NET NOTES

Think Game 4 is tough? Try surviving Game 3, the Nets insist.

And they survived – barely – against the Knicks, 81-78, taking probably the best shot New York had at turning the first-round event into a competitive series.

“We knew they were going to come out with their best shot,” said Lucious Harris. “Game 3 is usually the toughest. We knew we had to respond.”

Richard Jefferson agreed. “We knew without a doubt. That’s the one thing you get from experience in the playoffs is when you’re going to get a team’s best shot. We knew it was coming.

“Like the second game in Detroit last year. They don’t want to go to New Jersey down 0-2. So we knew it was coming tonight: 2-1 with another game at home? You never know what can happen. We wanted to step on their necks and kill them.”

Mission accomplished. As Aaron Williams said, “We came here to get a win and we got it.”

*

Knicks did try to push around the Nets a bit: Shandon Anderson was called for a suspect flagrant foul on Jefferson; Stephon Marbury got a technical for shoving Jason Kidd; Nazr Mohammed got in a few forearms on Jason Collins.

But the Nets stayed focused. “The coaches did a good job of keeping our heads in the game and making sure our mindset was right,” said Kerry Kittles (11 points, 8 rebounds).

*

Jason Collins still maintains it was a hard, clean foul he leveled on Knick Tim Thomas in Game 1. Yes, the Net center wanted to hit Thomas. But he didn’t want to hurt him. And Collins is bothered that he has gained a cheapshot rep.

“I do take a big exception to that,” said Collins. “My intent is never to go out there and hurt someone. I’ve had injuries, some bad injuries in my career. You never want that on anyone. You never go out there to play like that. That’s dirty, and I’m not a dirty player. I’ve said this before. It’s unfortunate that he feels that way.”

*

Jefferson on Tim Thomas: “Him saying we took him out of the game because we couldn’t stop him? He had 12 points and it was a 20-point game with four minutes to go. If that’s his definition of being unstoppable . . . ”