Lakers 100, Knicks 94: Steve Nash Helps Lakers Get Back at Knicks

In the teams’ previous meeting, the Knicks led by 23 points after 12 minutes. This time, the Lakers had Steve Nash, who scored 16 points with 11 assists, and Pau Gasol, whose dunk with 12 seconds left put the game away in a 100-94 victory Sunday.

As entertainment, it was sparkling as Carmelo Anthony (decked out head to toe in orange) and Kobe Bryant (in an all-white uniform as part of the same Christmas Day promotion) shot it out. Each finished with 34 points.

“They just were a little bit more aggressive,” Anthony said. “Kobe got it going and Steve Nash hit some big shots down the stretch. When you have a guy like Nash doing that, it’s kind of tough. Those guys know how to play. They’ve been waiting for Steve Nash to get back, so it’s just a matter of then sticking it out until he did.”

For the Knicks, who had started 18-5, it was the third loss in five games. In those games, their 3-point shooters cooled, from making 12 a game while shooting 40.9 percent to 8.6 a game while making 29 percent.

For the Lakers, it was the fifth win in a row, moving them back to .500. They had fallen into a 9-14 hole after losing to the Knicks at Madison Square Garden on Dec. 13, but the return of Nash, who played nearly 38 minutes Tuesday in his second game since a long injury layoff, is only the latest sign that things may be coming together under Coach Mike D’Antoni.

“It was an important win for us as we were a little bit desperate,” Nash said. “We’ve gone through a lot — new coach, new offense. It’s been a difficult transition.”

Nash went out with a fracture in his left leg in the season’s second game, three games before the firing of Coach Mike Brown. With no established point guard, D’Antoni, the former Knicks coach who succeeded Brown, lost 9 of his first 13 games.

The last was in New York, against a Knicks team that bore little resemblance to the one that was 20-23 when he resigned last March.

“To me, they have really smart players,” D’Antoni said before the game. “Adding Raymond Felton and Jason Kidd, two point guards, I thought that was great. Melo’s Melo. He’s uncontainable sometimes and he’s having a great year, shooting unbelievable from 3’s, which he hasn’t in the past.

“And Tyson Chandler’s one of the best players in the league. I don’t think he gets enough credit for his ability to control the game defensively, his ability to run the pick-and-roll, just his presence in the locker room.”

Unfortunately for the Knicks, Felton shot 5 for 19 from the floor Sunday, Chandler fouled out and Anthony, who had 27 points in the first three quarters, took only three shots in the fourth.

The Knicks led, 71-62, with 4 minutes 35 second left in the third period, but the Lakers closed it on a 15-7 run. Bryant scored 9 of those points, driving the lane for a layup to cut the deficit to 78-77.

The fourth quarter featured D’Antoni’s old offense, as Woodson played three guards with Anthony at power forward and Chandler at center, against D’Antoni’s new offense, with the 6-foot-11 Dwight Howard playing alongside the 7-foot Gasol.

This led to strange matchups late in the game, like Gasol trying to guard Kidd at one end, and the 6-8 Anthony trying to guard Gasol at the other.

The mismatch went to the Lakers, as Gasol, who missed 8 of his first 12 shots, drove the vacated lane on an inbounds play as half the Knicks defense reacted to Bryant, throwing down the dunk that put the Lakers ahead, 99-94, with 12 seconds left.

“It was a misread in terms of our defense,” Woodson said. “We couldn’t get back to Gasol. The defense didn’t shift fast enough and he was able to take it right down the middle.”

Or the defense shifted in the wrong direction.

“I wanted to get a steal,” said Kidd, the defender who left Gasol. “At that point, we needed a steal. I thought if Gasol got the ball, maybe we could get it, but I couldn’t get it.”

The Lakers remain a work in progress, with Gasol averaging 10 points and shooting 34 percent this month but looking like an odd fit for D’Antoni, who has always preferred undersized teams that spread the floor against bigger opponents. On Tuesday, he and his teammates looked to be hitting their stride.

