Earl K. Sneed, Mavs.com
Dallas Mavericks 128 at New York Knicks 78
Playing without key players is nothing new for the Dallas Mavericks. Sunday afternoon they had to do it again, and the result was no different then the past: Another Dallas win.
Though when is a franchise record 50-point win ever routine?
"A 50-point win...The last time I had a 50-point win, it's been awhile," forward Shawn Marion said. "I don't think I've ever had a 50-point win. That's crazy."
That's crazy, indeed.
The Mavericks entered Madison Square Garden without their floor general, point guard Jason Kidd, and with starting center Erick Dampier sidelined. Still a short-handed Mavs squad finished off a five-game road trip in style, downing the New York Knicks in blowout fashion. With seven Mavericks scoring in double figures, while a stifling Dallas defense held the Knicks to just 33.7 percent shooting, the team set a new mark for the largest margin of victory with a 128-78 win. The victory tied for the third largest margin separating two teams in NBA history, and it handed the Knicks their worst home loss in their illustrious history.
"We played well, we defended well and we made shots. And so that's a good combination," Mavs coach Rick Carlisle said of the win. "Clearly it wasn't their night, but we had something to do with it."
"Any time you hold a team to 33 percent shooting in their own gym, you did a heck of a job. And offensively we moved the ball, we didn't force anything and we got some good looks...It's a solid effort on both ends of the floor," leading scorer Dirk Nowitzki said.
(Photo by Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images)
Already hitting the court without Nowitzki and swingman Josh Howard for stints this season, Dallas had grown accustom to having players step up when stars went down. Kidd returned to Dallas for personal reasons, missing just his second game since returning to the franchise in February of 2008. Dampier was once again bothered by a left knee effusion, a nagging injury that has kept the big man off the court for three games. But the end result was the same, as all 11 Mavericks that saw game action scored to help the Dallas squad claimed its most lopsided victory ever.
"It feels good, but I don't care if we won by just one point. A win is a win," Marion said.
Starting a lineup of J.J. Barea, Jason Terry, Marion, Nowitzki and Drew Gooden, the Mavs went to work with a blue collar approach. After Gooden scored Dallas' first six points of the day, the Mavericks turned to the outside shot, including Terry's 3-pointer at the 5:08-mark of the first quarter. The long range bomb gave Dallas 900 straight games with a made three. But with the Knicks playing without Slam Dunk champion Nate Robinson (strained right hamstring), the New York role players stepped up early. Still, the Mavericks owned a 27-25 edge after one behind Terry's 10 quick points.
After going scoreless in the opening period, Nowitzki looked to take charge in the second stanza. But the early minutes of the quarter were about Marion, including the versatile forward's first successful three of the season. With rookie Rodrigue Beaubois utilizing his quickness to push the tempo, while the shots from behind the 3-point arch continued to found the bottom of the net, the Mavericks' superiority showed on the scoreboard. The first-year guard showed the promise that the Dallas front office saw when they picked him up in a Draft Day trade, raining in shot after shot from deep to help the Mavericks open up a 14-point lead.
"Roddy (Beaubois) has worked extremely hard, and J-Kidd has spent a lot of time mentoring him...Helping prepare him for a situation where we would need him to play point," the coach said. "He stepped in there and he ran the team well, he hit shots, he defended well, so you can see that the hard work has paid off."
But when Beaubois picked up his third foul with 3:04 left in the first half, he was forced to head to the bench. With Nowitzki struggling with his shooting, Terry gladly picked up the slack to increase the Dallas lead to 17 before taking a 59-43 advantage into the halftime intermission.
"Myself, I didn't really have a lot of great looks there in the first half," Nowitzki said of his early struggles. "But the team was great, we were still up 16, so I didn't want to force anything. So, I just stayed aggressive during the second half and made some plays."
(Photo by Nathaniel S. Butler/NBAE via Getty Images)
Terry's 15 points and Beaubois' 11 powered the Mavs to 49 percent shooting, but the story after the first 24 minutes of play was Gooden. In Dampier's stead, Gooden recorded a double-double in the first half with 10 points and 15 rebounds. The former Kansas standout's rebounding output was just two boards shy of a Dallas record for rebounds in a half, shared by Nowitzki and Popeye Jones.
"Drew Gooden has worked extremely hard to fit his abilities and skills in with what we're doing as a team. It hasn't been easy throughout the entire year, but in the last two or three weeks he's caught his stride a little bit," Carlisle said of his reserve big man.
Meanwhile, the Dallas defense held the Knicks to just 39 percent shooting in the half.
"It all started defensively for us," Nowitzki said. "They really live and die with the 3-point shot, and I think we really tried to take that out of the game."
The third quarter was all about the Mavs' explosive offense, as a run-and-gun Dallas squad looked to eliminate any notion of a New York comeback attempt. Back-to-back scores from Barea gave the Mavericks a 74-49 lead with 6:40 remaining in the period. With Nowitzki getting in on the act from behind the arch, the Dallas lead ballooned to as much as 43 before the Mavericks took a 97-56 blowout into the final quarter. Dallas outscored New York 38-13 in the third, with seemingly everything going the Mavericks' way.
"We stayed focused there in the third quarter, even though we had a lead. We played like it was a tie game," Nowitzki said.
"I don't know what it was...We were just so aggressive out there, on both ends of the floor," Marion added. "Taking them out of everything and anything that they wanted to do."
With the final result no longer in question, the fourth quarter was more about game minutes for the Dallas reserves, a circus finish from Beaubois, thunderous dunks from Tim Thomas and James Singleton and a 53-point Mavericks' lead. When the buzzer sounded, the scoreboard showed the Mavs' most dominating win to break the former record, a 45-point win against Golden State on January 15, 1985.
"We've been in a lot of close games. We've won a lot of close games. We haven't had many games like this. So, it's good once in a while to be able to win by a margin and be able to sit some of your guys. But it doesn't happen very often in this league, particularly this year, where you've got so much parity from top to bottom," Carlisle said.
"It's surprising that it went the way that it did, but sometimes those things happen. This is a good win for us...Look, once in a blue moon these things happen, but fortunately for them it counts for one loss. It's a win for us and you move on. If you're them you flush it. And if you're us, we got to get ready for the next one. Forget about it."
Nowitzki and Terry shared game-high honors with 20 points apiece, while Marion (15), Gooden (15), Beaubois (13), Barea (11) and Singleton (10) all scored in double figures. The Mavericks finished the day shooting 58 percent from the field, including a season-high 12 made 3-pointers on 22 attempts. Dallas was on in every way, also knocking down 16-of-17 at the foul line.
Jared Jeffries led New York with 14 points, though the Knicks clearly struggled offensively. Compared to Dallas' 3-point assault, the Knicks hit just 4-of-25 from behind the arch.
"I don't think they really got any good looks at hitting threes until in the fourth quarter," Marion said. "We were just on them."
Gooden also finished with 18 rebounds, though the Knicks slightly out-rebounded the Mavs 46-45.
Dallas finishes up 3-2 during their extended stay on the East Coast. Now the team returns home to host the Milwaukee Bucks on Tuesday night. Tickets are still available and can be purchased by calling (214) 747-MAVS. The game will air locally on Fox Sports Southwest at 7:30 p.m. CT.
For up to the minute news on the Dallas Mavericks, visit Mavs.com. Follow Mavs.com’s Earl K. Sneed on Twitter at http://twitter.com/EarlKSneed.
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