DALLAS – A whistle saved the Knicks from an embarrassing defeat.
Mavericks guard Brandon Williams appeared to hit the go-ahead bucket in the final seconds on Wednesday, but he was called for hooking defenseman Landry Shamet and the Knicks escaped the American Airlines Center with a 113-111 nail-biter over Dallas.
Shamet ultimately became the unlikely hero.
Facing a terrible and undermanned Mavericks squad, the Knicks were in tight contention and needed big buckets – and Shamet came through.
The veteran guard, who has held a consistent starting role despite joining the team on a non-guaranteed contract, knocked down a pair of 3-pointers in the final 62 seconds, including the go-ahead goal with about 30 ticks remaining.
Yet Shamet and his teammates almost blow it. Shamet hit two potential game-clinching free throws with 22 seconds left. Then Mitchell Robinson threw a pair from the foul line. And then Jalen Brunson, returning to the lineup, converted just 1 of 2.
It left the Knicks a disappointing 1-for-6 from the charity stripe in the final 30 seconds, giving Dallas life. After Brunson’s final free throw, the Mavericks got the inbounds pass to Williams, who clearly hooked Shamet on the drive and couldn’t get away with it.
The coupling bucket went in, but did not count.
So the Knicks (9-5) got an unimpressive win. But at least they made it on the road, where they improved to 1-4 on the season.
Brunson dropped a game-high 28 points in his return from a two-game absence due to a sprained ankle, an injury suffered at the time of a loss to the Magic. It’s safe to assume Brunson wanted to play in Dallas, the place he called home for the first four seasons of his career. There was extra motivation.
It wasn’t a clean break with Dallas, after all. The Mavericks initially refused to offer Brunson a fair contract, but then called nuisance and tampering when Brunson didn’t give the Mavericks a chance to match New York’s offer in 2022.
More recently, Mavericks minority owner Mark Cuban advanced a theory that Brunson’s contract circumvented the cap, similar to Kawhi Leonard and Clippers’ alleged cap circumvention.
The Knicks were found guilty by the NBA of tampering with Brunson and gave up a second-round pick, but there is no evidence of cap bypassing.
“I don’t know. I just think there were a lot of things going on. You know, that’s behind me,” Cuban said on journalist Pablo Torre’s podcast. “More power to JB. More power to everything. Was I happy they weren’t selected until the second round? No. No, it should have been a lot worse, but it is what it is.”
The Mavericks, meanwhile, entered the evening in shambles. They recently fired the team president, Nico Harrison, less than a year after his disastrous Luka Doncic trade. They are dealing with injuries as Kyrie Irving and Anthony Davis are on the shelf indefinitely, although Davis may return soon.
Even Cooper Flagg, their best reason to be hopeful about the franchise’s direction, was inactive Wednesday due to an illness. It was unfortunate timing, as the Mavericks gave away Flagg posters at every seat.
But the Mavericks held their own against New York’s porous defense, allowing the Mavericks to shoot 16-for-44 from deep. Naji Marshall and D’Angelo Russell each scored 23 for Dallas off the bench.
For the Knicks, Karl-Anthony Towns scored 18 points with 14 rebounds on just 6-for-16 shooting. Josh Hart had 16 points and 10 rebounds off the bench – including a big three-pointer in the fourth quarter. But the Knicks couldn’t create enough space to feel comfortable against an inferior opponent, and Mike Brown’s side needed help from Shamet and the referee to avoid what would have been their worst loss of the season.
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