For 47 minutes, there didn't seem to be much difference between one of the hottest teams in the NBA and one of the coldest. Then it turned out what separates the two is about seven feet tall.
Patrick Ewing scored 4 points within four seconds with less than a minute to play Monday night, lifting the New York Knicks to their eighth win in the last nine games, a 90-85 victory over the New Jersey Nets, who lost their sixth straight.Ewing, who went 2-for-10 in the first half, hit two free throws with 36.3 seconds left to put New York ahead 86-85. After the Nets called a time out, Ewing stole Reggie Theus's in-bounds pass intended for Sam Bowie at midcourt and took it in himself for a dunk that gave New York an 88-85 edge.
"We should not have thrown the ball in," Nets Coach Bill Fitch said. "We had a timeout and we should have used it."
The Nets, who have lost 12 straight on the road, held a 29-15 lead in the second quarter and were up by 5 with 4:24 to play but the Knicks finished with an 11-2 run to pull out the win. New Jersey threw away the ball three times in the last minute.
Ewing finished with 20 points, but he had 12 of those in the fourth quarter after being bottled up by Bowie most of the game.
Kiki Vandeweghe added 16 points, Maurice Cheeks scored 12 and Brian Quinnett 10.
Bowie led the Nets with 24 points, Mookie Blaylock and Chris Morris both scored 12 and Theus added 11.
Quinnett scored 9 points, including two 3-pointers, during a 15-0 Knicks run midway through the second quarter that brought New York back from a 29-15 deficit.
Morris and Jack Haley missed back-to-back dunks that could have broken the Knicks' run.
Bucks 96, Pistons 85
At Auburn Hills, Mich., Dale Ellis scored 30 points and Danny Schayes added 22 points and 10 rebounds to help Milwaukee hand the Pistons the seventh loss in their last nine games. Joe Dumars led Detroit with 17 points and Vinnie Johnson had 16. Milwaukee never trailed after a 9-0 spurt midway through the third period that gave the Bucks a 64-58 lead. The Bucks' lead eventually reached 19 points as Detroit shot 1 for 11 during an 8:17 stretch of the fourth quarter.
Blazers 104, Cavaliers 96
At Portland, Ore., Clyde Drexler had 26 points and nine rebounds and Jerome Kersey added 21 points and nine rebounds, helping the Trail Blazers break a two-game losing streak at home. Cleveland was led by Brad Daugherty with 24 points and John "Hot Rod" Williams with 19. After Cleveland scored 8 straight points to cut Portland's lead to 92-90 late in the fourth quarter, Drexler and Buck Williams had 3 points apiece in in an 8-2 run that put the game away.