As Jay-Z once said, the city is under new management. 

The Knicks got better at the trade deadline and the Nets got significantly worse. That was obvious Monday night, the best players now residing on Broadway rather than in Brooklyn. 

Without Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant, the Nets are no longer title contenders. They may not even be good enough to avoid the play-in round of the playoffs. The Knicks showcased their newfound superiority over their city rivals, coasting to a 124-106 victory at the Garden to move within two games of the fifth-place Nets. They are also now just a half-game behind the Heat for sixth with one game left, in Atlanta against the Hawks on Wednesday, before the nine-day All-Star break. 

“You got to sprint through the finish line,” Jalen Brunson said. “You can’t go on break before break starts.” 

The Knicks snapped a nine-game losing streak to the Nets in emphatic fashion, as Brunson was by far the best player on the floor, exploding for 40 points on 15 of 21 shooting along with five assists and no turnovers. New addition Josh Hart continued to impress as a Knick, adding a season-high 27 points along with four rebounds, and Julius Randle chipped in 18 points, 10 rebounds and four assists as the Knicks (32-27) won for the fourth time in five games. 

The Nets, meanwhile, fell to 1-2 since the stunning Durant trade to the Suns, and were run off the court in the final 17 minutes. They held a two-point lead with 5:07 left in the third quarter, and were promptly outscored, 41-20, over the next 13 minutes. With 4:19 left, Nets coach Jacque Vaughn threw up the white flag, emptying his bench. His team managed just 45 second-half points and shot 40 percent from the field over the final 24 minutes. Spencer Dinwiddie scored 28 for the Nets (33-24), but was held to eight after halftime, and Mikal Bridges managed just seven points against his two former Villanova teammates, Hart and Brunson. 

“They picked up their physicality, started blitzing ball screens and we missed some open 3s that changed momentum,” Dinwiddie said. 

Hart has gotten off to a running start as a Knick, scoring at a high clip — he’s averaging 19 points in his first two games — while drawing rave reviews from coach Tom Thibodeau for doing the little things so consistently well. One particular play stood out. Early in the fourth quarter, he sprinted back to intercept a long pass, and went the other way for a coast-to-coast layup. Instead of the Knicks’ lead getting cut to six, it was extended to 10. 

“Plays like that give your team a lot of confidence,” Thibodeau said. 

So does having someone go on a heater like Brunson did on Monday. After Cameron Johnson’s 3-pointer gave the Nets a 76-74 lead, Brunson went to work. He scored eight points over the final 2:10 of the third quarter, and finished with 17 in the period on seven of eight shooting. In the fourth, he reached the 40-point plateau for the third time this season, hearing “M-V-P” chants as he reached that number at the free-throw line. 

Brunson has been on an absolute tear of late, averaging 29.6 points while shooting 51 percent from the field and 46 percent from 3-point range over his last 19 games. The idea he isn’t an All-Star seems sillier with each passing game. So does the offseason narrative that the Knicks overpaid for him with that $104 million contract. 

“He was always shifty, but the way he’s able to get his shot off, the way he’s able to control games, manipulate defenses, it’s been great,” Hart said. “And obviously, he has [his father and Knicks assistant coach] Rick [Brunson], who’s been in the league for a long time and has been helping him since he was a kid. But he’s just made monumental strides every year. And it’s just exciting to see where his career is going.”