The expectations are high for both teams in the Big Apple. It didn't help that they spent the off-season trading barbs with each other.

Both teams have some of the most expensive payrolls in the league and the New York collective has always demanded the best. Despite having new faces in the lineup, the Brooklyn crowd has been unforgiving.

The new Brooklyn recruits, Paul Pierce and Kevin Garnett, understand that pressure. They just came from the most successful franchise in the NBA and the standards are very high. After an embarassing loss to the lowly Orlando Magic, the team's new leaders should take the initiative.

That's exactly what Kevin Garnett intends to do. Speaking with the New York Daily News, he wants to increase his role: "I've got to get better with what I'm doing, making my minutes more productive. I'm just being a little more passive, trying to be the glue, if you will. I need to be a little more aggressive at times. I don't really think about the offense. Defense is where I'm trying to make sure that we're cohesive and we will."

Garnett was once known as "The Big Ticket" when he was with the Minnesota Timberwolves. He adjusted his game when he formed the "Big Three" with the Boston Celtics. Now, he's 37 years old, and he understands that his new team has established and younger stars and he is not the main man anymore. That will probably change.

The loss gave a bitter debut for Coach Jason Kidd. It was unavoidable that some bickering might occur. It just reflects their passion for the game.

Jason Kidd and his players had a post mortem with the NY Daily News: "If you want to be an elite team, some nights the ball isn't going to go in. But you can always give effort and execute on the defensive end, and tonight we just didn't do that."

Deron Williams also chimed in: "The win at home against Miami (on Friday) doesn't mean anything if we come in here and lay an egg and that's what we did. These are tough games to get up for but the good teams do, and so if we want to be one of the best teams in this league, when it's all said and done, we've got to perform better in these situations."

Finally, Paul Pierce: "We shouldn't need things to motivate us. We shouldn't need things to spark us. We should come out with that mind-set at the start of the game, each and every night knowing, 'Hey, we got a lot on the line this season,' "