The New York Knicks won a very ugly game on Wednesday against the Dallas Mavericks. They put up their worst shooting performance of the season as they were looking for their first road victory, and despite the lackluster offense, they found a way to win.
Knicks won an ugly game against the Mavericks
They had lapses in nearly every aspect. They shot just 28% from three and 54% from the free throw line, and gave the Mavericks several chances to tie or win the game in the closing seconds.
Additionally, they allowed Dallas to make 16 three-pointers despite them entering the game as the third-worst three-point shooting team. Normally, that formula equals a tough loss, but the Knicks made big plays at the right time to escape with a victory.
Head coach Mike Brown acknowledged that the game was ugly, but added that games like that will happen over the course of a long season.
“You have to win in different ways, and if we lost the game, I’ll tell you — it sounds crazy — but I thought we competed. I thought we tried to play the game the right way tonight, and when you do those things, then the confidence starts to build, and you can start stacking wins on the road because you’re about the right stuff. And tonight, we were about the right stuff even though the shots didn’t go in,” Brown said via Posting and Toasting.
The Knicks have a lot of adjustments that need to be made
On paper, the Knicks were heavy favorites to beat the Mavericks coming into that game. Anthony Davis and Kyrie Irving were ruled out well ahead of the action, and Cooper Flagg was also a last-minute scratch after dealing with an illness.
Despite that, Dallas’s role players fought hard and gave New York trouble. They defended New York around the perimeter well and got hot from three-point range, as guys such as D’Angelo Russell and Klay Thompson had impactful games.
New York will take the win every day of the week, but they have quite a lot of stuff that needs to be fixed if they want to play like true contenders. They’ll look to have a much cleaner game on Saturday when they face the Orlando Magic in the third game of their five-game road trip.