MLK Holiday Malaise
Knicks lose at home to the Dallas Mavericks
The Knicks, buoyed by a 15-3 record between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Eve, are facing true adversity for the first time this season. They’ve lost their best player and have now dropped three straight games and eight of their last 10. That sparkling stretch of basketball that led to an NBA Cup now feels like it belongs to a team from a previous season.
The poor health of key players and the poor defense of healthy players have taken a toll on the Knicks’ record, dropping them from second to third place in the East, behind the reanimated Boston Celtics and even further behind the first-place Detroit Pistons.
Meanwhile, Coach Mike Brown continues to insist there is no reason to worry. I’m not sure fatigue and injuries are the only factors to blame anymore; some other issue seems to be dogging this team.
Game Day
Prior to this game the Knicks held a 42-47 record all-time vs the Dallas Mavericks, which included a win earlier this season in Dallas.
The Knick all-time MLK Jr. Day record is 25 wins and 14 losses, which is more than any other team has had on this holiday. It’s a loosely held tradition for the NBA to schedule a full slate of games on this day, in honor of MLK. When I was a kid, it felt like the Knicks always played on this holiday, and always as an early matinee, so everyone could watch the game, and kids could talk about it in school the next day.
Seating Chart
A week ago, tickets were available for $360+. Feeling like a savvy ticket buyer, I waited as prices dropped throughout the week. I found tickets for this one late Sunday night, when prices had dropped to a reasonable $209 for an upper-level center-court seat, one of the best views from the upper bowl. When I took my seat in Section 224, there were still two seats to my left that remained unclaimed.
Injury Report
Josh Hart and Jalen Brunson both returned to action for the Knicks while all of the Mavs’ best players - Daniel Gafford, DeAngelo Russell, P.J. Washington, Derek Lively, Anthony Davis, and Kyrie Irving - missed the game.
Before the game, the Knicks announced a bit of NBA news. Jalen Brunson was named a starting guard in the All-Star game for the second consecutive season and named as an All-Star for the third time overall.
At this point, it looks like Jalen will be the only Knicks player representing the team at the All-Star game on Sunday, February 15, at Intuit Dome in Los Angeles.
Game Notes
In what has become a familiar pattern, the Knicks started the game as if they had just emerged from a deep slumber. The Mavericks jumped out to a 13-4 lead. Mike Brown took a timeout with 8:14 left in the period. The Knicks’ offense found success on some Jalen Brunson-to-Mitchell Robinson alley-oops and dunks, cutting the lead to seven, 28-21, but the Mavs led 31-22 at the end of the first quarter.
Note: Towards the final two minutes of the quarter, the two empty seats next to me were filled with a couple of last-minute, somewhat inebriated, college-aged bros. As soon as they sat down, last-minute bro #1 said to the last-minute bro #2, “Not bad seats for $112 bucks, huh?” Realizing they spent $97 less for their seat than I did for mine burst my savvy-shopper bubble.1 I remember thinking, “I will learn from these last-minute bros.” Chalk that $90 up to the cost of my education.
After again cutting the lead to seven, 38-31, early in the second quarter, the Knicks allowed Dallas to re-establish control and a comfortable 43-31 lead with 8:23 left in the half. At that point in the game, the Knicks’ bench had scored 11 points. Ten from Mitch and one from everyone else on 0-9 shooting.
An 11-0 Dallas run pushed the lead to 18, 49-31. OG Anunoby and Deuce McBride had yet to score. The Knicks called a timeout, and as they walked off the court, audible boos began raining down from the Madison Square Garden crowd for the first time in Mike Brown’s tenure. I’m glad he said he isn’t worried, because the fans sure sounded like they are.
The Mavs’ lead ballooned to twenty, 51-31, when KAT made a three and a dunk to cut it to fifteen, 51-36. What came on the next Knicks possession was an attempted three-point shot by Towns, accompanied by the kind of kick and follow-through you see in the Radio City Rockettes’ dancers’ routines. Unfortunately for Dwight Powell, his future children took the brunt of Towns’ kick, an obvious offensive foul. Momentum? What momentum?2
The Mavs, in the midst of a 23-7 run, extended their lead back up to nineteen as even more sustained boos came down from the crowd. “Mike Brown has lost the team,” I overheard last-minute bro #1 say to last-minute bro #2. Yes, it would seem he has.3
The Mavs pushed the lead to thirty before the Knicks closed it to a mere twenty-eight at the half, 75-47. Full-throated boos cascaded down from the Madison Square Garden crowd as the teams walked off to their respective locker rooms.
The MSG halftime performance was by a gospel choir. A good choice for a team in need of finding some answers.
After Brunson scored on a short pull-up jumper to start the half, Max Christie answered with a three-pointer for Dallas. Christie was remarkably consistent all game long at killing the Knicks from long range. He was 3-3 from three with 9 points after the first quarter. He was 6-7 from three with 18 points after the second quarter, and he went 8-10 from three with 26 points after three quarters.
With the score 86-63, a “We want Giannis!” chant broke out in Section 223. The Mavs were up 94-71 after three quarters. A pair of Towns free throws with 10:17 to play cut the lead to twenty, but another Towns offensive foul gave the ball back to the Mavs. A few possessions later, a Towns-to-Bridges alley-oop cut the lead to eighteen, 100-82.
With about six minutes left in the game and the score 102-85, the Mavs Moussa Cisse missed two free throws, but with their last chance to make a game of it, Jalen Brunson turned the ball over on a bad pass, and Josh Hart dribbled the ball off his leg.
A short-handed Dallas team heading for the draft lottery won the game easily, 114-97 over a fully healthy Knicks squad. Something is rotten in New York.
Between each quarter, the Knicks would highlight a different quote from Martin Luther King Jr. on the massive Garden Vision scoreboard high above center court. Between the third and fourth quarters, the quote was:
Faith is taking the first step when you can’t see the whole staircase.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
I have to wonder whether the Knicks’ front office still possesses faith in the viability of the staircase they’ve built. This was the first loss I’ve witnessed at home this season, but my faith remains unshaken. Something is going to happen. Whether it’s a player trade or a coach’s tirade, the air will clear eventually. My faith is being tested now but barring a total collapse, this is a team that will define itself in May and June. Losses like these sting, but each one offers a lesson to learn if you’re able to find it. I’ve learned to wait even longer to buy game tickets. What are the Knicks learning about themselves in these games?
Time will tell.
Keep the faith.
Up Next
The Knicks host the Brooklyn Nets on Wednesday. The next game on my calendar is when the Knicks travel to Philadelphia to play the 76ers on Saturday.
Yes, they missed most of the first quarter but that turned out to be a blessing.
After the game as I exited the arena, I ran into an animated chap on the phone saying “We gotta get rid of this (guy), he out here kickin’ guys in the nuts!”
Which is stunning to me. I suspect guys in the locker room are fed up with some of Town’s defensive lapses, but I can also see them upset with Coach Brown for laughing it up with Draymond Green after the game against Golden State, where he was called for a flagrant that could’ve injured Towns, which Brown seemed to brush off.