Associated Press
Associated Press
NEW YORK — The No. 7 seed is there if the New York Knicks feel like taking their talents to South Beach.
It’s unclear if they do.
With Carmelo Anthony and Amare Stoudemire on the bench, the Knicks nearly blew all of an 18-point, fourth-quarter lead before holding on to beat the Los Angeles Clippers 99-93 on Wednesday night.
JR Smith scored 21 points, including a rally-stopping jumper with 31 seconds left, as the Knicks moved within one victory of wrapping up seventh place in the Eastern Conference and a first-round matchup with Miami.
But the Knicks don’t seem to care about finishing with a higher seed, with Anthony saying he doesn’t expect to play Thursday in the regular-season finale, and players insisting they have no preference which East power they play in the first round.
“Right now it really doesn’t matter,” Anthony said. “Whoever we play, we’ll have to start on the road anyway, so we just want to start just preparing for whether it’s Chicago, whether it’s Miami, just get ready to go.”
Anthony scored 17 points for the Knicks, but he was on the bench the entire fourth quarter against a Clippers team that was fighting desperately for home-court advantage in the first round.
The Knicks will draw No. 2 seed Miami with a victory Thursday at Charlotte, which has one of the worst records in NBA history, or a Philadelphia loss to Detroit.
If New York loses and Philadelphia wins, the Knicks would fall to the No. 8 seed and open against Chicago, which some say is a better matchup. The Knicks beat the Bulls once, but weren’t all that competitive while losing all three games against the Heat.
“Chicago has had the best record in the league the last two years, so why does everybody jump ahead and say, ‘Oh, you should dodge Miami and play Chicago?” center Tyson Chandler said. “I think both of those teams are 1 and 2, so you can pick your poison on them. I feel like we have to believe in ourselves enough that it doesn’t matter who we play.”
Blake Griffin had 29 points and 10 rebounds, and Randy Foye scored 28 points for the Clippers, who played without Chris Paul and fell a half-game behind Memphis for fourth place in the West. The Clippers need the Grizzlies to lose at home to Orlando on Thursday to have the home-court advantage for their first-round series.
Paul sat out after mildly straining his left groin in Tuesday’s 109-102 loss at Atlanta. The Clippers dropped three of their final four games, costing themselves any chance to beat out the Lakers for the Pacific Division title and perhaps a chance to open the playoffs at home.
“It’s tough because we controlled our own destiny for this last week, lost three out of our last four. It’s tough.” Paul said. “We’ve still got a chance. I’m sure Memphis is going to come out hard and aggressive. I don’t know. Now we just got to sit and wait.”
But they wrapped up their first season with Paul at 40-26 and will make their first postseason appearance since 2006 and just their fifth since 1985.
The Knicks lost their slim chance of earning the No. 6 seed and avoiding the Bulls or Heat when Orlando beat Charlotte earlier Wednesday. The No. 7 spot is within their grasp — given the Bobcats (7-58) have lost 22 in a row.
But it was hard to tell if the Knicks wanted it while sitting key starters down the stretch, though Chandler did re-enter in the final minutes and block one of Griffin’s shots.
“I have great confidence in the guys that come off the bench. I’m a coach who wants to see who’ll make plays. I felt good about the guys that were in at the end of the game,” interim coach Mike Woodson said.
The Knicks led throughout the second half, seemingly putting it away early in the fourth when they opened a 90-72 lead with 7:23 remaining as Smith threw an alley-oop pass to Landry Fields on the break. Fans began chanting “Beat the Heat!” but suddenly the Knicks — with Philadelphia having already won its game — almost couldn’t beat the Clippers.
With Anthony and Stoudemire sitting down the stretch, the Clippers stormed back and cut it to 94-93 on Griffin’s basket with 52 seconds left.
Smith answered with a jumper, and after Foye’s pass was broken up, Smith hit two free throws to make it 98-93 with 23.5 seconds to go.
The Clippers finished 16-17 on the road, missing their first finish above .500 since moving to Los Angeles in 1984.
“We’ll fight no matter how much we’re down or who’s playing or who’s not playing or who we’re playing. We’ll fight,” Griffin said.
The Knicks led 24-19 after one then got a pair of 3-pointers from Steve Novak and two layups by Fields early in the second while extending the lead to 13. The Clippers cut it to one before New York pushed it back up to 48-39 at halftime.
SPURS 110, SUNS 106
PHOENIX — Patty Mills scored 27 points and the depleted San Antonio Spurs beat Phoenix 110-106 on Wednesday night in a game overshadowed by the fact it could have been Steve Nash’s last in a Suns uniform.
The crowd stood and chanted “We want Nash” with about 5 minutes to go, leading coach Alvin Gentry to put the 38-year-old point guard in the game for a few plays before removing him to rousing cheers. Nash will be a free agent after this season.
