DALLAS – There have been a number of stretches Wednesday that summed up the Knicks’ ice-cold first half in Dallas.
There was the second-quarter sequence wherein Karl-Anthony Cities’ missed six-footer got here sandwiched between 3-pointers by the Mavericks’ Quentin Grimes and P.J. Washington.
Two minutes later, there was the missed alley-oop dunk by OG Anunoby, which Dallas’ Kyrie Irving and Naji Marshall adopted with two extra 3-pointers.
And there have been the entire Knicks’ misses from past the arc.
It added as much as an early deficit that proved insurmountable because the Mavericks carved up the Knicks, 129-114, on the eve of Thanksgiving, regardless of enjoying with out Luka Dončić or Klay Thompson.
“We couldn’t buy a basket to save our lives to start the game,” Jalen Brunson mentioned. “Defensively, we just weren’t there.”
The Knicks shot simply 11-of-42 (26.2%) from the sector and 2-of-16 from 3-point vary within the first half, after which they trailed, 60-38.
Anunoby began the sport 0-of-11 from the sector and completed with eight factors on 3-of-15 capturing, two days after his career-high 40 factors led the Knicks to a 145-114 win in Denver.
Cities scored solely eight of his 25 factors earlier than halftime Wednesday, whereas Josh Hart didn’t rating till the third quarter.
The sluggish begin stemmed from the Mavericks presenting issues with a switch-heavy protection and from the Knicks flat out lacking beauty.
“I think it causes us to get stagnant,” Hart mentioned of the Knicks’ struggles in opposition to switching. “When teams [are] switching, we’ve got to play faster. We’ve got to put them in a position to make mistakes.”
The lopsided loss spoiled a 37-point efficiency by Brunson, who was enjoying in Dallas for the second time since he left the Mavericks for the Knicks as a free agent earlier than the 2022-23 season.
Brunson, who spent his first 4 NBA seasons with Dallas, scored 21 factors within the second half, serving to the Knicks outscore the Mavericks within the third and fourth quarters.
However it was too little, too late because the Knicks fell to 10-8 this season and 2-2 on their four-game street journey.
“We missed some shots that we probably could make, and we allowed that to impact other parts of the game,” head coach Tom Thibodeau mentioned. “Whether it’s a make or a miss, that shouldn’t deter how you perform on the other end. Sometimes you’ve just got to work your way through things. You can’t let go of the rope.”
The Mavericks shot 48-of-85 (56.5%) from the sector and outrebounded the Knicks, 43-33.
Irving scored 21 factors on 10-of-21 capturing, together with a pair of contested 3-pointers that energized a sellout American Airways Middle crowd of 20,413 within the first half.
However position gamers stepped up, too, as Dončić missed his fourth consecutive recreation with a sprained wrist and Thompson sat with plantar fascia.
Marshall led Dallas with 24 factors, whereas Spencer Dinwiddie added 21 off the bench.
Grimes, the Knicks’ first-round choose in 2021, scored a season-high 21 factors in opposition to his former workforce. He made 4 3-pointers, together with one within the fourth quarter that he transformed right into a four-point play.
The Knicks shot 29-of-44 within the second half, however they by no means managed to chop the deficit to single digits.
They’ll look to ship a extra full efficiency — and finish their street journey on a excessive observe — Friday evening in Charlotte.
“It’s honestly the NBA,” Brunson mentioned. “Some nights you can look ridiculous and some nights you can look ridiculous in the other way. We’ve got to level out. It can’t be a rollercoaster.”
Initially Printed: November 27, 2024 at 10:12 PM EST
