EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. – Jerome Williams and Nazr Mohammed led a strong defensive effort in a game otherwise defined by offensive ineptitude, with the Knicks holding the Nets without a basket for 15 minutes of an 87-79 victory last night.

Jamal Crawford scored 30 points and was one of the few players on either team who managed to get his offense going. Even he missed his last seven shots.

The Knicks are one of just three NBA teams to have allowed opponents to shoot better than 46%, and their lack of any type of physical, intimidating presence has been one of their glaring deficiencies.

“It doesn’t bother me, it’s just something we have to work hard at getting better at,” Williams said. “You want to work on your weaknesses, and that’s a weakness we know we have.”

Last night, Williams helped force the Nets into a stretch of 15:02 in which they went 0-for-17 from the field with 13 turnovers. Williams logged 26 minutes and was often matched against Richard Jefferson, who led New Jersey with 22 points but missed his final seven shots.

“We came out of training camp and I wasn’t very happy with our defense, but I felt we would get better as time went on,” Knicks coach Lenny Wilkens said. “We’re starting to get better, and in that fourth quarter I thought we showed a lot of character with our defense.”

It was only the third victory for the Knicks in the last 19 games between the teams, and they snapped a seven game losing streak at the Meadowlands against the remnants of the team that swept them out of the first round of the playoffs last spring.

The Nets, struggling to find any kind of rhythm with Jason Kidd’s playing time severely limited, went through an abysmal stretch of 15:02 spanning the third and fourth quarters in which they scored just five points on foul shots. Kidd, who played 21 minutes and had just two assists, is under playing time restrictions set by the team’s medical staff.

“They know best at this point. I could tell them I feel great, but there is a bigger picture,” Kidd said. “Longevity is what I think about now, being around in April and for next five years to be able to play without pain.”

Kurt Thomas had 14 points and 12 rebounds for the Knicks, and Mohammed contributed to the defensive effort with eight blocked shots – double his previous career-high.

The Knicks overcame 23 turnovers and a shooting drought of their own in which they had no field goals in the final 6:31 and scored their final 10 points from the foul line.

Eric Williams added 21 points for the Nets and Kidd had 15 – 10 in the final quarter.

Kidd’s 3-pointer with 40 seconds left pulled New Jersey to 83-79, but Crawford made two free throws, Brian Scalabrine missed a 3 and Williams sank a pair from the line with 26.7 seconds left to end the Nets’ final threat.

Allan Houston sat out the entire second half. Wilkens said he rested him so Houston would be available tonight against Detroit on the second night of a back-to-back set. Houston, in his third game back after recovering from chronic knee soreness, said he felt some injury-related stiffness but could have played in the third and/or fourth quarter.