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Knicks a likely cure to Mavericks' recent ills

Mar 10, 2008 - 1:49 PM New York (18-45) at Dallas (40-23) 8:30 pm EDT

DALLAS (Ticker) - Hosting the New York Knicks on Monday might be exactly what the Dallas Mavericks need.

The Mavericks snapped a three-game losing streak on Saturday with a 111-91 win over New Jersey that kicked off a four-game homestand. Dallas will try to take advantage of a favorable schedule as its next four games are against four of the Eastern Conference's five worst teams.

"As of right now, we're just trying to get back on track," said Mavericks' forward Dirk Nowitzki who became the franchise's all-time leading scorer on Saturday with 16,644 points. "We've got to use this homestand to get better and get back to winning some games. The playoff picture is very tight so it was a big win for us and hopefully we can put together a nice little winning homestand here."

Dallas has won 13 of its last 14 games at home and is 26-4 on the season. The Knicks have lost six consecutive games, capping an 0-4 homestand on Saturday with a 120-114 overtime loss to Portland. New York has lost 17 of its last 21 games.

The Knicks, 6-24 on the road, have dropped four straight away from home by an average of 23.7 points. New York has lost seven consecutive road games against the Mavericks.