Sunday evening in Madison Square Garden the New York Knicks hosted the Dallas Mavericks. NY enters the game with 6 wins and 3 losses while struggling Dallas is 2-7. InsideHoops.com presents raw, uneditede game notes taken live in MSG as the game happened.
Gerald Green started at shooting guard for Dallas. And their first sub off the bench was Clippers cast-off James Singleton.
New music clip in the live-game MSG music rotation: Beastie Boys singing “What’s the time… It’s time to get ill!”
The Knicks are hot early, leading 16-9 with seven quick Zach Randolph points plus five from Jamal Crawford. Dirk Nowitzki has six for the Mavs.
The Knicks like to shoot open shots quickly, even if they just came up the floor. Quentin Richardson does this and nails a three putting NY up 10.
Knicks fans don’t get particularly excited when David Lee enters the game anymore. They are just as happy to see Nate Robinson.
Dirk is burning everyone who guards him with outside stand-still jumpers.
Randolph can make open threes. As he just reminded Dallas. And a minute later he pops a deep two.
Mavs players seem to not create for each other. Almost all of Dirk’s shots are from him standing still, facing the defender and simply shooting over him.
End of first quarter: Knicks 35, Mavs 26. The Knicks shot 60%, the Mavs 41.4%. For NY Randolph had 16 points and six rebounds. Jamal Crawford scored seven. Chris Duhon had four assists. For Dallas, Dirk scored 11 with five rebounds. J-Ho had nine with four rebounds.
The Mavs offense looks random. It has sped up now, with guys driving in circles and passing to guys who aren’t really in position to do anything.
The Knicks have 50 and the second quarter is almost half over.
With Kidd back in the faster Mavs movement appears to make more sense but they still trail by eight with a few minutes left in the half. They have energy now, though.
Dirk finally drove. And drew a hack.
The Mavs looked like a real basketball team in the second quarter. They were aggressive and got to the loine more. They need to make a habit of this.
End of first half: Knicks 64, Mavs 57. For NY Randolph has 20 points and 11 rebounds. Crawford has 11. David Lee has 10 with six rebounds. For Dallas Dirk has 26 on 14 shots with nine rebounds. Josh Howard has 13. Jason Kidd has four assists and little else.
Dallas starts the third quarter strong and looks like they should. This with their four usual starters plus Jason Terry.
Q-Rich drives right baseline past a caught-off-guard J-Ho and crams a surprising reverse dunk. However, in general Q does not look as quick as he needs to be.
Standing ovation for Plaxico Buress and Brandon Jacobs of the New York Giants. Earlier in the game Magic Johnson also got love.
Nice left baseline jumper from Brandon Bass. Knicks lead by seven.
Jason Terry hits a three over a slow-moving Q-Rich.
Wilson Chandler has a beautiful, high-arc jumper. He can hit it with a defender on him.
A double on Dirk leaves JJ Barea open and he swishes a deep jumper which ties the game at 86.
Surrounded by defenders down low, Randolph saw Lee start to cut down the middle of the paint and hit him with a perfect pass for a dunk. See folks, Zach can pass, sometimes.
End of third quarter: Knicks 91 Mavs 89. Randolph now has 25 and 17. Crawford has 16. Chandler 14. Chris Duhon has nine assists. For Dallas Dirk has 28 and 11. Jason Terry was hot in the third and now has 18.
In the fourth a Berea three makes it a one point game. His outside shot is legit.
Richardson is doing it from outside. He can launch quickly and drain it. Knicks up 101-96.
Kidd backs Robinson way down near the basket and dishes out for a wide open Howard jumper. And Howard scores again. The Mavs need him to help lead, not follow.
Dirk is trying to do it alone, creating jumpers for himself and missing them.
Richardson keeps swishing threes. His latest gives NY a seven point lead.
Dirk heats up in the final few minutes though. And a Jason Terry slash ties it at 112.
As fans rise to their feet NY is unable to get a good shot. Richardson forces it and misses, Knicks keep it alive but can’t score, and the Mave have it with 9.5 seconds. Timeout.
Jason Terry tries to do it alone and misses a contested jumper. We have overtime.
The Mavs go nuts in overtime and run away with it. Dallas was on something like a 19 to 2 run towards the end of the fourth and in OT. The Knicks missed their final 13 shots. An exciting game in NY despite the loss.
Final score: Mavs 124, Knicks 114 OT.