1 HIT, MANY MISSES
Lopez tossed for smack, Knicks KO’d
clippers 116 knicks 88
THE MOST heart the Knicks showed Friday night was Robin Lopez smacking Chris Paul in the face.
It was an ugly affair for the Knicks at the Garden, a wire-to-wire defeat to the Clippers, 11688, devoid of energy, intrigue and defense.
Among the scarce moments of life for the Knicks resulted in an ejection for Lopez, who lost his composure under the basket and, probably intentionally, clubbed Paul’s grill while both were fighting for a rebound.
The Clippers (28-15) used the incident as motivation, immediately going on a 22-12 run to end the third quarter. The Knicks (2223) wilted away without Lopez, failing again to go above .500.
“I don’t think I hate anything more than getting my lip busted,” Paul said. “You can’t eat for like a week, two weeks, something like that.”
Paul was exaggerating his injury, which looked fully healed in the locker room. But he sure did punish the Knicks with 19 points and 13 assists, feeding teammate DeAndre Jordan on an array of alley-oops. Jordan also picked up a technical foul for rushing to Paul’s aid during the fracas and pushing Lopez in the back. Lopez then shoved Jordan, which could’ve escalated the situation except teammates were already in place to hold back the agitators.
“I was just upset. Chris is the smallest dude on the floor, man,” said Jordan, who scored 20 points on 7-of-7 from the field. “He’s one of our leaders so we have to protect him.
“But basketball is an emotional game. It got out of hand a little bit.”
What else held him back from fighting?
“I didn’t want to get kicked out of the game because I like playing in New York,” Jordan said. “It’s fun here.”
The seeds were planted for the Lopez scuffle four possessions prior, when Jose Calderon took exception to a foul from Paul on the perimeter. Calderon jumped in the face of Paul, who turned his back and pointed out the outrage to the referee. Later, when fighting for a rebound, Paul stuck his elbow into Lopez’s body. Lopez responded with his face plant, and Paul sold the contact by holding his mouth. Jordan and Paul Pierce – who was hovering around the fracas talking smack – were each given a single technical.
According to the Knicks, the game was chippy from tipoff.
“It’s nothing personal, at least not for me,” Lopez said. “I played against DeAndre for a long time now. I know him. It was nothing personal, just a heat-of-the-moment thing.”
Jordan wanted reimbursement for his impending fine.
“(Paul) better pay for my tech, man,” L.A.’s center said.
The Knicks were a mess on both ends. Anthony and Kristaps Porzingis combined to shoot 8-of-29. The Knicks gave up a 3-pointer on L.A.’s first possession, fell into a 14-point hole within seven minutes and never recovered. The 28-point defeat represented the worst of their season.
“We just weren’t ready to play. They were physically faster, better,” coach Derek Fisher said. “We’ve had very few of these so far. The reasons why we can talk about several things, but they were far and away the better team tonight for sure and pretty much proved that from start to finish.”
The Knicks were planning to fly into South Carolina and drive to Charlotte for Saturday’s game against the Hornets.