Day: February 2, 2013

Bench helps Nets beat banged-up Bulls, 93-89

Bench carries Nets past banged-up Bulls, 93-89

The Brooklyn Nets kept going deeper down their bench to find a winning combination. The Chicago Bulls simply had nowhere to go.

Brook Lopez scored 20 points through three quarters, then the Nets turned to their bench to beat the short-handed Bulls 93-89 on Friday night.

With most of their best players in street clothes, the Bulls’ normally sturdy defense allowed the Nets to make 11 of 18 shots in the fourth quarter. Nine of the baskets were by reserves.

”It’s huge, especially when a lot of our starters didn’t have it going tonight,” Nets guard Deron Williams said. ”It was good that those guys came in and stepped up for us. Without them, we don’t win this game.”

Andray Blatche scored all 11 of his points in the fourth quarter and MarShon Brooks had nine of his 13 as the reserves scored the Nets’ first 20 points. A starter didn’t score until Joe Johnson’s 3-pointer gave Brooklyn an 86-80 lead with 2 minutes to play…

Johnson finished with 13 points for the Nets, who bounced back from a loss to Miami on Wednesday by beating another top Eastern Conference team.

Luol Deng scored 18 points and Taj Gibson had 16 points and nine rebounds for the Bulls, who played without starters Joakim Noah, Carlos Boozer and Kirk Hinrich while losing for just the third time in 11 games…

Nate Robinson had 12 points and 11 assists but shot just 4 of 16 in place of Hinrich, who returned to Chicago to get his right elbow examined. Marco Belinelli scored 18 points and Jimmy Butler had 12 off Chicago’s bench.

— Reported by Brian Mahoney of the Associated Press

Melo scores 25 as Knicks beat Bucks 96-86

carmelo anthony

Carmelo Anthony scored 25 points, Amare Stoudemire had 17 points and seven rebounds off the bench, and the New York Knicks extended their winning streak to three games with a 96-86 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks on Friday night.

J.R. Smith had 17 points and Tyson Chandler pulled down 20 rebounds in New York’s fourth straight win over Milwaukee.

Ersan Ilyasova led the Bucks with 19 points and seven rebounds. Monta Ellis added 16 points and Brandon Jennings had 14.

The Knicks trailed for the majority of the game until late in the third quarter when they stormed back…

After Jennings’ layup made it 78-75, the Knicks went on an 8-2 run and never looked back. Iman Shumpert scored on a layup and Chandler followed with a dunk to make it 82-75. Marquis Daniels answered with a layup for Milwaukee but Shumpert made another basket and Felton followed with a 3-pointer to make it 87-77 before the Bucks called timeout with 4:58 to go…

The Knicks honored former New York City Mayor Ed Koch during a timeout in the first quarter. Koch died of congestive heart failure Friday at 88. … New York Yankees ace CC Sabathia was in attendance. … The Bucks had won 12 of 14 before losing four straight to the Knicks. … The Bucks are 0-12 when held to 90 points or fewer this season. They scored 88 in a loss to the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday night.

— Reported by Adriano Torres of the Associated Press

Rudy Gay has 20 in debut, Raptors rout Clippers 98-73

rudy gay

The way Blake Griffin saw it, a sloppy effort by the Los Angeles Clippers only made things easier for Rudy Gay and the fired-up Raptors.

Gay wowed a sellout crowd by scoring 20 points in his Toronto debut, leading the Raptors to a 98-73 rout of the short-handed Clippers on Friday night.

”The way we played had a big effect on their flow,” Griffin said. ”Not to take anything away from them – they did a good job – but our defense was terrible.”

The Clippers were pretty terrible on offense, too, setting season lows for points and field goal percentage (34.7). Los Angeles’ previous low in points was 76 at Brooklyn on Nov. 23, while its previous low in field goal percentage was 36.6 on Jan. 19 in a home win over Washington.

”We didn’t execute very well, we didn’t shoot it very well,” coach Vinny Del Negro said. ”We struggled in a lot of areas.”

Amir Johnson had 19 points and matched his career high with 16 rebounds for the Raptors. DeMar DeRozan also scored 19 as Toronto welcomed Gay with a winning effort two days after the high-scoring forward was acquired from the Memphis Grizzlies in a three-team trade that included Detroit…

John Lucas scored 17 and Aaron Gray had seven points and 12 rebounds for the Raptors, who handed the Clippers their fourth straight loss in Toronto and their largest defeat of the season…

Griffin had 17 points and nine rebounds for the Clippers, who were without point guard Chris Paul (bruised right kneecap) for the sixth straight game…

Jamal Crawford scored 14 points, Caron Butler had 12 and Eric Bledsoe 10 for Los Angeles, which has dropped five of eight overall.

— Reported by Ian Harrison of the Associated Press