The New York Knicks welcomed back center Eddy Curry, albeit he saw limited action in their game against the Dallas Mavericks Thursday night at American Airlines Arena.  It would be speculative to say whether Curry could have helped his team this particular night; however, the Knicks shot a woeful 41.6% from the floor and couldn’t capitalize from a sub-par game from the Mavericks’ Dirk Nowitzki as Dallas managed to hold off New York for the win 99-94.

The Knicks went on a 14-2 run early, capped by a Tim Thomas layup, to take a 27-16 lead in the first quarter.  But the Mavericks would cut it to 29-27 at the end of the period on a 3-pointer by Jose Barea.  New York’s Chris Duhon had 22 first-half points as the Knicks would go into halftime with a 59-54 lead; Thomas would drain a trey to put the Knicks up 78-70 in the third quarter; however, in the last 3:26 of the period, New York would go scoreless as Dallas would take a 2-point lead into the fourth quarter.

The Mavericks would take the lead for good at 87-86 on a Jason Kidd jumper; Kidd would add a 3-pointer to increase their lead to 93-89.  Al Harrington drained a 3 to put New York to within 95-94; the Knicks had three chances to tie or win the game, but couldn’t capitalize on them.  Dallas’ high scorer was Josh Howard with 19 points, 4 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals while Kidd added 16 (including 4 treys) with 7 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals; Brandon Bass recorded a double-double as he scored 12 with 11 boards.

New York was led by Duhon with 24 points (including 4 three-pointers), 2 rebounds and 7 assists while Wilson Chandler added 20 with 4 rebounds, 3 assists, a steal and a blocked shot; David Lee notched a double-double as he scored 13 with 15 rebounds.  Dallas (22-13) plays again on Friday when they travel to Phoenix to take on the Suns while New York (13-21) makes the short trip to Houston to face the Rockets on Saturday.