“It’s so early in the season to have turned a corner,” Bryant said. “We have everybody in the lineup and we’re starting to see how we want to play.”

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Kings 106, Knicks 105: Knicks Fight Back Against Kings, Only to Be Blindsided at the Buzzer

But they did not lose their composure when trailing by double digits, as they have on recent occasions. They did not panic. They did not quit. But two nights after watching J. R. Smith seal a win for them on a last-second jumper in Phoenix, the Knicks found themselves Friday on the other side of a buzzer-beater when Sacramento’s James Johnson made an open 3-pointer as time expired to give the Sacramento Kings a 106-105 victory.

“Karma comes back around quickly,” Smith said. “It’s a bad feeling.

“No matter who we play, we have to play with a sense of urgency and pride.”

The loss denied the Knicks the largest comeback victory in franchise history, which remains a 26-point rally against Milwaukee in 2004.

Johnson, who was mobbed by his Kings teammates, finished with 17 points as the Knicks walked slowly to the locker room, their heads down. Johnson’s game-winning basket was his first 3-pointer of the season. He was 0 for 11 before Friday’s game.

“I thought it was short, honestly, from the angle I had,” Tyson Chandler said of Johnson’s jumper. “I knew he got it off in time. I was just curious about his feet. And then I saw the replay and he obviously had both feet behind the line.”

When the Knicks thought about the final 30 seconds of the game, they were disappointed with how they couldn’t execute simple things.

Jason Kidd knew he should have made a better pass to Chandler for an alley-oop dunk. Sacramento’s DeMarcus Cousins deflected the pass, which created a turnover. On defense, Steve Novak knew he could have made a game-winning steal. Instead, a pass by John Salmons made it to Johnson. And Smith knew he had a chance to block Johnson’s 3-pointer before time expired.

“That’s the toughest way to lose,” Novak said. “You’d rather lose by 40 than to lose on a game-winner. That’s going to sting for a while.”

Smith scored a game-high 28 points and Chris Copeland added 23. Chandler (21 points, 18 rebounds) was solid on both ends of the floor.

The Knicks were without Anthony for a second straight game because of a hyperextended knee, as well as Felton, who is expected to miss a month with a broken finger. With Amar’e Stoudemire, Rasheed Wallace and Iman Shumpert also sidelined, the Knicks were down to a 10-man team, and they looked in the first half as if they could have used another 10 to relieve them.

They were down by 21 at halftime.

“That first half we had was just unacceptable,” Novak said. “We gave their shooters way too much freedom.”

But the Knicks found a new burst of energy in the second half, chipping away at the Kings’ lead and eventually pulling in front about midway through the fourth quarter when Kidd hit a 3-pointer for a 97-95 lead.

But Kidd also helped put the Kings in position to win. His foul on Isaiah Thomas in the fourth quarter sent Thomas to the line, where he made both free throws to cut the Knicks’ lead to 105-103. Then, Kidd’s pass was intercepted with 16 seconds left. The Knicks never got the ball back.

“I had Tyson wide open,” Kidd said. “It was an easy pass. I just turned it over and they capitalized on it.”

The Knicks (21-9) surrendered 71 points in the first half as the Kings (10-19) shot 59.5 percent from the field and made 10 3-pointers. But as disappointing as the first half was for them, the Knicks said they showed character in rallying to take the lead.

“Losses like this build character,” Chandler said. “It hurts right now, but I feel like we won’t find ourselves in this situation again.”

He continued: “It shows how good we can be defensively. We dug ourselves a hole. To me, there’s no reason that we can hold a team to 35 points in the second half and can’t do it in the first. I was proud of the guys, though. This one burns, but we battled our hearts out.”

