Clippers-Knicks Preview

Posted Feb 09 2013 6:10PM

The New York Knicks and Los Angeles Clippers could be battling fatigue as much as each other Sunday.

Both teams were unable to get out of town immediately after their previous games because of the massive storm in the Northeast ahead of this matchup at Madison Square Garden.

New York (32-16) stayed in Minnesota after a 100-94 victory Friday and Los Angeles (35-17) remained in Miami that same night following its 111-89 loss. New York City's three major airports were closed that evening, and both teams made plans to travel Saturday - more than likely less than 24 hours before this nationally televised contest begins.

Los Angeles has dropped eight of 11, but a big positive Friday was that Chauncey Billups, Chris Paul, Blake Griffin and Jamal Crawford returned.

Thursday marked the first time coach Vinny Del Negro had all 15 players available for practice. Paul had missed the last nine games before Friday with a bruised right kneecap and Griffin sat out two with a strained left hamstring.

Billups has appeared in four games all season, most recently being bothered by left foot tendinitis. Crawford has been hampered by a sore right shoulder and missed an 86-76 win over Orlando on Wednesday.

"The Clippers have been great," Knicks coach Mike Woodson said. "They've had their struggles as of late because they've had injuries."

Billups will play in New York for the first time since his 21-game stint with the Knicks in 2010-11. Paul will face the Knicks for the first time with the Clippers.

"Anytime you have Chris Paul and you have Griffin and you have the big fellow inside (DeAndre Jordan), I mean they're talented, they have a talented team with (Eric) Bledsoe and Crawford," Woodson said. "We're going to have to play a complete game when we go home."

Paul had three points and two assists in 19 minutes Friday as he tries to work his way into shape.

"Obviously, Chris is trying to get back," Del Negro said. "He's got to take control of the game and physically right now he's not capable of doing that."

The Clippers allowed the Heat to shoot 52.9 percent, the second-highest figure they have yielded all season.

"You never want to make excuses but they shot the lights out of the ball," Paul said. "We never really made an impact defensively."

New York rallied from an 11-point fourth-quarter deficit against the Timberwolves behind Carmelo Anthony's 36 points and nine rebounds. The Knicks had a five-game win streak snapped when they blew a lead in the fourth in a 106-96 defeat at Washington on Wednesday.

"We had to go get it," Anthony said. "Our backs were kind of against the wall, being down 11. It was one of those games we didn't want to look back on saying we should have won this game, kind of like the Wizards game."

Anthony's teams have won 10 straight at home against the Clippers, including a 99-93 victory April 25 in the last meeting.

Griffin is averaging 31.3 points and 10.3 rebounds in three career games against the Knicks.

Paul scores 25, leads Clippers past Knicks, 102-88

By BRIAN MAHONEY
Posted Feb 10 2013 5:01PM

NEW YORK (AP) Chris Paul preserved the big lead that Jamal Crawford helped build, then they both looked elsewhere for the key to this Clippers victory.

"I think the game ball goes to Grant Hill," Paul said.

Hill led the defensive effort that limited Carmelo Anthony to one basket in the fourth quarter, and Los Angeles pulled away for a 102-88 victory over the New York Knicks on Sunday.

Anthony scored 42 points in his fifth 40-point game of the season, but took only two shots in the final period while defended by the 40-year-old Hill, who didn't even play in the first half but was on the floor for the final 15:21.

"I think that Grant Hill sitting on the bench the whole time, he came in and provided a great presence out there on Melo. I don't think we win that game without him," Crawford said.

Paul scored 25 points in his second game back from injury and Crawford, a former Knicks guard, had 27. Blake Griffin finished with 17 points and 12 rebounds for the Clippers, who bounced back from a 22-point loss in Miami on Friday to win for just the fourth time in 12 games. They finish off their eight-game Grammys road trip Monday in Philadelphia.

"Jamal, Chris, Blake, I mean everybody, it was a team effort. Everybody stepped up at some point," coach Vinny Del Negro said.

