Knicks blow late nine-point lead, lose in OT as Luka Doncic puts up historic 60-point triple-double
Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Doncic (77) shoots against New York Knicks guard Immanuel Quickley (5) during the first half of an NBA basketball game in Dallas, Tuesday, Dec. 27, 2022. (AP Photo/LM Otero) Credit: AP/LM Otero
DALLAS — The Knicks made history Tuesday night, but for all the wrong reasons.
After a heroic effort playing shorthanded, they were up by nine points with less than 30 seconds remaining in regulation but squandered the lead — the first team to do that in the last 20 years — and watched helplessly as Luka Doncic put the finishing touches on the first 60-point, 20-rebound, 10-assist triple-double in NBA history (60-21-10).
The fallout was maybe their most draining, frustrating defeat of the season, a heartbreaking 126-121 overtime loss to the Mavericks.
"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-point-something," Immanuel Quickley said. "We just made too many mistakes and they capitalized on it."
He actually was underestimating it. ESPN Stats and Info reported that in the last 20 seasons, NBA teams had been 13,884-0 when leading by at least nine points with 35 or fewer seconds remaining.
The Mavericks hit two three-pointers and the equivalent of two three-point plays in the final 26.8 seconds of regulation, tying it with one second left when Doncic wound up with the rebound of his intentionally missed free throw and hit an 11-footer.
“It’s tough,” Tom Thibodeau said after the Knicks' fourth straight loss. ”It’s a shame to not come out of here with a win. So 29 seconds to go. Their shots. Offensive rebounds. Fouls. So disappointed. We gave up and-1s, we gave up uncontested shots. We missed some free throws. So it was a compilation of things. So you give a team a second crack at things. And then you foul and give and-1s up. It doesn’t make sense.”
It was a game circled on the calendar, the return of Jalen Brunson to Dallas for the first time after four years of growth for the Mavericks and then the departure as a free agent in the summer. But his only appearance was in street clothes and in a touching video tribute followed by a standing ovation from the appreciative crowd at American Airlines Center.
Instead, it turned into a test for the Knicks. Brunson, RJ Barrett and Julius Randle had played in every previous game, but shortly before game time, the team announced that Brunson was sitting out with a sore right hip. Then Barrett was done for the night just 1:36 into the game, departing with a laceration of his right index finger after Doncic tried to poke the ball away from behind on a baseline drive.
Missing two of their three key players, the Knicks fought to the point of exhaustion and gave everything they had. But what they didn’t have was Doncic. And in the end, it took a magical night — and a nearly-unexplainable final minute of regulation — for the Knicks to finally fall.
With a skeleton crew — four players logging more than 40 minutes, led by Quickley's 50:38 — there was nothing left in the end as the Knicks missed four of six free throws and their first six field-goal attempts in overtime and watched the Mavericks methodically pull away.
Doncic seemed unfazed by the minutes or tasks placed in front of him, delivering a historic performance unlike anything these Knicks have seen.
“I promise I was trying, for sure,” Quentin Grimes said. “I’m trying to go through every pick-and-roll. [Doncic is] in almost every action. So it was a lot on me trying to get over every pick-and-roll. He’s crafty with the ball, without the ball. He’s one of the top three players in the league for a reason. He showed that tonight. So I’ve got to tip my hat for sure.”
Quickley moved into the starting lineup in place of Brunson and responded with 13 points and a career-best 15 assists. With Barrett sidelined, Deuce McBride was the next man up, and the Knicks got the sort of performance they needed from the players who remained. Grimes scored a career-high 33 points and matched his career high for three-pointers with seven. Randle, returning to his hometown of Dallas, had 29 points and 18 rebounds. Mitchell Robinson added 20 points and 16 rebounds and McBride scored 14.
Randle drove for a layup and a 110-101 lead with 44 seconds remaining in regulation and McBride sank two free throws with 33.9 seconds left to make it 112-103.
The Mavericks' Christian Wood hit a long three-pointer with 26.8 seconds left, and when the Knicks inbounded, Grimes was double-teamed and tied up. After Doncic won the jump ball, Tim Hardaway Jr. misfired from three-point range, but Doncic grabbed the rebound and in one motion banked in a shot and drew a foul on Quickley. He converted the three-point play, and the lead was down to three with 15.4 seconds left.
After a timeout, the Knicks inbounded and McBride was fouled with 11.5 seconds to play. He missed the first and hit the second for a four-point lead, but Spencer Dinwiddie connected on a three-pointer to make it 113-112.
McBride hit two more free throws with 7.7 seconds left and Grimes fouled Doncic with 4.2 seconds to play before he could get up a three-pointer. He hit the first free throw and intentionally missed the second. Randle got his hands on the rebound but it was knocked away up in the air toward the other side of the lane, and when Grimes and McBride leaped and battled each other for the loose ball, each prevented the other from grabbing it. The ball landed in Doncic’s hands and he sank a shot from the lane with one second left to send the game to overtime.
"I know, everybody is still in shock,’ Mavericks coach Jason Kidd said. “He always does [something new]. He's special. The history of the game is written by the players and it was written again tonight for a player — Luka — doing something that's never been done before. It's hard to do — there've been some great players before him . . . Elgin Baylor, I think Wilt [Chamberlain] — he was in that class and then he separated himself and made his own class, which is pretty cool."
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.
