Nov 21, 2012; Dallas, TX, USA; New York Knicks center Tyson Chandler (6) gets fouled late in the fourth quarter by Dallas Mavericks guard Vince Carter (25) at American Airlines Center. Mandatory Credit: Matthew Emmons-US PRESSWIRE

Well after nearly a week of no internet access, website issues and flaky League Pass playback, I’m finally back online and able to review the Dallas Mavericks win over the New York Knicks.

With the Mavericks having failed to defeat a team with a winning record and the Knicks leading the NBA at 8-1, defeating the visiting Jason Kidd, Tyson Chandler & Co. didn’t seem all that likely and after trailing in the early going it appeared no upset was going to occur.  The Knicks were hitting from downtown and a staggering pace and the Mavs were lucky to hang in.  After the half, however, the Mavs jumped out to a 12-point lead and while they couldn’t maintain it, they held on for the win.

Former Mavs Tyson Chandler and Jason Kidd had huge games for the Knicks, as did Raymon Felton who is doing a remarkable job replacing Jeremy Lin in his second tour with the Knicks.

Carmelo Anthony scored a team-high 23 points but was frustrated by the Mavs’ swarming defense led by Shawn Marion, which drew a couple of offensive fouls and helped Anthony commit 7 turnovers.   Chandler had a double-double (21 points, 13 rebounds) as did Raymond Felton (18 points, 11 assists). In his return to Dallas, Kidd was 5-for-8 from 3-point range and an outstanding game overall with 17 points, six rebounds, five assists and five steals.

The Good:

The Mavericks found the range from 3-point land, albeit not ’til the second half, and O. J. Mayo continued to be a sparkplug.  While New York dominated from downtown in the first half, the Mavs turned the tables behind Vince Carter and that largely proved to be the difference.

The Mavs outrebounded the Knicks even with Chris Kaman having a subpar night and Troy Murphy playing relatively few minutes after leaving the game with a respiratory illness.

Vince had a season high and continued to ease the pain of losing Jason Terry, scoring inside and out including an amazing reverse under the basket reminiscent of Dr. J., finishing with 25 points.

O. J. Mayo continued to be a focus of the offense and led the team with 27 points.

Darren Collison returned to form and scored 19 points while dishing out 7 assists.

Jae Crowder returned to the rotation and matched his season high with 12 points.

Shawn Marion did his usual stellar job of frustrating Carmelo Anthony and had help from Dahntay Jones and Jae Crowder, who were all effective and drawing contact.  Although Melo did end up with leading the Knicks he was frustrated much of the game and ended up fouling out after committing 7 turnovers.  The rest of the Matrix’s stat line looked pretty typical:  7 points, 7 rebounds, 3 steals and the defense that shows up on the other’s guys number.

Troy Murphy left after 17 minutes not to return do to illness and only scored a couple of points at the free throw line but still managed to nab 5 rebounds.

The Meh:

Roddy B did not make it into the game and as Dominique Jones appears to be hitting his stride, the official end of the Roddy experiment may be drawing near.

Elton Brand is still not finding the range and only scored 4 points on 1-of-3 shooting, but did manage to grab 8 rebounds in 20 minutes.  He ended up playing a lot of center rather than Brandan Wright or Bernard James and unfortunately both Chandler and Rasheed Wallace had better-than-average nights.

Brandan Wright and Bernard James also did not make it into the game, even with Troy Murphy leaving with a respiratory problem.   While the Mavs managed to outrebound the Knicks, they still have no one with an athletic inside game and this may come back to haunt them.  Kaman contines to be effective on occasional post ups and with his midrange jumper but it would be nice to have more of an inside-outside game.

The Ugly:

The Mavericks turned the ball over repeatedly in the first half.  They were able to turn it around in the second half but that is a statistic that will continue to cause problems if not rectified.

The Knicks had a big lead early and almost came back to win.  In the end it’s the final score that matters and both teams played a great game.  The danger is relying too heavily on the jump shot.   The Mavericks have had success with that in the past but any team is much better being more versatile.

Without Wright, James, Kaman or Brand establishing consistent presence in the low post, the team will rely too heavily on outside shooting and when the shots don’t fall (as they haven’t for much of the year), the results won’t be as pretty.  Now granted, Chandler is arguably the best low-post defender in the league so the Knicks might not be the easiest team to score inside on but this has been a pattern for too much of the year and with Wright out, it is likely to be worse.

For the year, Kaman has done a great job overall and is still among the NBA leaders in field goal percentage but Brand is still struggling and Wright, the only Mav who consistently plays above the rim, has been benched.   Personally I believe relying too much on the jumper is going to come back to haunt them.  One of the major purposes of having great outside shooters isn’t ONLY to sink those shots, but also to “spread the floor” and force the opposing team to respect the shooters rather than double-teaming or clogging up the lane.  That being the case, the Mavs should take advantage.

The Mavericks also need to work on their own pick and roll and low-post defense.  Felton and Chandler carved them up in the middle and Vince Carter was frequently left trying to guard bigger players.  Chandler had three 3-point opportunities in the later stages of the game and ended up more than doubling his average with a season-high     21.  The Mavs had a lot of trouble with big men last year and that appears to be happening again, despite the presence of Kaman, Brand and James on the roster.

