NBA Scores & More: Knicks’ Skid Continues With Loss To Bulls, Celtics Rally Past Clippers

Given that the Clippers as a team shot just 37 percent from the field compared to 49 percent for Boston, it’s hard to figure how L.A. was in this game down the stretch, but somehow they were. They used a 17-3 run to take a four-point lead with just over four minutes left to play, and even after Boston had responded with a 13-2 run of their own, L.A. still managed to get back within three with 59 seconds left. But Garnett hit a very tough turnaround jumper with 38 seconds left to stretch the lead to five and slam the door shut.

In each of the Clippers’ four losses in their last five games, they have overcome fourth quarter deficits of nine points or more. They’ve had a chance to win every one of those games -- but have come up short. Early in the season, L.A. was winning every close game behind the brilliance of Paul -- now they’re losing those same games.

In the second half, Amar’e Stoudemire found the range for New York (13 points in the third quarter) and led them to a solid offensive quarter. Chicago continued to shoot poorly, but it didn’t really do them much harm, because they got oodles of do-overs. Rose found his offense in the second half and had little trouble burning Lin off the dribble once he got rolling. This forced the New York big men to collapse on him, which allowed the Bulls to do what they do best. Blog-a-Bull explains:

Indeed, missed shots were pretty much Chicago’s best offense. Chicago shot just 43 percent to New York’s 46 percent, but got 32 points from Rose and held an absurd 56-38 rebounding edge, including 22 offensive rebounds. Particularly in the second half, the Knicks look totally debilitated after defending the Bulls brilliantly for a full 24 seconds, only to see the ball carom back into Chicago’s possession for another opportunity. New York cut the lead close again in the late fourth quarter, but pretty uniformly failed to execute down the stretch-- missed shots, turnovers, untimely fouls...just typical Knicks stuff.

The Wolves escaped with the W behind 63.6 shooting beyond the arc (14-22), and moved back over .500 at 22-21 overall, while the Suns fell to 19-22.

For more on the Minnesota Timberwolves, check out Canis Hoopus. For more on thePhoenix Suns, head over to Bright Side Of The Sun. For more on the NBA in general, head to the SB Nation NBA hub at sbnation.com/NBA.