The Knicks’ cold first half spoils Jalen Brunson’s recent return to Dallas

DALLAS – There were several paragraphs on Wednesday that summed up the Knicks’ ice-cold first half in Dallas.

There was a sequence in the second quarter in which Karl-Anthony Towns’ missed six-footer was sandwiched between three-pointers from the Mavericks’ Quentin Grimes and PJ Washington.

Two minutes later, OG Anunoby missed the alley-oop dunk, which was followed by two more 3-pointers from Dallas’ Kyrie Irving and Naji Marshall.

And all of the Knicks’ misses came from beyond the arc.

This led to an early deficit that proved insurmountable as the Mavericks defeated the Knicks 129-114 on Thanksgiving eve despite playing without Luka Dončić or Klay Thompson.

“We couldn’t buy a basket to save our lives early in the game,” Jalen Brunson said. “Defensively we just weren’t there.”

The Knicks shot just 11 of 42 (26.2%) from the field and 2 of 16 from 3-point range in the first half, after which they trailed 60-38.

Anunoby started the game 0 of 11 from the field and finished with eight points on 3 of 15 shooting, two days after his career-high 40 points led the Knicks to a 145-114 win in Denver.

Towns scored just eight of his 25 points before halftime Wednesday, while Josh Hart didn’t score until the third quarter.

The slow start was due to the Mavericks struggling with a switch-heavy defense and the Knicks simply not looking good.

“I think it causes us to become stagnant,” Hart said of the Knicks’ struggles against a move. “When teams change, we have to play faster. We have to empower them to make mistakes.”

The lopsided loss wiped out Brunson’s 37-point performance, playing in Dallas for the second time since leaving the Mavericks as a free agent for the Knicks before the 2022-23 season.

Brunson, who spent his first four NBA seasons with Dallas, scored 21 points in the second half, helping the Knicks outscore the Mavericks in the third and fourth quarters.

But it was too little, too late, as the Knicks fell to 10-8 on the season and 2-2 on their four-game road trip.

“We missed some shots that we probably could have made and we allowed that to affect other parts of the game,” head coach Tom Thibodeau said. “Whether it’s a success or a failure, that shouldn’t affect how you perform on the other end. Sometimes you just have to work through things. You can’t let go of the rope.”

The Mavericks shot 48 of 85 (56.5%) from the field and outscored the Knicks 43-33.

Irving scored 21 points on 10 of 21 shooting, including two contested 3-pointers that enthralled a sellout American Airlines Center crowd of 20,413 in the first half.

But the role players also stepped up, with Dončić missing his fourth straight game with a sprained wrist and Thompson sitting with a plantar fascia.

Marshall led Dallas with 24 points, while Spencer Dinwiddie added 21 off the bench.

Grimes, the Knicks’ first-round pick in 2021, scored a season-high 21 points against his former team. He made four 3-pointers, including one in the fourth quarter that he converted into a four-point play.

The Knicks scored 29 of 44 in the second half but were never able to cut the deficit to single digits.

They’ll look to deliver a more complete performance Friday night in Charlotte – and end their road trip on a high note.

“Honestly, it’s the NBA,” Brunson said. “Some nights you can look ridiculous and some nights you can look ridiculous the other way. We have to create a balance. It can’t be a rollercoaster.”

Originally published: November 27, 2024 at 10:12 pm EST