Mavs Lose To Knicks

By Everett Merrill, The Sports Xchange

NEW YORK — With the New York Knicks sluggishly going through the first half against the Dallas Mavericks, coach Jeff Hornacek decided to mix things up by going to a smaller lineup for the second half. 
Hornacek’s strategy worked as the Knicks responded with a 93-77 win over Dallas on Monday at Madison Square Garden. The Knicks outscored the Mavericks 57-38 in the decisive second half. 
It was the Knicks’ largest margin of victory this season. They only had three games last season in which they defeated an opponent by 16 points or more. 
Kristaps Porzingis posted his first double-double of the season with 24 points and 11 rebounds and Carmelo Anthony also contributed 24 points as the Knicks (4-6) snapped a two-game losing streak and a five-game losing streak to the Mavericks. 
Porzingis was third in the league in double-doubles in his rookie season last year with 21 points. He has posted at least 20 points in five of his last six games. 
Dallas forward Dirk Nowitzki warmed up before the game but determined that his sore right Achilles’ tendon was not ready for game action. He missed a fourth straight game. Nowitzki is the active leader in points and minutes played.  
Harrison Barnes led the Mavericks (2-7) with 20 points. He’s averaging 22.6 points per game, which is nearly 11 points more than last season with Golden State. J.J. Barea added 17 points. 
Nowitzki hopes to be back in the lineup on Wednesday when Dallas plays at Boston. Dorian Finney-Smith, a rookie from Florida, started in place of Nowitzki. He scored four points in 20 minutes. 
“The biggest issue is to just start running,” the 38-year-old Nowitzki said. “I am not a big runner these days in this stage of my career. I can’t really go up and down yet, so I am not quite there yet, but the good thing is that I am getting better.” 
Justin Holiday ignited the Knicks with 16 points off the bench. He scored 12 in the second half when New York took control of the game with Holiday as the catalyst. 
Holiday started the second half for the Knicks as part of a three-guard set with Courtney Lee and Derrick Rose, leaving center Joakim Noah on the bench and allowing Anthony to move to power forward and Porzingis to center. The formula worked as Anthony scored 17 points in the quarter. 
“He (Holiday) continues to work,” Hornacek said. “He is always in the right help position. He doesn’t have the things that always show up on the stat sheet, but he is right there. He does the little things that help you win.” 
New York dominated the third quarter, outscoring Dallas 30-12 for a 66-51 cushion. Dallas converted just five of its 18 shots from the floor. 
The Knicks trailed 39-36 at the half but were shooting only 39.5 percent from the field and turned the ball over 10 times. 
“It was kind of a weird and ugly first half,” Hornacek admitted. “Sometimes you have to gut these wins out. We’ve used it (small lineup) a couple of times this year and it was OK. 
“We have capable centers in Jo (Noah), Kyle (O’Quinn) and Willy (Hernangomez) so I don’t know how much we’ll go to it. But things were slow in the first half so we wanted to go to KP (Porzingis) at the five.” 
A 3-pointer from Anthony, his third of the night, put the Knicks ahead 82-64 with 5:54 remaining to play. Dallas never got closer than 70-59 with 9:59 left. 
“We took bad shots,” Dallas coach Rick Carlisle said. “We had untimely turnovers and our timing was poor all night. In the second half, we couldn’t overcome it.” 
J.J. Barea hit a short jumper to knot the score at 44 with 9:12 left in the third quarter before the Knicks responded with a 13-3 spree to move ahead 57-47 with 4:28 left. Anthony scored five points in the run as the Knicks went to the smaller lineup. 

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