Mavericks vs. Knicks recap: 3 things as Mavericks dominate Knicks in 129-114 victory

The Dallas Mavericks defeated the New York Knicks 129-114 Wednesday night in Dallas. It was an impressive win from a seriously short-handed Mavericks team that was missing Luka Doncic, Klay Thompson, and Daniel Gafford.

The Knicks came in at fourth in the East and with the league’s second-best offense and their starting lineup intact — it didn’t matter as Dallas smothered New York early and often, building a 13-point lead after the first quarter and a 22-point lead at halftime.

Dallas held New York to just 38 first-half points, with the Knicks unable to generate anything against the Mavericks defense. It was a commanding 60-38 Dallas lead entering the third quarter.

While the Mavericks weren’t necessarily in cruise control coming out of the locker room, the defensive intensity from the first half definitely waned as the Knicks found their footing. The funny thing is it didn’t matter one bit — Dallas kept scoring repeatedly, and the Knicks never got the Mavericks lead into single digits.

Naji Marshall led a balanced scoring effort with a team-high 24 points. He wasn’t alone though, as six Mavericks scored in double-figures. Jalen Brunson led the Knicks with a game-high 35 points.

Here’s what we noticed.

Balanced scoring continues

The Mavericks keep stacking up impressive double-digit scoring numbers. Dallas again had six players break the 10-point plateau, with Naji Marshall leading the way with 24 points. He was one of four Mavericks (Kyrie Irving, Quintin Grimes, Spencer Dinwiddie) who scored at least 20 points.

Dallas is sharing the ball well, and it’s been an emphasis all season to wean themselves off of their star duo in Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving and utilize the skill of the roster that’s been assembled. The Mavericks finally have a roster that can do more and the Mavericks coaching staff is starting to get the most out of them. When Doncic returns from injury, the full potential of this season’s roster could be reach fairly quickly.

PJ Washington is damn good

Special shoutout to PJ Washington, who is quietly making the case for being the third or even second-most important Maverick on the roster. He missed all of the Mavericks four-game losing streak when the team slid two games under .500, and since he’s returned, Dallas has won six of seven.

His presence on both sides of the floor is starting to feel invaluable — defenisvely he’s been a monster, and he was again tonight against the Knicks. Both Knicks forwards, OG Anunoby and Mikal Bridges, had so-so games, with Anunoby having a dreadful 3-of-15, eight-point night and Bridges scoring 20, but needing 19 shots to get there and not really making buckets until the Knicks were already down 20-plus.

It’s not just guarding his man though, as Washington had some great weakside help possessions against Karl-Anthony Towns, or just straight up holding his ground against Towns when switched onto him in the post. Towns scored 25, but didn’t shoot the ball well from the floor and needed to get his points at the free throw line.

On offense, Washington is really finding his stride near the basket and in the paint. Dallas keeps running post-ups for him when defenses try to hide their smaller defenders, or Washington will just bully-ball them off-the-dribble to get to the rim. His three point shoot is still streaky, but he hit a perfect 3-of-3 against the Knicks.

He also collected two blocks and a steal, and his combined steal and block numbers have been fantastic. Washington is making a strong case for an All-Defense team if this holds up.

Mavericks heat up from three

Dallas hasn’t shot the ball well from deep, entering this game making just 34.9 percent of its threes, good for 20th in the NBA. The team hasn’t really needed it lately, winning games by owning the paint on both sides of the ball.

The Mavericks still scored well-enough in the paint with 54 paint points, but caught fire from three, making 17-of-33 (51.4 percent). Dallas made 10 more three pointers than the Knicks did, and that basically sums up the game.

It wasn’t that long ago when the Mavericks could only win games by outshooting their opponents from beyond the three point line, adn what makes this season (and last season’s) squads so different is how the three pointer is no longer a crutch. But as you can see from this game against the Knicks, when the three-ball is falling and you have the physical defense and paint scoring? You get wire-to-wire blowouts. The Mavericks might be hitting their strides, and they still haven’t put a fully-healthy roster on the floor in almost a month.