Knicks Can't See in the 'Dirk' and Lose to Mavs in OT

BOXSCORE

The Knicks foiled down the stretch in both the final quarter of regulation and the overtime. This has been part of their persona thus far in the young season, but tonight a veteran team in Dallas made them pay for it. As probably predicted, Dirk Nowitzki was way too much to handle. With 39 points and 15 rebounds, he took over the game and showed his superstar status to lead the Mavs to the win.

"We just told ourselves stay with it and get some big stops and offensively keep attacking,'' Nowitzki said. "We had to get off this losing streak, so whatever I had to do, the team told me to keep shooting and play aggressively.''

The Mavs looked like a dead team that was 2-7 for the first three quarters but then suddenly awoke upon the eruptions of both Dirk and bench guard Jason terry who chipped in with 20 points of his own. Josh Howard was also a serious problem for the Knicks to defend, as he scored 31 points shooting 50% from the field.

The Knicks were fluid until the middle of the fourth quarter as the defense from Dallas become tougher and the lead started to dwindle.

"We could have won the game,'' Knicks forward Zach Randolph said. "We had a chance to win the game. But the ball won't fall for us. There's nights like this. We've just got to keep our head up and keep going.''

This is where the Knicks struggle as a young team; when they stop attacking. Duhon wasn't pushing the ball as much and was making the Knicks a half court team. As a half court team, the Knicks are no different then they were a year ago. In fact they are a pathetic half court team. Tonight there was too much one on one down the stretch and they made it easy for Dallas to get stops. Although this philosophy has win to win a championship in New York or anywhere else, using offense as your best defense is the only way the Knicks can win. With no fierce defenders, a shot blocker or even a body over 6'10, the Knicks will remain weak defensively. However, scoring is something that comes much easier to them, so their strategy has to be to outscore teams. Having said this, the Knicks need to know that they must attack with shots from everywhere for the full 48 minutes of a game.

The Knicks lost the battle on the glass tonight 58-54 and committed 15 turnovers and only forced Dallas into 9. The crowd was buzzing tonight and thirsty for a win, but the reality is the Knicks let a 15 point lead slip away at home. A win tonight would have been a great way to fly into Boston for Tuesdays match up with the world champs.

Knicks recap