Mavericks Control Knicks Without Luka Doncic and Klay Thompson, 129-114

The Dallas Mavericks returned home from a three-game road trip to play the New York Knicks on Wednesday night. Dallas has been dealing with an illness spreading around the team and had a few players either out or toughing it out.

With Luka Doncic, Klay Thompson, and Daniel Gafford out, Dallas started Kyrie Irving, Quentin Grimes, Naji Marshall, PJ Washington, and Dereck Lively II, while the Knicks rolled out former Maverick Jalen Brunson, Mikal Bridges, Josh Hart, OG Anunoby, and Karl-Anthony Towns.

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It was a slow start for both teams offensively, with the game tied at just four after four minutes, each team shooting 2-8 from the floor. Dallas woke up after that with some thanks to Naji Marshall, who is playing the best basketball of his career right now.

The Mavericks went on a 16-2 run over the next four minutes, with Marshall outscoring the Knicks by himself to this point 7-6. New York came in with the league’s second-highest offensive rating after putting up 145 points against the Nuggets on Monday, but they couldn’t get much going early.

Dallas led by as much as 16 in the first quarter, but an… interesting… lineup by Jason Kidd let New York whittle the lead down to eight. The Mavericks responded with a 5-0 run to end the quarter to take a 28-15 lead into the second quarter, capped off by a Jazian Gortman three-pointer. New York’s 15 points is the lowest first-quarter outing they’ve had all season.

The Mavericks would pick up where they left off, extending the lead to 18 in the opening minutes of the second quarter with some strong minutes from Quentin Grimes. They went on another 16-2 run in the early minutes of the second quarter to extend the lead up to 24 following three-pointers by Kyrie Irving and Naji Marshall. Jalen Brunson responded to that with five straight points to give the Knicks some momentum again.

Dallas’ lead would be between 15-20 for the rest of the quarter, as they’d take a 60-38 lead into halftime. That was the lowest-scoring first half of the season for the Knicks, continuing the trend from the first quarter.

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The Mavericks have already nearly blown a huge second-half lead once recently, leading by 24 against the Nuggets on Friday before Denver took a late lead, but Dallas went on to win that game. They didn’t want to repeat the same mistakes from then, so when Karl-Anthony Towns hit back-to-back threes early in the third quarter, Jason Kidd was quick to call a timeout to nip any momentum in the bud.

But the Knicks kept chipping away at the lead, getting it down to 13 midway through the third quarter following a layup from Josh Hart. Dallas responded strongly, though, with the Mavs taking a 90-71 lead into the fourth quarter. It could’ve been a little higher had Quentin Grimes made a layup or some free throws at the end of the period, but Spencer Dinwiddie kept the offense afloat this quarter.

Dallas broke the lead back up to 23 points early in the fourth quarter following a four-point play from Quentin Grimes. But once again, the Knicks wouldn’t be dead, getting the lead down to 14 around the six-minute mark with Josh Hart slamming down a dunk. Then they got it to 14 again with less than four minutes to go.

New York finally got the lead down to 12 in the final few minutes, only for Dallas to still win 129-114.

It was another group effort for the Mavs in this game, with six players scoring in double-figures, led by Naji Marshall’s 24 points. Kyrie Irving was right behind him with 23 points, seven rebounds, and six assists and Spencer Dinwiddie was hot on his tail with 21 points and a season-high nine assists. PJ Washington had yet another double-double with 19 points and 10 rebounds, Quentin Grimes had 21 points and seven rebounds, and Dereck Lively II had 12 points and nine rebounds.

The Mavericks shot the lights out in this game, shooting 17/33 from three-point range, arguably the biggest reason they were able to dominate this game the way they did.

Jalen Brunson finished with 337 points in his return to Dallas, Karl-Anthony Towns had 25 points and 14 rebounds in his first game against the Mavs since the Western Conference Finals, Mikal Bridges had 20 points, and Josh Hart had 12. OG Anunoby had just eight points on 3/15 shooting after having a career-high 40 points on Monday against Denver.

The Mavericks have a few days off before they travel to Utah again to take on the Jazz, looking to make up for their disaster there a few weeks ago.

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