NEW YORK -- With less than two months remaining, the Brooklyn Nets are facing evaluations from their new boss.

Part one of the evaluation phase under newly hired general manager Sean Marks went well, especially for center Brook Lopez.

Lopez continued being the most consistent player on the second-worst team in the Eastern Conference as he matched a season-high with 33 points and the Nets ushered in the Marks era with a 109-98 victory over the New York Knicks on Friday.

Marks met the team during their pregame preparation and kept his comments brief to players and coaches. During a roughly 15-minute press conference, among the things he said his vision is to "evaluate immediately."

"He said he wanted to brief like (Spurs coach Gregg Popovich) Pop," Lopez said of meeting his new GM. "That's a good start. He just wanted us to know his door is always open. Obviously we want to have a lot a communication with players and staff all the way up to the GM and owners. Just that it's not going to be an overnight process but we're definitely working to move in the right direction."

After being among eight candidates interviewed by upper management and getting officially hired five hours before Thursday's trade deadline, Marks watched from owner Mikhail Prokhorov's suite and saw Lopez turn in his fourth game with at least 30 points while coming within six of his career high.

"I thought he had a pretty good night, no question about it," Brooklyn interim coach Tony Brown said. "He led us from beginning to end and that's what you expect from Brook and we want to see that every night."

Like the Nets, Lopez shook off a slow start. He had four points in the opening quarter when Brooklyn faced a nine-point deficit but was 11 for 18 from the field in the final 36 minutes when the Nets outscored the Knicks by an 86-66 margin.

Lopez was among six players to get double figures in Marks' first game at the helm after leaving the San Antonio Spurs. The Nets had 26 assists, shot 48.8 percent and tied a season-high with 14 steals while getting 21 points off turnovers and getting 23 fast break points.

"I think that the ball is moving a lot better," Brown said. "We're looking at ways to try and get Brook touches on the move instead just directly throwing it into him in the post. So we try to use our movement to try to find him."

Along with a sellout crowd of fans from both teams, Marks watched the Nets take a 14-point lead in the third, give most of it back early in the fourth and make enough plays to midway through the final period to get their 15th win in 55 games this season.

The Nets were threatened when guard Arron Afflalo knocked down a corner 3-pointer as the shot clock expired with 9:36 remaining, getting the Knicks within 86-83. Afflalo hit another basket a little over a minute later to make it an 89-85 game.

Instead of wilting further, the Nets scored the next 13 points, taking a 102-85 lead on a jumper by forward Joe Johnson with 5:28 remaining.

While Lopez was an interior force he had help. Swingman Bojan Bogdanovic added 16 points, point guard Donald Sloan collected 14 and 10 and forward Thaddeus Young contributed 13.

Meanwhile, it was another lost night for the Knicks, who are 12th in the East and six games behind the Chicago Bulls for the final playoff spot. New York lost its season-high seventh straight and for the 11th time in 12 games since Jan. 20.

"After tonight there wasn't really much to say," Knicks forward Carmelo Anthony said. "It was kind of self-explanatory. It was obvious why we lost the game. We can try to pinpoint and finger point and do that but the proof is in the pudding."

"Obviously it doesn't make it easier," New York rookie forward Kristaps Porzingis added. "We've got to have that mentality that we want to do it no matter what. Today we lost again, it (stinks) but we've got to find a way out of it."

Anthony scored 22 points but half his points came during the opening period. After starting 5 of 6 from the floor, Anthony missed seven of his final 10 shots.

Porzingis added 18 and Afflalo contributed 17 but it was not enough as New York gave up 100 points for the seventh time in its slide and shot 38 percent after making 59 percent of its shots in the opening quarter.

NOTES: Among the things newly hired Brooklyn GM Sean Marks said during his introductory press conference were the coaching search will be worldwide and he plans to expand the team's scouting and front office staff. ... New York F Carmelo Anthony said during the morning shootaround that he does not feel major soreness in his left knee after the last two practices. ... New York interim coach Kurt Rambis confirmed G Jimmer Fredette will be signed to a 10-day contract Monday. Rambis said his preference would be for Fredette to have a few practices before getting any minutes. ... Nets interim coach Tony Brown said he would like to increase F Chris McCullough's minutes but did not have a specific number for the rookie, who made his NBA debut Feb. 8 after rehabbing his right knee since January 2015.