wattage of names on the roster.  Just for fun, throw in other well-known role players like Jason Terry and Andrei Kirilenko and you've got a cast bigger than Ocean's Twelve.

Now, the former Boston Celtics forward is looking at the makeup of the Nets and claims he is willing to step out of the spotlight with a supporting role with the team as a "glorified role player."

Think DeNiro sharing the bill with Pacino (Okay, D-Will can be Val Kilmer) in Heat.

Pierce told the Boston Globe he's fine with giving up a leading part on the team if it leads to a blockbuster finish at the end of the season.

"There will definitely be less pressure on me on this ball club than there was in Boston," Pierce said. "In Boston, I was the No. 1 primary option. Here we have so many options. We have young All-Stars on this team. My job is to be more of a glorified role player, as Doc [Rivers] used to always say, with the guys we have.

"With my abilities to do so many things, there's going to be nights where I'm not going to score a bunch of points. I can do other things to help this club win. With the combination of these guys, we're going to take pressure off each other."

Pierce — who averaged 18.6 points, 4.8 assists and 6.3 rebounds last season — hasn't been a role player, probably ever, in his basketball life, but isn't ready for the TNT broadcast booth just yet.

The future Hall of Famer could possibly lead this team as a scorer if asked to, and it wouldn't be a desperate move by Jason Kidd. However, to maximize everybody's abilities, the Nets have to get older guys like Pierce and Garnett to sacrifice their own individual games if they are going to save their bodies in the suddenly rough-and-tough NBA East over a long season.

Let's say the Nets decide they need Kirilenko to start at small forward for defensive purposes and bring Pierce off the bench as a scorer, it remains to be seen if Pierce will be open to playing second banana.

And the award for best player in a Nets supporting role goes to ...

Brooklyn Nets go undefeated in ridiculous tweet

Joe Johnson just hit a couple of late game shots for the Brooklyn Nets to tie the game in regulation and win it at the buzzer in an exciting 113-111 overtime win over the Milwaukee Bucks Tuesday night.

Not completely content to enjoy the thrilling victory on it's own merit, the optimistic Nets public relations crew pulled this ridiculous statistic from its computer and posted it on Twitter right after the game.

Who knew?

#Nets now 32-0 when outscoring opponent this season
— Nets PR Dept. (@Nets_PR) February 20, 2013

It might be someone's idea of a prank tweet — but it is technically correct. 

Hate to break the news to them. The glass-half-empty Nets are also 0-22 when they are on the short end of a score.

Nets players see P.J. as more than 'interim' coach

The Brooklyn Nets are the NBA's only undefeated team in 2013 and, if you ask the Nets players, they think "interim" head coach P.J. Carlesimo is a big reason for their recent run.

The Nets improved to 8-1, since Carlesimo replaced Avery Johnson in late December, after they defeated the Indiana Pacers 97-86 at the Barclays Sunday.

Now, as high profile names like Phil Jackson and Stan Van Gundy have taken their names out of the running for the Nets head coaching job, some Nets players think it wouldn't be surprising if the Nets take the prefix "interim" from P.J.'s title.

"I don't know how much it matters (removing the interim tag) to P.J., but I don't look at him as an interim ," Joe Johnson told The New York Daily News.  "He's our guy right now. I have 100% faith in him.  I don't look at him as, 'He's just going to be here for a little while.'  I'm figuring he's the coach."

The Nets are even winning while Carlesimo lets point guard Deron Williams take it easy while nursing various injuries.

"Early on, I wanted to practice so much," said Williams.  "I've just been a lot smarter about it.  It's just been one of those things where either you want it in practice or you want it in games."

Carlesimo has given the team a whole new outlook this year.

"When we had that loss in San Antonio (New Year's Eve), we wanted to put that whole thing behind us," said Johnson.  "It just shows because we came into OKC (on Jan. 2) and we were a whole different team."

NBA stars dribble 'Carol of the Bells' to promote new BIG Color uniforms

If the stress of Thanksgiving dinner or the door-busting crowds of Black Friday shoppers don't get you into a holiday mood, maybe the sound of a popular Christmas carol played by NBA stars dribbling basketballs will do the trick.

