Through a trying start to the season, Derek Fisher has been a pillar of poise on the sideline, but after watching his New York Knicks stumble out of the gates at home against the Dallas Mavericks, the first-year coach showed some fire and frustration.

The Knicks allowed the Mavs to make 11 of their first 13 shots and go 14-of-19 in the first quarter, and after watching his defense give a wide-open look to one of the game’s best shooters, Dirk Nowitzki, Coach Fish had seen enough.

“I thought the start was not the right way to start a professional basketball game,’’ Fish said after the game. “The guys who started the game were a disappointment to their teammates, more than anything. Guys who start a game have to be physically and mentally ready to play, and they couldn’t put that out there.”

So with five minutes still left in the first quarter, he ushered out all five starters, replacing them with a cast of Shane Larkin, Pablo Prigioni, Samuel Dalembert, Travis Ware and Jason Smith. The fresh blood cut the deficit to 12 by the end of the first quarter, but more importantly, the move served as a loud statement to his starters—particularly Tim Hardaway Jr. and Carmelo Anthony.

“Hopefully it woke everyone up,’’ Anthony said. “He felt at the time the first five wasn’t ready to play and we went with it.”

The two teamed up for 13 points over the end of the first and beginning of the second quarters, all after Fish’s mass substitution. Down 36-28, Larkin made an instinctive defensive play by jumping in front of a telegraphed pass, deflecting it to Ware. With quick reflexes, Ware found Hardaway flying by him, and gave him the ball with plenty of time to flush down a two-handed jam.

After Hardaway’s dunk, Anthony pulled out a vintage Melo move, plowing his way from a post up through the lane for a tough layup. Just two minutes into the second quarter, the deficit was cut to four.

“We got five guys in there who started playing hard and played with some energy, and they got us back into the game,” Derek said. “But we were behind the eight ball from the jump.”

While that substitution and subsequent rally brought the Knicks back into the contest, they ultimately couldn’t sustain that high-level play in a 107-87 defeat. New York was without its top two options at the shooting guard position. Iman Shumpert was out with a dislocated shoulder, while J.R. Smith sat with a partially torn left plantar fascia. After the game, Derek explained how their absence impacts the team’s depth.

“We’re scrambling in terms of matchups—guys who can guard certain guys—foul situations, and minutes as well,” he explained. “The depth that is out at the guard position is making it challenging for us. Just overall, not being able to sustain high effort, high energy, elite-level performance, that’s an issue for us as we’re developing. Being shorthanded makes that more difficult at times.”

This dynamic began to show shortly after the Knicks made their run early in the second. After a missed New York shot with the Knicks down 42-34, Dalembert ran down the ball for an offensive rebound. However, he tried to force the ball back out to Hardaway, and Dallas small forward Chandler Parsons was there to pick off the pass, allowing him to trot down the court for an easy lay in.

Throughout the night, the Knicks struggled to contain Parsons, as well as the Mavs committee of guards without their top defender in Shumpert. Parsons went for 13 points, while guards Monta Ellis, Jameer Nelson, Devin Harris and J.J. Barea combined for 41 points.

Without a defensive presence on the exterior, the Knicks allowed the Mavs to knock down 15 threes and shoot at a 45.5 percent clip from deep.

“Dallas is a good basketball team, so you know we can’t kid ourselves into thinking that they don’t have the ability to play at the level that they played at,” Fish said. “But we didn’t approach the game from the right way in the beginning. I don’t know if guys thought they could feel their way out, or that we can kind of get ourselves in this game, but we talked extensively at how this team likes to start…That’s one of the best teams in basketball.”

The Knicks trailed by 10 at the break, but in the second half, they just didn’t have the energy on defense necessary to contain the explosive Mavs offense, which ranks first in the NBA, averaging 109.8 points per game. The Knicks managed to keep pace offensively in the third behind 12 points from Anthony and trailed by 13 going into the fourth.

Anthony finished with a game-high 26 points with five rebounds, five assists, four steals and a block, while Hardaway was second with 14 points, four boards and two dimes.

However, in the fourth, the depleted Knicks could no longer keep up with Dallas, and after fighting its way back early, New York didn’t have the legs to finish the battle.

“We have to want to win, we have to believe we can win basketball games,’’ Anthony said. “It seems like when we don’t get off to a good start we’re fighting an uphill battle and we don’t have that confidence when the game is close.’’

NEXT UP

The Knicks (5-22) will take Wednesday off to prepare for the Chicago Bulls (15-9).

This will be the second of three meetings between the Eastern Conference foes this season. The Bulls took Round 1, topping the Knicks 104-80 in the opening game of the season.

Chicago will also enter this game hungry for a victory after falling 93-86 Monday night to the Atlanta Hawks—a defeat that snapped a three-game winning streak.

Tipoff is set for 8 p.m. EST from Chicago’s United Center. The game will be broadcast nationally as a part of TNT’s Thursday night doubleheader.

RELATED LINKS

• Mavericks at Knicks: Game Book (NBA.com, Dec. 16, 2014)
• Fisher: Knicks’ start was disappointing (MSG, Dec. 16, 2014)
• Fisher rips Knicks after quick-hooking starters in loss to Mavs (NY Post, Dec. 16, 2014)
• Mavs rout Knicks in Chandler’s return to MSG (AP, Dec. 16, 2014)
• Fisher: Starting five a ‘disappointment to their teammates’ (ESPN NY, Dec. 16, 2014)
• For Knicks, the only question is how they’ll lose (NY Times, Dec. 16, 2014)
• Fisher pulls Melo and starters early in blowout loss (NY Daily News, Dec. 16, 2014)