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Joe Johnson, the Nets' coveted off-season acquisition, played like a star in the fourth quarter. When the Nets were desperate for a basket after not scoring for five straight minutes, Johnson (team-high 25 points) was a savior. His most critical shot came on a fadeaway jumper over J. R. Smith with 22.3 seconds remaining. The shot gave the Nets the lead in the final minute and they escaped with a much-needed 88-85 victory.

Since P. J. Carlesimo took over for Avery Johnson, the Nets have won 11 of their last 13 games.

The Knicks and the Nets split the season series two games apiece.

Carmelo Anthony had his opportunity to give the Knicks the victory, but he shot an air ball — missing the backboard and the rim — on a difficult, off-balanced baseline jumper with 12 seconds remaining.

Smith tried to force overtime with a 3-pointer as time expired, but the shot bounced off the rim.

Anthony led the Knicks with 29 points, but was off target, hitting only 11 of 29 shots.

"If we're talking about stay at the top and winning our division, you can't have any hiccups," Knicks Coach Mike Woodson said before the game. "This game is very important and we have to treat it that way."

Carlesimo was more causal with his approach to the game.

"It's so early to think about standings," he said. "We've got half of the year left. I'm glad we are closer to them. If we stay closer to them, it means we're having a good year. But it's really more about Brooklyn against Manhattan and trying to get this thing even at 2-2. Later on, hopefully it will have more significance, come March and April."

The first two games of the series, at the Barclays Center, were intense battles, in which there were almost as many Knicks fans in the arena as Nets fans. The Nets survived the first game, beating the Knicks, 96-89, in overtime. The Knicks returned the Brooklyn two weeks later, and with Jason Kidd returning to the lineup, the Knicks erased a 17-point deficit to stun the Nets, 100-97, on a 3-pointer by Kidd in the final minute.

The only lopsided contest came on Dec. 19, when the Nets were in the midst of their lowest point of the season. The Knicks embarrassed the Nets, 100-86, to push their lead in the Atlantic Division to six games. Eight days later, Johnson was fired.

Since then, the Nets are trying to figure out what kind of team they are — the group that won 11 games in November, the team that lost 10 of 13 games in December, or the one that has surged under Carlesimo.

REBOUNDS

Amar'e Stoudemire provided pregame lunch for Madison Square Garden employees to honor Martin Luther King Jr. ... The restriction on Iman Shumpert's minutes was increased to 20 before the game, said Coach Mike Woodson. Shumpert, who played his second game of the season against the Nets, was asked to guard Joe Johnson. "I'm going to try to play him in five-minute spurts," Woodson said. Shumpert finished with 2 points and 4 rebounds. ... Raymond Felton, who has been out since Dec. 25 with a fracture right pinkie finger, is targeting Saturday's road game against the Philadelphia 76ers for his return into the lineup. "That's what I'm hoping for," Felton said before the game. Woodson was more cautious about Felton and said he didn't know when Felton would be cleared for full-contact practices. "He's now eager and anxious to get back out on the floor. It's going to be up to the doctors, but he's coming along slowly and he's on the schedule." ... In the first quarter, Tyson Chandler received a technical for yelling at a referee after his follow-up dunk. It was Chandler's seventh technical of the season.