NEW YORK – Not much was going particularly well for the Dallas Mavericks in the first half of Saturday afternoon’s
game against the New York Knicks.
Then the third quarter started. And Luka Doncic and Tim Hardaway Jr. started setting the Madison Square Garden nets on fire.
Doncic and Hardaway took turns setting off fireworks normally seen around here when the ball drops at Times Square on New Year’s Eve. By the time everything was said and done, the Mavs were able to get out of town with just their second road win of the season thanks to a splendid 121-100 triumph over the Knicks.
The Mavs outscored the Knicks, 41-15, in the third quarter to turn a close game into a rout.
From an individual standpoint, Doncic outscored the Knicks in the third quarter (19-15), and so too did Hardaway (17-15). It was that kind of fun afternoon for those two players.
“That’s pretty impressive,” coach Jason Kidd said. “No matter what team you’re playing, to have two guys go like that. . .
“Probably for Luka’s standards, he probably felt like he didn’t play a good first half. But Timmy, he’s had a couple of great games here for us. Even in (Thursday’s 131-125 overtime) loss against Detroit he started to shoot the ball well.”
Hardaway shot the ball so well Saturday that he made five three-pointers – in just the third quarter. His fifth trey of the quarter pushed the 
Mavs ahead, 78-68, with 4:50 remaining in the third period.
Josh Green followed with a three-pointer, Doncic scored inside and then fired a lob pass near the rim, which Hardaway grabbed and scored. Doncic then banged in back-to-back three-pointers, and spun in the lane and scored on a floater for a 93-72 Mavs lead that was followed by chants of “MVP, MVP, MVP” from some fans among the crowd of 18,319.
In essence, Doncic had a pedestrian 11 points in the first half, but turned it around in the third quarter.
“Obviously the first half I wasn’t really participating,” said Doncic, who collected 30 points, eight rebounds, seven assists and three blocked shots in 29 minutes. “It was a challenge to come out of the locker room (in the second half) with more energy and better everything.”
Indeed it was, considering the Mavs fell down at one point in the first half by 15 points (38-23). But the Mavs only trailed, 59-52, at the half despite converting just 16-of-48 shots.
Whether it was trying to get used to playing against former Mavs guard Jalen Brunson for the first time, or trying to contain Plano native Julius Randle, the Mavs just looked like they were in a funk in the first half.
“We were fighting in the first half (and) we weren’t playing well,” Kidd said. “We got off to a little slow start. We shot (33) percent at halftime. We should have been down 20 and we were only down seven, so that was a positive.
“We thought if we could just put some stops together, that would put us in a position to get closer. Not saying we were going to come out and shoot the way we did in the third. That wasn’t really talked about. It was our defensive principles. Can we continue to make them take tough shots, and can we rebound the ball, and I thought the guys did that.”
Not only that, the Mavs were a robust 15-of-31 from three-point range in the second half after making just 9-of-30 shots from downtown in the first half. Those 61 attempts from three-point land tied for the fourth-most in a game in NBA history and eclipsed only by the 70, 68 and 63 three-pointers the Houston Rockets attempted in three games.
Hardaway, who scored a season-high tying 28 points and was 8-of-13 from downtown, said: “Sixty-one three-pointers with a win, I’ll take it. Hardaway also said the fact he had family and friends attend the games against Detroit and New York, they gave him a much-needed boost.
“When you have family and friends in both cities it just enlightens you and brings a positive vibe, a positive energy that you really can’t get when you’re away from them,” he said. “So just being able to come to Detroit and to New York — both places where I used to play – college and then professional, it was great.
“Great atmosphere. I was comfortable and also my teammates just keeping me positive, and that let me know they’ve got my back.”
Spencer Dinwiddie, meanwhile, rebounded from a two-point showing against Detroit with 17 points, nine rebounds and nine assists, and Maxi Kleber scored 13 points and Reggie Bullock added 10 points.
“I think it’s just great that everyone’s in the locker room smiling,” Kidd said. “Everybody saw the ball go in. We shared the ball, we played the right way, the ball wasn’t sticking. Again, we tried to put guys in a situation to be successful.
“We’re a team that lives or dies by the three, and today we made them. We got a lot of great looks, we knocked them down and there were a lot of rhythm shots. A lot of guys passed up maybe layups or the opportunity to shoot one to get a better one, and I thought we saw that this afternoon. A lot of beautiful basketball of passing up a good shot to get a great shot.”
The Mavs (11-11) also locked down defensively on Brunson, who scored just 13 points. And they put up a defensive wall in the second half on Randle, who only scored three of his 24 points after halftime.
“I think we stopped fouling him,” Hardaway said. “He was getting a lot of calls and we just wanted to do a great job of just showing our hands, loading to the basketball, forcing him to pass and just trying to do a great job of once the shot goes up, knowing that he was going to crash and follow his shot.
“So once he gets the shot up, just boxing him out.”
It all added up to what would be an enjoyable flight back to Dallas for the Mavs, who held a 116-84 lead with 6:17 remaining in the game and will now host Phoenix on Monday.
“The way we played the third quarter, you saw that we can really play basketball,” Doncic said. “It was really enjoyable being out there with the team, especially in the third quarter.”
Twitter: @DwainPrice
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