The first was the Knicks beating of the Mavs by a score of 128-94. This most unlikely of scores was apparently due to the Knicks wanting "payback" for the 50 point home loss they endured at the hands of the Mavericks on January 24th.
Some quotes from the game: "We felt they'd take us lightly," said Douglas, making his first start since Nov. 18. "A lot of teams look at the schedule and say, 'Oh, that's the Knicks. That's a win.' But we've got to come out and compete every night.
"Revenge is sweet sometimes. That's a really good team over there but we caught them at the right time. They were ripe for the picking," said New York reserve Al Harrington, who had 20 points. "When you're rolling along and the Knicks are coming in, you figure you can score 150 points on 'em in your sleep. But that Knick team didn't show up today. We caught 'em by surprise."
"They remembered [the blowout in New York]," said Dallas' Shawn Marion, who scored 14 points. "They even said something to me about it before the game. They said they were going to give us a spanking."
This appeared to be an easy win for the Mavericks, but the Knicks came out focused and perhaps fearful of what would happen if they didn't.
The second game also involves the Mavericks, this time against Boston.
For this game, Rasheed Wallace vowed payback for the twenty point home loss they suffered. And they were focused and barely won.
These two games support my "energy and skill" theory, that any team on any night plays at a certain level defined by their energy and innate skill. Basically, a teams innate skill at 100% focus and energy, multiplied by whatever percentage of energy a team is playing at for the night. Lets say an average game is played at 75% energy, playoffs close to 95%, etc.
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