Takeaways:

You can’t discount a win against the hottest team in the league; however the Mavs still had a couple of issues which could be problematic.  Streaky shooting will occasionally happen to any team but streaky turnovers shouldn’t.   Mayo, Kaman and Carter are proving to be very consistent performers and if the Mavs can stop the mistakes and continue to improve the rebounding, the team can go far.    The next game against the improving Lakers will be a good chance to see if the Knicks game was a fluke.

Next Up:

The Lakers, Part Deux.   Since the Mavs defeated them on opening day, the Lakers have a new coach and are playing a lot better.   In the interest of annoying Laker fans, let’s hope for a repeat performance.

Former Mavericks Jason Kidd and Tyson Chandler won the NBA Championship together in Dallas.  Mark J. Rebilas-US PRESSWIRE

The Mavericks head to the Madison Square Garden tonight to face off against the New York Knicks in what should be the most interesting game of the young season.  The surprising Mavericks (4-1) will be stepping on to the home court of the equally hot Knicks (3-0) with a number of interesting variables.

In a peculiar twist of fate, if Roddy Beaubois doesn’t play tonight the Knicks will have more of the NBA 2011 Champion Dallas Mavericks on the floor than Dallas does.  NYC is of course, the new home of Jason Kidd who joined Tyson Chandler last summer.  The Knicks also have Steve Novak who became the NBA’s best 3-point shooter after leaving Dallas.

The Knicks were thought to be taking a major downgrade when Jeremy Lin left and was replaced by the returning Raymond Felton but Felton has played surprisingly well, averaging 13.7 ppg and 6 apg.  JKidd is starting alongside him and contributing 9.0 ppg, 3.7 apg and 3.7 rpg plus 2 steals.   Kidd also has an impressive assist-to-turnover ration of 11.0.  The ball is in good hands.

Felton and Kidd will be challenged by the young Mavs penetration and have to rely heavily on their interior defense, which is excellent.  Jason Kidd has always been a great defender and while not as quick as he used to be, is still a solid team defender and one of the smartest basketball minds in the game.  It will be up to Collison, Mayo & Co. to push them while Vince Carter should post up whenever possible.  If the Mavs continue to hit from downtown, there is also little the Knicks can do to stop them and if Elton Brand and Troy Murphy can also start to connect from midrange and beyond it will make a big difference.

In a situation somewhat similar to the Mavericks, you would expect the Knicks to be less effective without Amar’e Stoudemire, who, like Dirk,  is out with a knee injury for several weeks, as well as defensive stoppers Iman Shumpert and Marcus Camby.  The Knicks are 3-0 anyway, and not only have they done it all against teams above .500, they have the highest point differential of any team in the league by almost double (a whopping 19.7 ppg to  #2 Miami’s 10.2).  Dallas is #3 at 8.8.  The Knicks have won all three games by a huge margin and have the stingiest defense in the league, allowing only 85.3 points, while boasting the 3^rd-best offense (104.7), all despite missing three important pieces.

As one might expect, Carmelo Anthony is leading the team at 26.7 ppg and the rest of the scoring is very balanced with Josh Smith chipping in 16 points off the bench.

The Knicks of course have last season’s Defensive Player of the Year in Tyson Chandler (sigh); yet last year when he sat on the bench the defense took a nosedive.  One would have thought the same would be happening this year but as noted above, the Knicks have the allowed fewer points that any other team in the league.  In addition, opponents are only shooting 40.7% against them, tied for second lowest in the NBA, all without “Shump” and Camby on the court.  Camby is expected to return for the Mavs game Friday and that will only help the Knicks, who will now have Chandler backed up by another former Defensive Player of the Year.   Keeping in mind that they have already beaten potent offensive teams in Miami and Philadelphia by substantial margins, the question for Rick Carlisle will be how to be effective.

The Mavs will have to perform well in several areas to succeed.  The Knicks haven’t shown a lot of weaknesses as of yet and are also an excellent three-point shooting team.   One opportunity for the Mavs is in an area they inexplicably have not shined this year (other than Bernard James) is on the boards.  The Knicks are 20^th in the league in rebounding, oddly led by Anthony with a handful of other players averaging 6-7 rpg.   In theory the Mavs have a much stronger rebounding team but they have yet to show it and that is one area where they will need to assert themselves against an opponent who is paying both great defense and offense.  Without Shawn Marion, that prospect seems a little more difficult although the Raptors game provides hope.  In theory with a team that includes Chris Kaman, Elton Brand, Bernard James and Troy Murphy from the outset, dominating the glass shouldn’t be a problem so it’s up to these guys and Rick Carlisle to figure out why they’ve been inconsistent.

The Mavs will also need to stretch the floor and make use of the inside-outside game, especially if they have trouble with the Knicks’ pick-and-roll defense.  Dirk’s game is an ideal answer to the way the Knicks play but without him, the responsibility falls onto the guards to penetrate and the bigs to hit from midrange in order to keep the Knicks off balance and of course, good ball movement to get around the defense.

While the Mavericks are playing very efficient basketball with 5 guys hovering around a PER of 20 or so, the Knicks are as well.  Essentially this game is a matchup of two of the best teams in the NBA (so far) and should be an excellent game.  The Mavericks will have to prove that they can be successful against teams with a winning records, in particular a team that has beaten two other good teams including the Miami Heat.

Game time is 6:30 CST from Madison Square Garden.