Raymond Felton scored 20 points for the Knicks, who lost for the second time in eight games and wrap up their successful first half Wednesday against Toronto. J.R. Smith was only 1 for 9 from the field, getting badly outplayed by Crawford in a matchup of top NBA reserves.

Paul added seven assists and six rebounds after being held to a season-low three points Friday in Miami. He had missed nine straight and 12 of the previous 14 games with a bruised right kneecap, and an excellent Clippers season hit a rocky patch without him.

Paul scored 16 points in the first half, then had five in a row down the stretch to hold off the Knicks comeback attempt.

Anthony had four points in the final period after he had scored 18 in the third. He said the Clippers made a defensive adjustment, changing their pick-and-roll coverage and sending another defender at him.

"There's four other guys on the basketball court, we've just got to make plays and we've been doing that all season long," Anthony said. "Tonight, today we didn't make plays in the fourth quarter and we didn't win the game."

The Clippers are finally getting healthier, with Chauncey Billups also rejoining the lineup Friday, though Del Negro said they still had to balance watching players' minutes to keep the long-term in mind against trying to win the game.

Having one of the NBA's best benches helps. He didn't even have Paul or Griffin in the game, leaving it to Crawford, the leading candidate for the NBA's sixth man award, and Eric Bledsoe to help Los Angeles open a decisive lead in the fourth quarter.

Hill came on in the third quarter after Caron Butler was lost to a sore lower back and nobody else was having any success against Anthony, and made him work to even get the ball where he wanted it.

"I've battled against him. He's a great player," Hill said. "I have as much respect for him. He's one of my favorite players to watch but you try to do things to make it difficult. You've to have selective memory because when he hits a shot, you've just got to be able to move on to the next play. He's a great player."

Bledsoe made all six shots and finished with 13 points as the Clippers' bench outscored the Knicks' 48-15.

"Things happen, man. Just sometimes it's one of those nights when shots don't fall," Felton said. "Our bench has been great for us all year, and sometimes the ball don't just go in the basket for you and it was one of those days."

The Clippers scored the final five points of the first quarter for a 22-17 lead, then opened the second with eight in a row to go up 30-17 on a pair of free throws by Matt Barnes. They led 52-44 at halftime.

Anthony got on one of his blistering streaks in the third, scoring 11 points in under 4 1/2 minutes, including a 3-pointer that gave the Knicks a 61-60 lead. It went back and forth from there until he capped his 18-point period with a 3-pointer with 28 seconds remaining that cut the Clippers' edge to 71-70 heading to the fourth.

But after Amare Stoudemire's three-point play to open the quarter, the Clippers scored 15 of the next 19 points, taking an 86-77 lead on Crawford's basket with about 7 minutes left.

The Knicks fell behind by 12 later in the period before getting within six with under 3 minutes left. Paul then scored five straight points to push it back to 11 and put it away.

The Knicks were forced to spend an extra night in Minnesota after Friday's victory because of the snow storm that pounded the Northeast, before getting home Saturday afternoon. The Clippers were already scheduled to remain in Miami on Friday and practice there Saturday before traveling to New York.

NOTES: Knicks coach Mike Woodson said he can never promise a player he won't be traded, but has been showing Iman Shumpert "some love" with the second-year guard's name linked to reports of a possible trade to Phoenix. Woodson said the second-year guard has been on a roller coaster since returning from knee surgery, but said he believes Shumpert remains a key player for the Knicks. He said even his daughter, who like Shumpert went to Georgia Tech, called Woodson to ask about if the Knicks were really going to deal. "Iman's going to be right here with me," Woodson said he told her. ... The NBA's three oldest active players were at Madison Square Garden: the Knicks' Kurt Thomas, who turned 40 in October, Hill (a day younger) and the Knicks' Jason Kidd (who turns 40 next month).

Notebook: Clippers 102, Knicks 88

Adam Zagoria, for NBA.com
Posted Sun Feb 10, 2013 4:04 PM - Updated Sun Feb 10, 2013 4:25 PM

THE FACTS: Chris Paul went for 25 points and seven assists and former Knick Jamal Crawford scored 18 of his 27 points in the second half as the Los Angeles Clippers beat the Knicks, 102-88, in a high-profile showdown at Madison Square Garden.

