LOS ANGELES — David Lee had 29
points and 10 rebounds, Al Harrington scored six of his 26 points in the
final 1:12, and the New York Knicks beat the Los Angeles Clippers at
Staples Center for the first time in 11 tries with a 113-107 victory on
Sunday night.
The Knicks snapped a four-game losing
streak, while the Clippers lost their fifth straight and 16th in 19
games. The victory was New York's first on the road against the Clips
since March 25, 1998, when they won their fifth straight at the L.A.
Sports Arena.
Baron Davis had 23 points and 11
assists for the Clippers, who reached the 50-loss mark for the 18th time
since the franchise moved from San Diego to Los Angeles for the 1984-85
season. Chris Kaman had 22 points and 16 rebounds.
The Clippers, who came in as the
league's fourth-worst 3-point shooting team at 33.3 percent, were 7-for-28 as they equaled a season high for attempts. It was the 27th time this
season that they took 20 or more shots from behind the arc, and they
are 7-20 in those games.
Forward Rasual Butler made his third
3-pointer of the game with 9:15 remaining to break the single-season
franchise record of 139, set by Terry Dehere in (1995-96). But he was 3-for-11 from 3-point range and missed a critical shot from behind the
line in the final 30 seconds.
Trailing by as many as 14 points with
about 8 1/2 minutes left in the third quarter, the Clippers closed to
94-92 on a dunk by reserve forward DeAndre Jordan with 7:25 to play.
They pulled even at 103 on Drew Gooden's tip-in with 2:56 left, but
never got the lead after that. Harrington helped put it away with a
short hook shot and four free throws.
New York used its 16th different
starting lineup, with Bill Walker playing alongside Chris Duhon in the
backcourt. The Knicks built a 59-55 halftime lead with 17 points from
Harrington and 15 from Lee, who got his first NBA triple-double on
Friday in a 128-117 loss at Golden State and tied a career high with 37
points.
The first-time All-Star is one of
three players in the league averaging at least 20 points and 10
rebounds, along with Chris Bosh, and former Clipper and Knick Zach
Randolph.
In the previous meeting on Dec. 18 at
Madison Square Garden, Lee made the go-ahead basket with 28 seconds left
to help the Knicks pull out a 95-91 win after they trailed by as many
as 20 points. It was one of three games the Clippers have lost this
season after leading by at least 20, including Saturday's 98-90 defeat
at Denver.
Notes
Knicks coach Mike D'Antoni was
on the bench watching his team go through its pregame paces at the
exact moment former Knicks coach Don Nelson tied Lenny Wilkens' record
of 1,332 regular-season wins with Golden State's 113-112 squeaker at
Toronto. Nelson was fired with 26 games left in his only season in New
York (1995-96) and replaced by Jeff Van Gundy. "It's an unbelievable
milestone," D'Antoni told The Associated Press. "Don's been a great
coach for a lot of years and he's one of the best in the game. He's a
little bit of a mad genius out there the way he does things, but he's
very innovative and the players buy into it. He has a unique way to play
the game, and he's always been successful with it. I don't know the
inner workings of it, but he's obviously doing something right." … Van
Gundy was in Staples Center earlier Sunday as part of the broadcast
crew for the nationally televised Lakers-Spurs game. He was the last
coach to guide the Knicks to a winning record, going 48-34 in 2000-01.
… The Knicks are 59-99 since D'Antoni replaced Isiah Thomas as coach.
Thomas was 53-105 in his first 158 games with them.