American Airlines Center must have seemed like the OK Corral last night for the Knicks who were ambushed by the Dallas Mavericks, 129-114.
The Knicks (10-8) fell to 2-2 on this five game road trip that has followed a familiar pattern, one good, one bad, one good, one bad. They’ll complete the trip Friday afternoon in Charlotte against the 6–12 Hornets.
The game was eerily similar to the loss in Utah where the Knicks had to play uphill after getting into an early hole. In that game, the Knicks made a move in the third quarter thanks to a 17-0 run, but the Mavericks’ defense kept Tom Thibodeau’s team from getting any closer than 12 points in the second half.
“We got in such a big hole. By the time we got a rhythm offensively in the second half we were in too big of a hole. Our rebounding wasn’t very good, tough game,” the Knicks coach said.
The Knicks shot 47% (40 for 86) but only 24% (7 for 29) from three. Dallas was at 57% (48 for 85) from the floor and 52% (17-33) from beyond the arc.
“We gotta challenge shots,” Thibodeau said. “We’re there but there’s gotta be a better challenge. A couple of times we gott it there and then we followed jump shooters and stuff like that. Those are things we gotta eliminate.”
The Mavericks, who were without Luka Doncic and Klay Thompson, had six players in double figures, led by Naji Marshall who scored 24 and Kyrie Irving who had 23 pts, 7 rebounds and 6 assists.
Jalen Brunson gave a valiant effort and did all he could as he tied a season high with 37 points. Brunson had 14 in the fourth quarter, but with the big lead, the Mavericks were careful to just let him have easy buckets and not send him to the line for conventional three point plays.
O.G. Anunoby, who was coming off a career high 40 point night, was the complete opposite in this one. Anunoby missed his first 11 shots and did not score his first field goal until the fourth quarter, by which time the game was already out of hand. Anunoby finished 3 for 15 from the floor with 8 points and was 0 for 8 from three.
“Everything went in for him [Anunoby] in Denver and tonight it didn’t,” said Thibodeau. “No one shoots well for 82 games. That’s part of this and when you’re not shooting well, do other things. Play great defense, run the floor, cut, move without the ball, screen. For the most part I thought he tried to do that in the second half.”
Karl-Anthony Towns had a double-double with 25 points and 14 rebounds but he and the rest of the team missed a number of close in shots. Towns tried to be aggressive inside but he was defended well by the Mavs big men combo of Dereck Lively and Maxi Kleber who managed to frustrate the Knicks center without fouling him.
“We missed some shots that we probably could make and we allowed that to impact other parts of the game,” Thibodeau said. “Whether it’s a make or a miss, that shouldn’t deter how you perform on the other end. Sometimes you just gotta work your way through things.”
Despite being outrebounded, 43-33, the Knicks had an edge in second chance points (15-11) and points in the paint (58-54). Those numbers were skewed by the Knicks outscoring the Mavs, 43-39 in what was essentially garbage time and Brunson’s output in the fourth quarter.
The Knicks only lead came 2:30 into the first quarter at 4-2 but it was all Dallas from there as the Mavericks went on a 21-3 run to go up 23-7 with a little over three minutes left in the first quarter.
Shots just wouldn’t fall for the Knicks as they missed 15 of their first 18 attempts from the floor and went nearly six minutes without a field goal in the first quarter.
Dallas missed six of their first seven shots but they caught fire and had a 28-15 lead after one. The 15 points marked the Knicks lowest scoring first quarter of the season.
Things did not get much better from there.
After Mikal Bridges hit the Knicks first three of the game to cut the deficit to ten, the Mavericks went on a 10-0 run, capped off by the former Knick Quentin Grimes who completed a finger roll to make it 38-20 just 2:30 minutes into the second quarter.
At that point, the Knicks were shooting 20% (5 for 25) and 1 for 9 from three. What made the numbers worse is that the Knicks were missing a number of shots from close in. Typifying the Knicks ineptitude inside was Anunoby missing an alley oop dunk with 7:30 minutes left in the second quarter.
P.J. Washington, who had 19 points and 10 rebounds, scored five straight points to put Dallas up 58-38. Irving’s floater with three seconds left gave the Mavs a 60-38 lead at halftime, marking the Knicks lowest scoring output of the season in the first half.
“They came out hot, obviously. 60-38 at half time but we couldn’t buy a basket to save our lives to start the game,” Brunson said. “Defensively, we just weren’t there.”
Dallas kept the pressure on in the third quarter as they made 12 of 19 shots (63%) to take a 90-71 lead after three.
Although the Knicks shot much better in the fourth quarter (14 of 19 74%), the Mavericks were able to answer any potential runs.
After an Anunoby dunk with a little over two minutes left made it a 12 point deficit, Irving canned a patented step back jumper to put Dallas up 119-105.
Towns made an aggressive move to the hoop but his shot was blocked by Washington and the Mavericks found a wide open Marshall for a dunk that upped the lead back to 16 points with 92 seconds left.
The Knicks hope to chalk this one up as one of those games, but there are some red flags that need to be addressed, particularly defensively.
“It’s honestly the NBA,” said Brunson. “Some nights you can look ridiculous and some nights you look ridiculous the other way. We just got to level out. It can’t be a roller coaster.”