If you were looking for a feel-good, chest-pounding, “this is our house” kind of Martin Luther King Jr. Day at Madison Square Garden, you picked the wrong matinee.
Because what the Knicks served up instead was a flat, lifeless, thoroughly outclassed performance against a Dallas Mavericks team that came in under .500 and walked out looking like they owned the joint.
114–97. And honestly, it wasn’t even that close.
This was supposed to be a showcase. Full strength. National spotlight. Garden buzzing. Instead, it turned into a reminder of a truth Knicks fans don’t like to hear: pretty records don’t mean much if you can’t match urgency with execution.
Max Christie — yes, that Max Christie — turned the world’s most famous arena into his personal shooting gym. Twenty-six points. Eight three-pointers. Eight. The Knicks kept losing him, kept daring him, kept letting him rise up like he was Ray Allen in his prime. By the time the Garden realized what was happening, it was already over.
And Naji Marshall? The Knicks let him stroll into 19 points on a night where Dallas didn’t even have to be spectacular — just organized, disciplined, and tougher.
That’s the part that should bother Knicks fans most, sir.
Dallas didn’t out-talent them. They out-worked them.
Karl-Anthony Towns did his part — 22 points, 18 rebounds — and I’m not here to knock a man who showed up. But basketball isn’t a one-man confessional. It’s a choir, and the Knicks sounded like they were singing in different keys. One guy crashing the glass, another missing rotations, another dribbling into traffic like he was looking for trouble.
Meanwhile, the Mavericks moved the ball, trusted each other, and played like a team that understood the moment.
This was a game the Knicks needed to win — not because it would have changed the standings dramatically, but because it would have said something about who they are.
Instead, it said something else.
Dallas improved to 18-26. Let that sink in.
The Knicks fell to 25-18 — still a good record, still a playoff team — but nights like this are the ones that come back to haunt you in April when you’re wondering why you’re on the wrong side of the bracket.
MLK Day in the Garden is supposed to be sacred.
Instead, it turned into a reminder that Emirate cups don’t defend the three-point line, and banners don’t box out.
And if the Knicks want to be taken seriously — not as a nice story, not as a tough out, but as a real contender — they’d better learn from a night where the Mavericks walked in, took their lunch money, and left them standing there wondering how it happened.
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