Don Nelson's unorthodox lineups have been working pretty well for the New York Knicks, who have won seven of their first nine games.
His latest gimmick - four guards and a big man - was successful for a while against the Vancouver Grizzlies, but with the game slipping away, Nelson was forced to go back to his conventional starting lineup.Even the starters nearly didn't get it done. New York needed Patrick Ewing's basket with 30 seconds left and an out-of-bounds call at the other end to defeat Vancouver 98-93 Sunday night.
"Well, that was a surprise," Nelson said. "We had to hang on with everything we had to get the win."
Despite holding the Grizzlies, the league's lowest-scoring team averaging just 88 points a game, to 19 points in the third quarter, the Knicks couldn't build any kind of a lead until Nelson went to a lineup of Derek Harper, Gary Grant, Hubert Davis and John Starks teaming first with forward Anthony Mason, then Ewing.
Mason's basket gave New York an 89-80 lead with 6:21 remaining. But Vancouver kept hanging around, cutting the lead to three on a basket by Blue Edwards with 4:21 left.
"In that particular part of the game, some shots didn't go and they made some good plays during that stretch," Nelson said.
The Knicks' starters came back just before Greg Anthony, the former Knick who was left unprotected in the expansion draft, hit a 3-pointer with 2:13 left to tie the game at 91. After a layup by Harper, Anthony tied it again with a driving layup with 46 seconds to play.
Charles Oakley missed an open 18-footer, but Ewing got the rebound and his follow shot put the Knicks ahead for good, 95-93 with 30.5 seconds left. Until then, Ewing had taken only nine shots and had just 11 points. He finished with 16 rebounds.
After Ewing's shot gave New York a 95-93 lead, Anthony drove to the basket, missed a layup and was ruled out of bounds when he grabbed his own rebound. He argued the call and got a technical.
"I've always played with a lot of emotion," said Anthony, who led the Grizzlies with 18 points. "I know it was an important call, basically the game. I just screamed at the call."
Oakley's foul shot at the other end sealed the Knicks' win.
Hawks 108, Kings 94
At Sacramento, Mookie Blaylock hit two long 3-pointers to launch a fourth-quarter spurt and Steve Smith had 32 points to lead Atlanta.
Blaylock, who scored 11 of his 20 points in the final 5:54, connected from the left corner to break an 87-87 tie, triggering a 21-7 run down the stretch.
The Hawks, winning for the fifth time in six games, denied the Kings their best 10-game start in 27 years. Sacramento is 7-3. The 1968-69 franchise, then the Cincinnati Royals, was 8-2.
Andrew Lang had 18 points and 11 rebounds for the Hawks, while Blaylock had seven assists and five steals. Brian Grant and Walt Williams led the Kings with 15 points each.
Lakers 109, Clippers 88
At Inglewood, Calif., Cedric Ceballos scored 13 of his 25 points in a 5-minute span of the fourth quarter as the Lakers snapped the Clippers' five-game winning streak.
The Lakers improved to 4-0 at home with their fourth straight victory.
Nick Van Exel added 20 points for the Lakers, who avenged a 25-point loss to the Clippers at the Forum last December. Brian Williams led the Clippers with 22 points.
The Lakers led by as many as 30 points in the second period before the Clippers got within six points with 7:39 remaining in the game. Then Ceballos took over for the Lakers, who put the game away with a 17-6 spurt for a 101-84 lead with 2:36 to play.