The NBA is giving fans the first look of its new and ingenious "BIG Color" marketing campaign — the one that features single color with the stencil-font letters that will be worn during the Christmas Day NBA quintuple-header — as a teaser.

The ad — which will be released Wed. — features Lakers center  Dwight Howard, Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony, Nets guard Joe Johnson Thunder guard Russell Westbrook and Heat guard Dwyane Wade dribbling basketball to the tune of "Carol of the Bells."  The players are all wearing the monochromatic uniforms and take turns hitting the various notes of the carol.

You know a couple of elves probably did a lot of editing to pull off this Christmas miracle.



Not surprisingly, all five players are scheduled to play during the holiday marathon featuring the Celtics at Nets, Knicks at Lakers, Thunder at Heat, Rockets at Bulls and Nuggets at Clippers.

Mark Cuban no-show swayed Deron Williams to stay with Nets

Mark Cuban was too busy on the Los Angeles set of his TV show "Shark Tank" to come to a July meeting with then-free agent Deron Williams in New York, costing the Dallas Mavericks any chance of landing him, according to the Brooklyn Nets point guard.

Williams had two teams in mind when he become a free agent this summer — his hometown Mavericks and his previous team, the Nets.  Cuban's absence from the important meeting insulted Williams so much, it swayed his decision to stay with the Nets.

Call it the Cuban Missing Crisis.

For Williams, the snub brought back unpleasant memories of his college recruitment.

"Of course (Cuban's absence influenced me)," Williams revealed Monday.  "My top four when I was coming out of high school was Illinois, Georgia Tech, Tennessee and Maryland.

"Maryland told me they wanted me to come on a visit but Gary Williams wouldn't be there.  So I told them, "It's OK.  I'd rather not go." So that was that.  It's similar."

Williams said he had a lot of questions for the Mavericks owner that could not be answered by the team's representatives — coach Rick Carlisle and general manager Donnie Nelson.

"I mean, I think he would have been able to answer some of the questions ... a lot of the questions that my agent and I had for him really didn't get answered that day," said Williams.  "I think, if he was there, he would have been able to answer those questions a little bit

Both teams went out of their way to land the All-Star.

The Nets offered the undecided Williams an extra year and $25 million and signed Joe Johnson just hours after he met with the Dallas reps.

The Mavericks basically gutted a championship-caliber team to get Williams but Cuban's TV show priorities left the point guard with a bad taste in his mouth.

Cuban — never one to take things lying down — soured Williams on the Mavs even more by going on a Dallas radio show and saying his team was better off now.

"Maybe [it would have helped to be there], you know, because I always think I can close a deal," Cuban said.  "But, in hindsight, I don't know if I would have been happy.  I think we're in a better position now than we would have been if we had gotten him.

Williams brushed off Cuban's past remarks.

"I'm not concerning myself with them anymore," said Williams.  "I'm  Brooklyn Net, I'm not a Dallas Maverick.  I'm worried about what's going on here, with what our team is doing, and I can't really worry about what's being said.

"That's Mark.  He does that to a lot of people."

Deron Williams: No more frustration in Nets locker room

It looks like every act, show and performer out on the road these days will be making at least one stop at Brooklyn's new Barclays Center.  But if it were up to Brooklyn Nets star Deron Williams, the circus won't be one of them —  at least not in his Nets locker room.

Williams said he was frustrated at all of the losing he endured with the former New Jersey Nets during the 2011-12 season but really angered him was all the clowning around by a lot of his teammates after a loss.

The All-Star point guard said the locker room would turn into a comedy club after double-digit losses and — although he sometimes joined in the jocularity even as the losses mounted — it was eating him up.

"It was hard.  I've never been in that position before," Williams told reporters Tuesday following the Nets first day of training camp.  "So at times, I've shown frustration , but I think anybody would have.  I think no matter who it is, if you were there every day and you saw what was going on in the locker room you'd be pissed off too sometimes.  You're getting your asses kicked and then you're in the locker room laughing about the game afterwards .

