Death, taxes, and Kyrie Irving dominating the New York Knicks — those are three facts of life that have remained constant for as long as one can remember. On Thursday night, Irving had the opportunity to stick it to the Knicks yet again, with the Dallas Mavericks looking to deal New York its first loss since acquiring OG Anunoby, and with Luka Doncic out due to injury, Irving was going to have as many touches as he can handle to lead his team's offense.

Having the opportunity and motivation to deliver one of his best outings of the 2023-24 season, Irving delivered in a huge way for the Mavericks. He put up a season-high 44 points on 15-26 shooting from the field, while adding 10 assists and two steals to lead the Mavericks to a 128-124 victory, and in doing so, the veteran point guard continued to stake his claim as part-owner of the Knicks franchise.

According to Ian Begley of SNY, Kyrie Irving has now won 17 of his past 19 games against the Knicks, and he's been able to do that while splitting time with four different NBA teams (Mavericks, Brooklyn Nets, Boston Celtics, and Cleveland Cavaliers). Both of his past two losses against the Knicks came while he was a member of the Celtics, suffering defeats on December 21, 2017 and November 21, 2018.

For his career, Irving has a 20-9 record against the Knicks. Early on in his career, it was as if he couldn't buy a win when facing New York. But that was mostly due to the Cavs being bad back then. Six of his defeats have come prior to LeBron James' return to Cleveland in 2014, back when the Cavs were an also-ran in the Eastern Conference.

Kyrie Irving has said in the past that he “loves beating the Knicks and playing against them” and it shows. For his career, Irving is averaging 26.3 points and 6.2 assists against the franchise he owns. Alas, this is not the best he's averaging against a certain opponent. His best points per game average for his career comes against the Rockets, averaging 27.1 points a night against them.

On the night, it was clear that the Mavericks needed every bit of his dominant presence to take the win against a Knicks team that's been rolling over the past few weeks.