Knicks flip-flop, get flattened in loss to Mavericks

DALLAS — The shots weren’t falling for the Knicks Wednesday night, struggling to find the range from just about anywhere on the court. But if one thing was a sure thing it was this: Josh Hart rushing the ball up the floor on a fast break and floating a lob for OG Anunoby to easily slam in alone.

But as Anunoby, who had just scored a career-best 40 points in the last game, tried to slam it in it rattled off the back of the rim and out and on to Kyrie Irving, who easily drained a long three-point field goal. And maybe that was the time when it became clear what kind of night this was going to be for the Knicks/

The wild roller coaster ride of a road trip continued with the Knicks alternating nights when they look like potential champions and then appear bound for the lottery the next. They were dominated from the start and the 129-114 final score didn’t indicate just how much of a struggle it was most of the night.

“I mean, we couldn’t buy a basket to save our lives to start the game,” Jalen Brunson said. “Defensively, we just weren’t there. It’s a long season. Honestly, got to limit the highs and lows and be as steady as we can be.”

The Knicks now head to Charlotte for a Black Friday finale to the five-game trip with a 2-2 record so far and a hope that the holidays can push aside the memory of this game.

Just two days after putting up record-setting numbers in the win in Denver the Knicks were trying to avoid setting marks for futility this time against the defending Western Conference champions. But the Mavericks were doing it this night without Luka Doncic or Klay Thompson and it didn’t matter.

“There’s a new challenge every day,” Karl-Anthony Towns said. “I can guarantee you, Jason Kidd’s a hell of a coach. He looked at the [Denver] game and found ways he could play against us. He did a great job. They were ready.”

“We got in such a big hole and then by the time we got a rhythm offensively in the second half we were in too big of a hole,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said. “Our rebounding wasn’t very good. Yeah, tough game.

“It’s what the league is. That’s our challenge. We’ve been on the road a long time. Early start, got to be ready to go.”

Anunoby finally scored on a layup from a Towns feed with 7:37 to play in the game after misfiring on his first 11 attempts. But by then this game was long decided. He finished with eight points on 3-for-15 shooting. Brunson had 37 points as he tried to single-handedly drag the Knicks back into this game and Towns finished with 25 points and 14 rebounds.

But that late push hid in the boxscore what had been a problem all night.

The Knicks shot just 4-for-21 in the first quarter — misfiring on all eight of their three-point field goal attempts — and seemed fortunate to be trailing just 28-15. The struggles continued as the half wore on. Anunoby’s missed dunk and the Irving three upped the lead to 43-22 and Dallas led by as many as 24 in the second quarter. Anunoby would finish the half 0-for-8, scoreless, and the Knicks trailed 60-38.

The Knicks finished the half just 11-for-42 and was 2-for-16 from beyond the arc (both by Mikal Bridges). It wasn’t just Anunoby as Hart was 0-for-5 and Towns was just 2-for-8. The 38 points marked their lowest-scoring half of the season and came after they scored 40 in a quarter Monday and for the third time this season had 76 in a half.

The Knicks cut the deficit to 13 midway through the third quarter, but the Mavs quickly pushed the lead back to 19, 81-62, and prompting another Knicks timeout.

Notes & quotes: Tyler Kolek was held out with an illness . . . Quentin Grimes, who was traded last season from the Knicks to Detroit and then was moved to Dallas in the summer, had 21 points for Dallas. While he was on the first pieces of last year’s team to depart he was surprised to see the Knicks makeover. “The biggest thing was Donte [DiVincenzo]. Just watching him last year and the whole time in the playoffs, I thought Donte was going to be a guy who was going to be a New York lifer for sure. But that’s the business of the NBA. Everybody has to do what’s right for the organization and I feel like that was one that really surprised me in the offseason for sure.

By Steve Popper

steve.popper@newsday.com@StevePopper

Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.