REBOUNDS

With five injured players, Coach Mike Woodson said he almost felt as if he had no choice but to hope Amar’e Stoudemire would be ready to play his first game of the season Tuesday against the Portland Trail Blazers. Stoudemire will be re-evaluated by a knee specialist Saturday before he participates in another practice. Woodson plans to have Stoudemire practice Sunday and Monday. “Those two practices will give us some indication of where he is,” Woodson said. “I’m going to put him through a full practice in terms of running up and down and banging some with him, too. Hopefully, there will be no setbacks, and he’ll be ready to go New Year’s Day.” ... Rasheed Wallace, who has a stress fracture in his left foot, also hopes to return to practice in the next few days. Woodson said he expected Wallace to see some minutes against the Trail Blazers. “I’m very antsy about it,” Wallace said of returning to the court. “Very antsy, especially when we play big games like we did against the Lakers. The nail-biter against Phoenix the other night. It’s not up to me, though. It’s up to the doctors.”

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Knicks 99, Suns 97: Hobbled by Injuries, Knicks Win on Last Shot

“When I was walking on the court, I was like, “Man, you’re going to make it, you’re going to make it,’ ” Smith said. “I was mentally really trying to get my form ready before I even thought about taking it.”

Catch the ball cleanly, he thought. Square your shoulders to the basket, he reminded himself. Believe in yourself.

Smith ran to the left corner of the court, received Jason Kidd’s pass, turned his body, jumped high in the air and faded away from the Phoenix Suns’ P. J. Tucker.

Buzzer sounds. Swish. Game over.

Smith’s difficult jumper as time expired gave the Knicks a 99-97 victory over the Phoenix Suns on Wednesday night, a much-needed lift for a weakened team. It was the second game-winner by Smith this month. His previous one, the first game-winner of his career, came on Dec. 5 against the Charlotte Bobcats.

And both final-second shots by Smith came with Carmelo Anthony not on the floor; Anthony missed Wednesday’s game because of a hyperextended knee.

Tyson Chandler called Smith’s basket an incredible one to watch from his perspective near the basket.

“Knowing J. R., it’s almost better for him to take a tough shot,” Chandler said. He added: “It seems like he makes the tougher shots with the guy is draped all over him. He does it in practice.”

After Smith made his shot, all of his teammates hugged him on the court.

“It was big just to see how hyped my teammates were, especially Tyson and Jason,” he said. “They’ve seen big shots hit before, so for them to be excited was great.”

Even before Smith’s last-second shot, the Knicks learned what it is like when their best player, Anthony, and their main point guard, Raymond Felton, are not playing. Minutes piled up for everyone else. Roles were expanded. And fitness was tested.

Throughout the game, Smith was erratic, Steve Novak was off target from long distance, and Chandler was fatigued.

Coach Mike Woodson put his trust in Smith and Kidd, a 39-year-old veteran, who gave one of his better all-around performances of the season. Kidd had 23 points, 6 rebounds and 8 assists. His final assist of the game was the inbounds pass on Smith’s buzzer-beater.

“Kidd was big,” Woodson said. “He nearly had a triple-double. Here he is almost 40 years old still playing like that. It’s incredible.”

Early in the fourth quarter, Woodson realized that the Knicks needed to outscore the Suns rather than beat them with defense. So in a bold move, Woodson left Chris Copeland (14 points) and Novak, who are not known for defense, in the game for much of the fourth quarter.

What the Knicks lacked most was the ability to track Jared Dudley, who scored a season-high 36 points for the Suns (11-18).

With 34.5 seconds left, Dudley was fouled by James White, who started for Anthony after Anthony hurt his left knee Tuesday. Dudley made both free throws to give the Suns a 97-95 lead. After a timeout, Woodson wanted the ball in Kidd’s hands. But Kidd passed up a tough shot and gave the ball to Smith, who drained a turnaround 17-foot jumper.

“He set the table with a tough shot to tie the game,” Kidd said. He added about Smith’s late-game confidence, “He likes that moment and he’s done it twice for us.”

The Suns followed with a turnover as Sebastian Telfair dribbled out of bounds with a second left. That set the stage for Smith’s shot.

“When Coach was drawing up the play, he looked at me and said, “We’re going to you,’ ” Smith said of Woodson. “That was big for him to show confidence in me. That gave me the extra emphasis to make the shot.”

This victory by the Knicks (21-8) came in difficult circumstances.

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