Blake Griffin added 17 points and 12 rebounds and Eric Bledsoe tallied 13 points on 6-of-6 shooting as the Clippers improved to 36-17.

Carmelo Anthony went for 42 points -- three shy of his season-high -- and eight rebounds for the Knicks (32-17), who entered having won seven of nine.

Raymond Felton finished with 20 points and five assists despite briefly leaving the game in the third period with a neck injury and then returning.

QUOTABLE: "It's really big for us because we were 2-4 [on the road trip] coming into this so we said we wanted to try and at least finish up 4-4 on this road trip. So it's a big win and now we gotta go to Philly."
-- Paul, speaking on ABC.

THE STAT: The Clippers' bench outscored the Knicks' bench, 48-15. In the first half, the L.A. reserves outscored the Knicks reserves, 19-7.

TURNING POINT: The Knicks led 73-71 after a 3-pointer by Anthony and a 3-point play by Amar'e Stoudemire, but the Clippers rattled of a 7-0 run, including five points by Bledsoe, to go ahead 78-73 early in the fourth. The Clippers outscored the Knicks, 31-18, in the fourth period.

QUOTABLE II: "Just feeling a little bit better. Got a little more more aggressive tonight. Guys made shots.This was a total team win."
-- Paul on his second game back from a kneecap injury after a poor performance Friday at Miami

WHO'S HOT: After scoring 36 points in Friday's win at Minnesota, Anthony followed that with an 14-of-26 shooting performance in this game. He also went a perfect 9-of-9 from the line. Anthony entered as the NBA's second-leading scorer at 28.7 points per game. But in the fourth quarter with Grant Hill guarding him, he was limited to four points on 1-of-2 shooting.

WHO'S NOT: J.R. Smith, who is competing with Crawford for Sixth Man of the Year honors, managed just six points on 1-of-9 shooting. Iman Shumpert, the subject of trade rumors, also went 1-of-4 for two points.

QUOTABLE III: "Their bench has been good for them this year. Our bench has been quite good for us. That was the difference...I thought that was the difference in the game."
-- Knicks coach Mike Woodson

NOTABLE: Woodson says he has addressed the trade rumors with Shumpert and the second-year guard isn't going anywhere.

"That's kind of out of my hands," Woodson said before the Knicks faced the Clippers at MSG. "If owners came to me and said we have to do a deal, you do the deal. But I sat [Shumpert] down and I told him. He knows how I feel about him." Woodson said his daugthers, Alexis and Mariah, were concerned about reports that Shumpert had been discussed in a potential deal to the Phoenix Suns for Jared Dudley. "My daughter jumped me last night about that trade rumor," Woodson said. "She called me and said, 'Daddy, you're not trading him' because they all went to Georgia Tech together. Man, I'm like, 'Iman's gonna be right here with me.'"

NOTABLE II: Caron Butler left the game for the Clippers in the third quarter with a sore lower back. He finished with three points in 11 minutes.

NOTABLE III: Felton left the late in the third quarter after injuring his neck on a collision with Stoudemire and Lamar Odom. He returned and finished with 14 points, five assists and two rebounds.

NOTABLE IV: The Clippers' Hill and the Knicks' Jason Kidd were Co-Rookies of the Year in 1994-95.

QUOTABLE IV: "That's one of the best teams in the West and we gotta get better, without a doubt."
-- Woodson

INSIDE THE ARENA: Tom Hanks, Olivia Wilde and Rex Ryan sat courtside.

UP NEXT: For the Knicks, Wednesday vs. Toronto, Feb. 20 @ Indiana, Feb. 22 @ Toronto. For the Clippers, Monday @ Philadelphia, Wednesday vs. Houston, Thursday @ Lakers.

• Clippers: Thompkins
• Knicks: Camby, Wallace

• Clippers: --
• Knicks: --

• Lead Changes: 5
• Times Tied: 5

• Arena: Madison Square Garden, New York, NY
• Officials: #17 Joe Crawford, #7 Kevin Fehr, #14 Ed Malloy
• Attendance: 19033
• Duration: 2:21