The Spurs sent Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili — as well as coach Gregg Popovich — home earlier in the day. The four will also miss San Antonio’s regular-season finale at Golden State on Thursday night.
The Spurs, already guaranteed the No. 1 playoff spot in the Western Conference, won their ninth straight to remain tied with Chicago for the best record in the NBA with one game to play.
The Bulls hold the tiebreaker with a win over San Antonio in their only regular-season meeting.
Phoenix was eliminated from playoff contention with a loss at Utah on Tuesday night.
Nash had eight points and seven assists. Completing his eighth season, the two-time league MVP left the game with 3:08 to go in the third quarter and probably would have stayed on the sideline had the crowd not demanded his return.
BULLS 92, PACERS 87
INDIANAPOLIS — Kyle Korver scored 20 points to help Chicago beat Indiana and remain tied for the best record in the league with one to play.
The Bulls and Spurs are both 49-16 heading into Thursday’s season finales. Chicago hosts Cleveland, while San Antonio closes at Golden State.
Carlos Boozer scored 16 points, and Joakim Noah had 14 points and 14 rebounds for Chicago. Derrick Rose finished with 10 points on 3-for-11 shooting in 27 minutes.
Lance Stephenson scored a career-high 22 points in his first career start for Indiana, which rested Danny Granger and Leandro Barbosa with the No. 3 playoff spot in the East locked up.
NUGGETS 106, THUNDER 101
OKLAHOMA CITY — Ty Lawson scored 25 points, Kenneth Faried added 13 points and 10 rebounds, and Denver beat Oklahoma City to avoid the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference.
Kevin Durant scored 32 points to extend his lead in the NBA scoring race, leaving Kobe Bryant in need of 38 points in his season finale Thursday night against Sacramento to claim his third scoring title and prevent Durant from becoming the seventh player to win three in a row.
With a win Thursday at Minnesota, Denver would be the No. 6 seed and face the Los Angeles Lakers in the first round of the playoffs. Otherwise, the Nuggets could fall to No. 7 and have a rematch with Oklahoma City.
KNICKS 99, CLIPPERS 93
NEW YORK — JR Smith scored 21 points to help New York hold off Los Angeles and close in on the No. 7 seed in the Eastern Conference.
Carmelo Anthony scored 17 points for the Knicks, who will draw Miami in the first round with one more win or a loss by Philadelphia. New York closes its season Thursday at Charlotte, which has one of the worst records in NBA history, while the 76ers visit Detroit. If New York loses and Philadelphia wins Thursday, the Knicks will fall to the No. 8 seed and face Chicago.
The loss dropped the Clippers a half-game behind Memphis for the No. 4 seed in the West. Los Angeles needs the Grizzlies to lose to Orlando on Thursday to open the playoffs at home.
MAGIC 102, BOBCATS 95
ORLANDO, Fla. — J.J. Redick had six 3-pointers and scored a career-high 31 points as Orlando sent Charlotte to its 22nd consecutive loss.
Ryan Anderson added 24 points and 13 rebounds for the Magic, who snapped a three-game losing streak and secured the sixth seed in the East but lost forward Glen Davis to a sprained right ankle. His injury could drain the Magic’s already shallow pool of big men following Dwight Howard’s season-ending back surgery.
D.J. Augustin scored 23 points for the Bobcats (7-58), who head into their season finale on Thursday needing to beat New York to avoid the worst winning percentage in NBA history.
76ERS 90, BUCKS 85
MILWAUKEE — Evan Turner scored a career-high 29 points and Philadelphia beat Milwaukee despite resting some key players for the playoffs.
Jodie Meeks added 27 points for the 76ers, who eliminated the Bucks from playoff contention with their victory over New Jersey on Monday.
The 76ers rested Elton Brand, Andre Iguodala, Lou Williams and Thaddeus Young.
Brandon Jennings scored 19 points for the Bucks, who were playing short-handed in their home finale. The Bucks had only nine players take the floor, with Jennings the only regular starter on the court. Monta Ellis, Drew Gooden, Ersan Ilyasova and Luc Richard Mbah a Moute all sat.
WIZARDS 96, CAVALIERS 85
CLEVELAND — John Wall had 21 points and 13 assists to help Washington extend its longest winning streak since 2007 to five games with a win over Cleveland.
Wall had 12 points, six assists and four steals in the third quarter, when he accounted for 24 of Washington’s 28 points and helped the Wizards open a 14-point lead. Wall added seven rebounds and seven steals.
D.J. Kennedy led Cleveland with 12 points in his NBA debut, while Kyrie Irving, expected to be named the NBA’s rookie of the year next month, played only 10 minutes — all in the first quarter — of the Cavs’ home finale.