"I don't think that stuff is funny.  That's what we had to deal with last year.  But I don't think we're going to deal with it this year, because we're just talking to the guys, that's not what we're about.  we're talking about not losing two games in a row. We were just trying to fight to win two games in a row last year."

Williams didn't make excuses for the Nets 22-44 record last season but could have pointed to the Nets injury-depleted roster, his contract talks and the Dwight Howard trade talks.

Asked about the the differences this year's squad will bring— only six players remain from last year's roster — Williams was optimistic.

"It's night and day, last year to this year, what we have in training camp," he said.

Williams re-signed with the Nets  — signing a five-year, $98 million contract — mainly because Nets GM Billy King wasn't reluctant to bring in some new players including All-Star shooting guard Joe Johnson.

A new arena, a new team name,  a new leadership role and no clown cars pulling into the Nets locker room.  All things Williams can put in front of himself this season.

"I look forward to being that guy that everybody looks upon when things get tight, when things get close," he said.  "I like those moments."

Nets players get plastered all over Brooklyn

Starting Monday, expect to see few Brooklyn Nets player's faces plastered all over their new home borough.

An ad campaign— aimed at familiarizing Brooklynites with their new NBA neighbors—will paste ads introducing Nets players Deron Williams, Joe Johnson, Brook Lopez and Gerald Wallace at strategic spots in Brooklyn to drum up interest in the team.

The Brooklyn Nets will make their New York City debut at the new Barclays Center next fall.

"We want to get them excited," said Nets chief marketing Officer Fred Mangione. "We want them to know we are here in Brooklyn and they have a great team to support."

Some fans might want to know why Kris Humphries' mug isn't on one of these posters— or maybe not.

The other four projected starters will get the Kim Kardashian star treatment in the carefully planned media blitz— the second leg of the Nets' Hello Brooklyn campaign.

The million-dollar multi-media promotion will place each player in their own ad with the headline Hello Brooklyn with a photo and a little personal info to reveal the person behind the player.

Johnson says he is a lifelong Razorback, Lopez is a "20-point scorer" and Batman's biggest fan, Williams has a couple of kids and Wallace is an off-season fisherman.  Don't you feel like you know them already.

Humphries could always mention he had a 72-day marriage to a reality show star and Jason Kidd might say he likes off-road racing— oh wait he's on the Knicks.

The black and white billboards— matching the Nets new color scheme— will start appearing Monday at the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, near the Manhattan Bridge and major streets in Spike Lee's favorite borough.

Starting in August, the team will start putting up teaser billboards leading up to the reveal of their new top-secret logos designed by Mr. Net himself— part owner Jay-Z.

Since April, the Nets ads have concentrated on getting Brooklyn ready for the team's big move from New Jersey with tag lines like "Brooklyn Will Become a Chant" and "First Home Game Since 1957."

Here's another, "What Happened to Dwight Howard?"

Nets still in hunt for Dwight Howard

The Brooklyn Nets and the Orlando Magic are in discussions for a blockbuster trade which would send Dwight Howard to the Nets in exchange for Brook Lopez, Kris Humphries, Marshon Brooks and three future draft picks.

The report by ESPN, quoting unnamed sources, says the Nets would give up first round picks in 2013, 2015 and 2017 to land Howard— the five-time All-Star— and maybe, more importantly, help entice Deron Williams to re-sign with Brooklyn.

Howard has told Orlando management that he wants to be traded to the Nets and only the Nets.  Williams sounds like he has narrowed his picks to the Nets and the Dallas Mavericks.

The Nets traded for Atlanta's Joe Johnson on Monday and— if the pieces fall in place— make a trade for Howard and re-sign Williams, Brooklyn will have their own formidable Big Three.

Lopez and Humphries are free agents, so they would have to consent to a sign-and-trade.  The ironic thing is that Lopez— who is a restricted free agent— is a huge Disney and Disney World fan and would be more that happy to play near the Magic Kingdom.

Humphries— the most most dominant front-line player on the Nets for the past two seasons already lives in Florida during the offseason.

If the Nets do sign Howard and re-sign Williams, it would give the Nets Big Three a combined 2012 salary of $58.8 million.  The NBA salary cap was $58 million last season.