Knicks 93, Mavericks 77: Scenes from the Return of Small Ball

Justin Holiday and some other guys helped the New York Knicks come back from a pathetic first-quarter effort to smash the Dallas Mavericks, 93-77.

New York blew the game wide open with a stupendous 31-12 third quarter, paced by strong defense (!!!) and punctuated by some scoring brilliance from Carmelo Anthony:

Kristaps Porzingis finished the night with 24 points. He showed no respect by Dirking right in front of an injured Dirk Nowitzki:

Mike Breen inadvertently referred to Kristaps as “Nowitzki” twice in the fourth quarter. We’ve all been there, my man.

Kristaps also borrowed a page from Melo’s book on this jumper:

But the evening truly belonged to Justin Holiday. The lanky swingman defended so well in the second quarter that Jeff Hornacek inserted him into the starting lineup to start the third quarter. He finished with 16 points and shut down Harrison Barnes. It was wonderful:

Small ball was back in the Garden for one night! Recap to come.