What's the Worst Basketball Team in New York Today?

Tears for Brook Lopez.

One team is 8-18 and found that it not-so-shockingly still sucked. One team is 9-17 and was probably listening to this in the locker room after a loss. One team got blown out in its hometown. Now that's no way to rep Brooklyn. They're all off to rough starts early in this basketball season. But only one can be The Worst Basketball Team in New York Today. 

CANDIDATE NO. 1: THE KNICKS  

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No, no, no, Knicks. You don't make the playoffs by continuously losing, no matter how bad the Eastern Conference is. And yet the Knicks continued to do so in their game against the Grizzlies. The Tim Hardaway Jr. alley near the beginning of the game and J.R. Smith finally shooting at 50 percent is cool. But come on. What's with Anthony getting denied when he's going hard to the hoop? And what's with the Knicks constantly getting outrebounded? They were beat 56-29 in that category. So the Knicks lose 95-87 as New York sports is begging for 2013 to come to a close.

CANDIDATE NO. 2: THE NETS  

You don't factor blowouts into the standings other than by an "L," so the Sixers could've always come back against the Nets after getting beat 130-94 by them. The Nets could've always come back from losing by a single point in overtime in their 121-120 loss to the team they blew out four days prior. Can they come back after losing Brook Lopez to a broken foot for the rest of the year? Probably not, but does the idea of a 21-game Eastern Conference playoff of just the Pacers and Heat sound any more appealing?

CANDIDATE NO. 3: LIU-BROOKLYN

The City of Brotherly Love wasn't satisfied by watching the Nets' hopes of being an at least kinda all right team crumble on Friday; something else needed to be crushed. LIU-Brooklyn was that something else. To play the empathy card, Temple was probably slightly pissed after losing its prior two games by just one point. The Owls just ended up taking that frustration out on Brooklyn. The city was nowhere on the map and was definitely out of the net as it shot just 28.8 percent in its 101-65 loss against Temple.

THE WORST TEAM IN NEW YORK TODAY IS...

The Nets. Brooklyn went through a stretch where it won four out of five games after getting Deron Williams back. It was finally looking like it was getting back to full strength, so you have to consider how draining it must be to have Lopez suddenly out for the season right when success seemed right around the corner. The Nets looked like they were going to see some sunlight after a period of struggle only to once again find heartache. Are they not the Jesse Pinkman of the NBA right now?

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