Knicks 128, Mavericks 113: New York is good & Dallas is ugly
The Knicks roll to another win, while the Mavs reflect our bitter, twisted age
Last night, in the midst of this era of monsters we’re enduring, one came into Madison Square Garden on a leash, led by another. The once-proud Dallas Mavericks played in the NBA Finals just nine months ago. Legal ownership of the franchise then passed from one dope who thinks plagiarism and AI are the hallmarks of a quality education to a pair of dopes who think genocide is only bad if it happens to your people. In Greek mythology, the monstrous Typhon and Echidna’s offspring were one nightmare after another: Medusa, Cerberus, the Hydra, the Sphinx, the Caucasian eagle. Mark Cuban, Miriam Adelson and Patrick Dumont have sired something worse.
After last night’s 128-113 loss to the Knicks, the Western conference champs have dropped 10 of 13 games, tumbling out of both the playoffs and the play-in (“play-in” is usually capitalized, but I can’t bring myself to anymore, not when “playoffs” is lowercase; that’s like writing “Off-Broadway” and “broadway”). Dallas is now six games under .500 since trading Luka Dončić because – according to ownership – he’s too fat and unhealthy. Luka’s rookie year was 2018-19. He played six full seasons in Dallas, putting up 2000 or more minutes in each. In that same stretch of time, Anthony Davis did so twice. And he’s six years older. And he’s nicknamed “Street Clothes” because of his injury history. Guess which one could have suited up last night and which one didn’t? If you believe the new billionaires traded Dončić because of their passion for winning, you think Elon Musk is skull-fucking our social infrastructure out of a passion for fiscal responsibility.
Dallas had nine players available last night and eight men out. That can sometimes seem a no-win for a team like the Knicks – if you hammer them, who cares? You were supposed to. Struggle to beat them, or lose, even? Oh, the shame. Such shame.
Nonsense. The Knicks brought the only beauty there was to be had last night, beyond Naji Marshall’s astonishing first-half shooting, draining 13 of his 15 looks to keep the visitors tied at intermission. New York assisted on 14 of their 17 first-quarter buckets, tying the franchise’s most in a quarter in the nearly 30 years that stat’s been tracked. OG Anunoby exploded for 35 points, including a flurry of threes and a dunk after a smack in the chops had him looking like one of the undead.
In the interest of balance, here’s OG also looking good.
A theorist whose name I no longer remember wrote that the reason people stare at beauty for longer than what’s considered socially acceptable is because beauty signifies symmetry and symmetry signifies perfection. We know this world is imperfect, so when we see what we know to be rare and fleeting we keep our gaze on it as a way of preserving what we know cannot survive. A triple-double is generally a feast for the eyes, but last night for the first time in franchise history and only the 20th time in league history two Knicks had one in the same game: Karl-Anthony Towns’ first since coming to New York and Josh Hart’s ninth of the season, breaking Walt Frazier’s club record. If you didn’t see this game live, catch a replay. A real beaut.
Especially in this ugly time. The monsters are trying to make ugly normal, if not fetch. So make and take beauty where you can. Anunoby had more baskets in the transitory third quarter than the entire Mavs team (although as mentioned earlier, “entire” was smaller than usual). The Knicks finished with 40 assists. Tom Thibodeau was smiling and laughing for most of the last six minutes. Kevin McCullar Jr. made his NBA debut for the Knicks, scoring his first career points on a post-up baseline bullrush, the kind that’d make Hart proud.
And yet the prettiest sight came off the floor, that of Jalen Brunson on the bench in street clothes, who at one point late was along with dad Rick having a real good laugh with official Tony Brothers. Unlike their opponents, the Knicks can stick with lowercase “street clothes” when talking about their star, the star Mark Cuban lost after having multiple chances to re-sign, before pissing Brunson away, trading one risk in Kristaps Porziņģis for another in Kyrie Irving, getting one magic carpet ride out of it last spring, then selling the team he supposedly valued as a public trust to death’s cheerleader and a dud.
The Mavs are just about the same age the Seattle Supersonics were when they were stolen from their fans. Dallas’ owners are casinoheads. You know where this is heading. You see it everyday. It’s what’s illegally and immorally happening at the federal level: strip-mine something of value, sell what you can, leave the masses worse off while those with too much to begin with risk everyone else’s not-enough for a little more more. It’s ugly. Don’t stare at it. Look for beauty. Look for light. Look and linger there.
The Knicks should feel nothing but good after last night’s performance. They won. They’re that much closer to clinching the third seed. That much closer to Brunson’s return. Thibs looked across the floor at a team with no choice but to play no more than nine men, his wet dream of a roster, and didn’t abandon ship. The playoffs are a couple weeks away. The future is both bright and here. Now.
And the Mavs? Who were soooo much smarter than everyone they blew up their only championship team before it could defend its title; who gave each other contusions slapping one anothers’ backs celebrating the Knicks passing on Dennis Smith Jr.; who snickered openly at the Knicks’ “gifting” them Magic/Kareem 2.0 with the KP trade, pairing him with Luka; who put on one of the most cynical tank jobs ever to close the 2023 season, advanced to the Finals to close 2024 and will close both this season and the 2025 calendar year with Kyrie out with a torn ACL and AD out with take-your-pick? Never forget that their ugliness, like the federal government under the current pervocracy, is in no way novel. It started long ago.
Tim McMahon wrote a deep-dive earlier this week about how Dallas screwed up retaining Brunson. Cuban insists his version of the truth is the only truth, directly contradicting things Rick Brunson said before Jalen left and what Jalen’s said on multiple accounts since. He even shared texts with reporters from Nico Harrison, the Mavs’ figurehead general manager, from February 2022, purportedly supporting Cuban’s version of events. When McMahon asked Cuban to show texts from January 2022, texts the Brunsons have said prove their story is true, Cuban responded, “Bullshit! That's fucking bullshit, Tim! And you are a moron if you listened to those motherfuckers.” A beautiful mind indeed.
He has his money, though it’s never enough for him. Tweedledum and Tweedledee, the new owners, they do too. Dallas fans? Hopefully Jacob deGrom is healthy for the Rangers, or Jerry Jones dies sooner than later. Knicks fans? Next game is tonight when they host the L.A. Clippers. James Harden is questionable. The stakes aren’t: one more week of wins and the Knicks should be in position to position themselves for a smooth take-off come playoff time. See you tonight, comrades.
