Luka Doncic: Dallas got lucky in defeating New York

“I don’t know,” Luka Doncic said after the game. “We got kind of lucky.”

Lucky or not, the Dallas Mavericks had a night for the ages at the American Airlines Center on Tuesday, defeating the New York Knicks 126-121 in OT.

It was, once again, a night to be written in golden letters within the Dallas Hoops history books:

• New York led the game by nine points with 33.9 seconds left on the clock.
• The Mavericks went on a 12-3 run in the final 30 seconds of regulation.
• Dallas was down three points with Luka Doncic going to the free throw line.
• Doncic made the first free play, missed the second on purpose, grabbed his board, hit a game-tying jumper and sent the game into overtime after hitting that bucket.
• The Mavs forced the Knicks to miss eight of ten attempts in OT.
• Luke compiled the first 60-21-10 in Association history.

The list goes on and on, but the few points included above say enough.

“I’m tired as hell. I need a recovery beer,” said the man of the match himself.

Jalen Brunson missed the game with a hamstring injury — his first DNP since joining the Knicks last summer — and couldn’t face his former team in Dallas, and RJ Barrett was forced out less than two minutes into it due to a sprained finger.

Doncic scored 10 points in just the final minute of regulation on his way to scoring 60 on the night. It’s the first 60 games in Dallas history, and Luke’s performance included a career-high 21 home runs and an unheard-of 60-21-10 stat line.

“I’m just enjoying the sport,” Doncic said. You bet.

Meanwhile, the Knicks certainly aren’t having much fun after losing four games in a row and counting. The Mavericks last beat New York right before the Knicks strung together an eight-game winning streak, but that positive run feels like a long time ago with no wins in NYC’s streak for the last week or so.

“We gave up one. We gave up uncontested shots. We missed some free throws. So it was a combination of things,” Tom Thibodeau said after the game. “So you give a team a second shot at things. And then you foul and give up. No sense.”

Quentin Grimes led the Knicks with 33 points, six rebounds and four dimes. Julius Randle added 29 points and 18 rebounds, Mitchell Robinson hit 20 rebounds with 16 boards, and Immanuel Quickley went 5-of-21 for 13 points while hitting just a team-high 1-of-10 three-pointers. 51 minutes of play.

Grimes was also the man who fouled Doncic with four seconds left on the clock, helping him and the Mavericks to a blowout win.

Asked before Tuesday’s game if the Knicks had played at their best during their three-game losing streak, Randle replied: “Offensively, yes; defensively, no,” before adding that “we’ve got to get back to that, for sure.”

It didn’t happen yesterday in their first of three road games in the Texas Triangle.

Spencer Dinwiddie had 25 buckets for the Knicks with Christian Wood adding 19. No Mavs reserve scored more than five points or grabbed more than three rebounds, with McKinley Wright IV the only one to score a dime. Kemba Walker hit a free throw with five minutes left.

“I’m sure if you look at the probability of us winning the game with 20 seconds left, I’m pretty sure it’s like 99-something (percent),” Quickley said after the loss. “We just made a lot of mistakes and they capitalized on it.”

Neither Randle, Brunson nor Barrett made themselves available to the media after the game.

The Knicks (18-17) remain sixth in the East, seven games behind the first-place Celtics and one game over .500. New York owns the NBA’s longest losing streak (four) among teams outside of the lottery (Detroit, six).

Next on the schedule are the San Antonio Spurs (11-23) on Thursday night. The Spurs currently boast the fourth-worst record in column L, but are 5-5 in their last 10 games. It will be the first meeting between the two teams this season, while the second will be soon on January 4 at MSG.