DALLAS, Texas -- Avenging a 50-point loss from Janaury, the New York Knicks routed Dallas 128-94 yesterday to snap the Mavericks’ 13-game NBA win streak.
Reserve Bill Walker had a career-high 23 points, Wilson Chandler added 22 and Al Harrington added 20 for the Knicks, who had lost 15 of their previous 16 games with Dallas and nine in a row at Dallas since last winning here in 1999.
"When you’re rolling along and the Knicks are coming in, you figure you can score 150 points on ‘em in your sleep," Harrington said. "But that Knick team didn’t show up today. We caught ‘em by surprise."
The blowout was revenge by the Knicks for a 128-78 loss to Dallas in New York on Jan. 24 that was the most lopsided victory in Mavericks’ history.
"They remembered," Marion said. "They even said something to me about it before the game. They said they were going to give us a spanking."
Mission accomplished. The 84-point reversal from one game to the other was the biggest such differential swing between teams in back-to-back games in NBA history. No team on a win streak of at least 12 games had ever lost by so much.
"Revenge is sweet sometimes," Harrington said. "That’s a really good team over there. But we caught them at the right time. They were ripe for the picking."
The Knicks, among the NBA’s worst clubs at 23-43, jumped ahead early and stayed atop the Mavericks throughout the second half, drpping the Southwest division leaders to 45-22 and behind Denver to third in the Western Conference.
"It was a poor performance all around when you get throughly thrashed like that," Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said.
Knicks rookie Toney Douglas added 21 points and a game-high eight assists while the Knicks had 15 points and 14 rebounds from David Lee.
"We felt they would take us lightly," Douglas said. "A lot of teams look at the schedule and say, ‘Oh, that’s the Knicks. That’s a win.’ But we have got to come out and compete every night."
German star Dirk Nowitzki scored 20 points and grabbed 12 rebounds to lead the Mavericks while Jason Kidd added 15 points and Shawn Marion had 14 in a losing cause.
The Mavericks, whose last lead was at 20-19 in the first quarter, connected on only 34-of-80 shots from the field and lost for the first time since Feb. 16.
"You especially don’t want it to come to an end like this, but at the same time it was a great run," Marion said. "Now it’s time to start another one. We have just got to learn from it."
Rockets rip woeful Nets
Argentina’s Luis Scola scored a career-high 44 points to power the Houston Rockets past New Jersey 116-108 yesterday, keeping the Nets on pace to have the worst season in NBA history.
A fourth consecutive loss dropped New Jersey to 7-59, leaving the Nets 16 games in which to win three to avoid matching the all-time futility mark in NBA history, the 9-73 campaign of the Philadelphia 76ers in 1972-1973.
The Nets led 55-54 at half-time and kept the game close into the fourth quarter, but could not shut down the Rockets, who at 33-31 are 10th in the Western Conference, five games behind Portland and the last play-off spot.
Scola grabbed 12 rebounds and shot 20-for-25 from the field for the highest-scoring night for any Houston player this season. Kevin Martin added 20 points and Aaron Brooks had 18 points and seven assists for Houston.
Courtney Lee led the Nets with 24 points while Brook Lopez added 24 points and 10 rebounds for New Jersey, which lost the final four games of their five-game road trip. -- AFP
Source:bworldonline.com/
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