LOS ANGELES – The Hollywood stars seemed aligned when Renaldo Balkman drilled his first 3-pointer of the season, from the deep left corner, driving the Knicks’ lead over the Lakers to 100-91 with 8:50 left.
With Eddy Curry chained to the bench in foul trouble, picking up his fifth early in the third, the Knicks were doing just fine without him. Then the Knicks’ bubble burst. Kobe Bryant awakened and the Knicks collapsed in a 120-109 defeat at Staples Center.
With Nate Robinson and Jamal Crawford feeling their oats, the Knicks played with great tenacity early in the fourth quarter to build that 100-91 lead before LA erupted with a 19-4 run.
After Balkman’s trey, the Lakers finished the game on a 29-9 surge, dealing the Knicks their second straight loss to begin their make-or-break five-game West Coast trip. They face Utah tonight.
“The last six minutes, we didn’t have good offensive execution or good defensive execution,” said Isiah Thomas. “We kind of lost our composure.”
Said Robinson: “It seemed like they wanted it more than us.”
Crawford and Robinson each scored 22 points in the defeat, which sent the Knicks to their 30th loss. With Curry playing just 16 minutes after Thomas foolishly left him in with three fouls early in the second quarter, David Lee picked up the slack. He had 21 points and 12 boards.
Bryant, after a passive start, finished with 24 points, nine in the fourth quarter. Quentin Richardson played dogged defense on Bryant for three quarters.
Balkman, the team’s worst shooter, received a pass from Robinson in the deep left corner and swished a 3-pointer to cap the Knicks’ surge, but it turned into the beginning of the end. Balkman was 0-for-8 from 3-point land this season.
The Knicks’ downfall was lowlighted by Robinson committing a foolish technical for retaliating against Sasha Vujacic (20 points) after the Lakers forward had delivered a hard foul with 6:30 left, giving the Lakers a free point. Robinson and Balkman also snapped at each other when Balkman tried to settle down Robinson. The Knicks lost their swagger after that.
“I don’t think he deserved a technical,” Thomas said of Robinson.
Lamar Odom tied the score at 104 with 5:30 left and Richardson wrapped up Bryant on a drive. Bryant gave the Lakers their first lead of the fourth quarter, hitting a right-corner jumper with 4:49 left. Vujacic connected from the right wing and it was 108-104.
Out of desperation, Thomas put Curry got back into the game, replacing the effective Lee, after his long sitdown, in the final minutes. Immediately, Odom blew by him for a dunk to give the Lakers a 110-104 edge.
Curry and Zach Randolph hit back-to-back buckets to close within 110-108 with 3:01 left, but the Knicks couldn’t get closer. Randolph, on the low block, had the ball stolen, leading to a fastbreak bucket and foul for Bryant with 1:50 left. Bryant’s 3-point play made it 115-108.
Bryant was held to just four points in the first half, willing to dish off rather than attack. He racked up seven assists and seven rebounds and took just six shots, making two of them.
Frustration reached a high when Bryant got called for a palming violation with 9.8 seconds left in the half. The Knicks took advantage as Lee scored just before the buzzer to give the Knicks 61-58 lead.
Lakers 120 Knicks 109