Game Thread: New York Knicks @ Dallas Mavericks 8:30pm 3/30/2016

A lineup change delivered the spark the Dallas Mavericks have desperately needed. A matchup with the struggling New York Knicks could help them sustain it.

While the Mavericks return home seeking to build on a crucial win, the Knicks enter Wednesday night's meeting attempting to put behind another puzzling loss.

Displeased with his team's effort in Sunday's embarrassing 133-111 loss at Sacramento, Dallas coach Rick Carlisle shook up the rotation by inserting Dwight Powell as the starting center and rookie Justin Anderson in place of J.J. Barea for Monday's visit to Denver. The Mavericks got the message, halting a three-game skid with a much-improved all-around performance in a 97-88 victory, just their third win in 13 contests.

Powell had a season-high 16 points on 8-of-13 shooting and Barea added 18 and 11 assists off the bench to help Dallas offset a 4-of-17 night from Dirk Nowitzki.

"I felt, right now, we've got to make the point that anything other than your best effort and your best energy is unacceptable," Carlisle said. "These two guys (Powell and Anderson) you know are going to go hard, unconditionally. They delivered (Monday). We still need everybody, each game is critical."

Perhaps more encouraging was the Mavericks' work on the defensive end. After allowing the Kings to shoot 62.2 percent in Sunday's rout, Dallas forced 21 turnovers that led to 29 points while committing just four giveaways.

"We played some amazing basketball defensively," guard Raymond Felton said. "The way we took care of the ball and the way we defended, we gave ourselves a good chance to fight for this (playoff) spot."

Dallas (36-38) still sits a half-game behind rival Houston for eighth in the Western Conference. It hosts the Rockets next Wednesday after following this matchup with stops in Detroit and Minnesota.

The Mavericks stand a good chance of earning a second straight season sweep of New York (30-45) if they can duplicate Monday's defensive effort. The Knicks are 28-18 when shooting above 42 percent and 2-27 when falling below that mark.

New York shot a combined 51.5 percent and made 27 3-pointers in consecutive wins over Chicago last week, but it's gone 41.1 percent from the field in losing its last two. The Knicks missed 18 of 21 attempts during a 10-point third quarter that led to Monday's 99-91 defeat to injury-depleted New Orleans.

"We should have won this game. There's no if, ands or buts about that," forward Carmelo Anthony said. "Most of the (healthy) guys on their team - no disrespect to them - they play a limited role. They play limited minutes."

The Knicks continue to search for consistent options to complement Anthony and Kristaps Porzingis during a stretch in which they've dropped five of seven. Anthony is averaging 25.0 points and gone 16 of 35 on 3s over his last four, while Porzingis is averaging 20.8 over that span.

Porzingis had 28 points in the rookie's first encounter with Dallas on Dec. 7, but Anthony was held to 6-of-18 shooting as the Mavericks won their fourth straight over New York with a 104-97 victory at Madison Square Garden.

Deron Williams had 20 points and seven assists for Dallas but will miss a fourth straight game with an abdominal strain.

The Knicks have lost 13 of 15 visits to Dallas since 2000.

(nba.com)

Thanks for the game thread Rady.

The Knicks might not be playing for anything but the Mavs are being 1/2 game out for that 8th seed. I'd love for Rambis to play the rookies but this is a critical game in the playoff race so Rambis should play his normal lineup.

Just tuning in and Knicks lead 22-13 and it looks like KP is out tonight.

KP is out with a sore shoulder.

Calderon always seems to be the first one back in transition on D but he never stops anyone.

You've got 5 fouls Jose use 'em.

Dirk with a 3 with .2 secs left on the clock and Mavs go into the break with a 51-48 lead.

JC is out with a quad injury and won't return. Grant should get his minutes in the second half. Only 2 pts in 11 mins in the first half for Grant, needs to do better.

Melo hits a jumper and a 3 he's now 7-10 19 pts and the Knicks have a 56-53 lead early in the 3rd.

Barea is a stud tonight, 19pts in 15mins off the bench.

Grant with 3 consecutive steals, good D by the rook.

Melos 3 makes it a 69-62 lead, Melo with 24 pts

Good 3rd by the boys out scoring the Mavs 26-17 for a 74-67 lead. Dirk didn't score in the qtr and is having a bad shooting night.

Matthews hits a 3 over Lopez and the Mavs cut the lead to 1 82-81 Knicks

Lots of time left 4:37 left.

I don't know how Dirk missed that short jumper with Galloway guarding him.

Barea hits a 3 and ties the game after Rolo fights hard for his tip in layup,

Melo makes up for his turnover with a short jumper and a FT. Knicks take the lead 89-88.

Bares who else makes a layup on the other end and gives the Mavs the 90-89 lead.

Melo bone head play to take that shot after the shot clock reset and gave the a new 24. He was open but he had 24 secs to get something closer.

BS non-call on Matthews on that last possession. He demonstrated the textbook definition of a reach-in foul on Melo, but no call. To be fair, it's not like Melo has shown a high likelihood of knocking down game winning shots.

Melo got fouled, didn't get called and to add insult to injury they give the ball to the Mavs after it goes off Melos leg

Finding ways to lose. It's what bad teams do. Mavs didn't play very well tonight, but they played just well enough in the 4th quarter to win or maybe, we just played bad enough to lose.

Turnovers in the 4th was the story of this game. Bad teams find a way to lose games they should win.