Norman Castro
EBC New York Bureau
NEW YORK (Eagle News) – After a tough home loss to the Eastern Conference leading Toronto Raptors, the New York Knicks looked to snap their seven-game losing streak against the Dallas Mavericks.
With both teams no longer looking to the playoffs but to the lottery, this game had more to do with team morale and pride.
The Knicks fell short once again, losing 110-97 at home.
The Knicks first half looked promising, opening the first quarter with a 32-29 lead and shooting 66% from the field in the second. With the high intensity, the Knicks held the lead going into halftime with a score of 60-57.
In typical Knicks fashion, the team started the second half slow, struggling to find buckets and the hot shooting found in the first half was non-existent, scoring only four points in the first 10 minutes of the quarter. The Mavs took the lead and blossomed it all the way up to as many as 14 points and kept attacking the basket and scoring. The Mavs also found an offensive balance that had the Knicks scrambling all over the court and limited them to a total of 12 points for the entire quarter.
Trey Burke willed the Knicks back into contention on offense, scoring 13 of his 16 points in the fourth with back-to-back buckets and hustle off the ball. However, the mismatches were too much for the Knicks on the defensive side and were unable to hit open three-pointers. The Mavericks to their credit, continued to score off of good ball movement, hitting their open shots and handed the Knicks their eighth straight loss.
Harrison Barnes led the Mavs with 30 points and All-Star Dirk Nowitzki, who might have played his last game at the Garden, had 13 points in 21 minutes. Michael Beasley led the Knicks with 21 points.
The Knicks have struggled tremendously since Kristaps Porzingis went down with a season-ending injury, losing 16 of their last 17 games played. Knicks coach, Jeff Hornacek blamed the turnovers for the loss, a total of eight in the third quarter. The team was also to a disadvantage in terms of size.
“You know that’s a little tough for us to do against those guys,” said Hornacek. “We’ve gotten enough mismatches, having one big out there and Dirk is at the 5. They were able to convert points on our turnovers. We got to be able to take care of the ball. It’s a team game, they all got to get in there.”
The Knicks hope to bounce back and erase their slump against the surging and youthful division rivals, the Philadelphia 76ers on Thursday at the Garden.
