Rose, Bullock lead Knicks past Clippers
Derrick Rose scored 25 points off the bench, Reggie Bullock added 24 and the New York Knicks beat the Los Angeles Clippers 106-100 on Sunday to snap an eight-game skid at Staples Center in Los Angeles.
Bullock made five threepointers against his former team and RJ Barrett had four on his way to 18 points. The Clippers are the NBA’s best three-point shooting squad, but they were just 12 of 35.
“He’s sort of the unsung hero. Every night he’s guarding a tough opponent, he never stops working on the defensive end,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said. “He’s got to continue to do that for us, it opens up so many things.”
Kawhi Leonard led the Clippers with 29 points. Paul George added 18 and Nicolas Batum had 13 as the playoff-bound team’s two-game winning streak ended in its home finale of the regular season.
The Knicks led by 10 early in the fourth, when they made three threepointers, and the Clippers dissolved in miscues and misses.
Leonard returned to the game with 5 1⁄2 minutes left, scoring five in a row to pull the Clippers to 96-90. He and George combined to score all of the Clippers’ final 15 points. Leonard’s 3-pointer cut the Knicks’ lead to 104-100, but Taj Gibson made a pair of free throws to seal it.
Julius Randle finished with 14 points and 14 rebounds for the Knicks, who had plenty of supporters cheering despite the limited attendance. Randle’s offense was down compared to the 24 or more points he had in his five previous games.
“They’re double-teaming him,” Thibodeau said. “Everybody tends to measure people on points or shots and not the allaround game, but the big thing is the perseverance, the way he rebounded the ball and the hustle plays. He played a great game without shooting the ball great.”
New York is close to clinching a playoff berth, something the franchise hasn’t done since 2012-13. Since then, the Knicks have endured seven seasons of at least 45 losses.
“That would be big, but at the same time Thibs always talks about going through the finish line,” Rose said. “We know we’re not finished with what we’re doing.”
Randle added, “Now we feel like we can beat anybody. We have confidence as a team. Anybody can step up, that’s the beauty of our team.”
Pelicans 112, Hornets
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110: Eric Bledsoe had 24 points and 11 assists, Jaxson Hayes added 18 points and short-handed New Orleans stayed alive in the race for the play-in tournament with a come-frombehind victory at Charlotte. James Johnson added 17 points and Willy Hernangomez had 16 rebounds for the Pelicans, who pulled within 1 1⁄2 games of the San Antonio Spurs for the 10th spot in the Western Conference. Terry Rozier scored a career-high 43 points, but it wasn’t enough as Charlotte failed to clinch a spot in the Eastern Conference play-in tournament.
Mavericks 124, Cavaliers
● 97: Tim Hardaway Jr. scored 25 points and Josh Richardson had 20, allowing playoff-bound Dallas to overcome the ejection of
Luka Doncic and beat host Cleveland. Doncic received a flagrant-two foul — an automatic ejection — early in the third quarter for hitting Collin Sexton with “an aggressive strike to the groin area,” according to lead official David Guthrie. It occurred while jostling for position under the Cleveland basket. Doncic finished with 15 points in 22 minutes and Jalen Brunson had 13 points and seven assists for the Mavericks, who never trailed in their fourth win in a row.
Timberwolves 128,
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Magic 96: Karl-Anthony Towns and D’Angelo Russell each scored 27 points and Minnesota built a 30-point halftime lead, led by 43 in the third quarter and cruised to a rout at Orlando.
ELSEWHERE
Pelicans: The NBA
● fined New Orleans Pelicans executive David Griffin $50,000 y for publicly criticizing officiating over how star Zion Williamson is handled and making comments the league considered detrimental.