Clippers top Bulls for 7th straight win

Reuters/New York

With Los Angeles leading by just two points in the last minute, Paul twice pushed the Clippers’ edge back to four with a jumper and two free throws and finished with his team’s final five points to seal the road victory.

It was the seventh successive win for the Clippers (15-6), their longest stretch since taking eighth straight in the 1991-92 campaign.

Paul finished with 18 points while Blake Griffin added 22 and 10 rebounds in the triumph.

Carlos Boozer led the way with 24 points and 13 rebounds for the Bulls, who fought back from a nine-point deficit in the fourth quarter to make the Clippers sweat.

Chicago (11-9), still playing without Derrick Rose as well as Richard Hamilton, had a three-game win streak snapped.

Carmelo Anthony poured in a season-high 45 points, Jason Kidd knocked down the tie-breaking three with 24 seconds left, and the visiting New York Knicks rallied from 17 down for a dramatic 100-97 victory over the Brooklyn Nets.

Kidd netted 18 points on six threes against his former club, while JR Smith added 16 for the Eastern Conference-leading Knicks (16-5), who earned a split of the first two meetings in the battle of the New York boroughs.

The lethargic Knicks quickly fell into a hole but dug themselves out behind Anthony’s offensive explosion and caught their hosts at 91-91 on a Kidd three-pointer with four minutes to play. 

New York took the lead on Anthony’s tip-in with 2:47 remaining, but the Nets levelled it 95 on a Gerald Wallace tip-in.

Anthony sank two free throws but Joe Johnson’s basket set the stage for Kidd’s difference-maker.

Knotted at 97-97, Raymond Felton sent a pass over to the 39-year-old Kidd, who nailed the wide-open triple from the left wing while getting fouled by a late-arriving Jerry Stackhouse.

Kidd, however, missed the free throw, leaving the door open for the Nets to force overtime.

But Wallace and Deron Williams missed three-point shots just before the final buzzer.

Andray Blatche scored 23 points.

Williams had 18 with 10 assists, while Reggie Evans grabbed 18 rebounds for the Nets, who have dropped five in a row.

Kyrie Irving collected 28 with 11 assists after missing 11 games with a fractured finger to his left hand, CJ Miles also netted 28 and the lowly Cleveland Cavaliers (5-17), snapped a five-game slide after holding off the struggling Los Angeles Lakers 100-94.

League top gun Kobe Bryant wasted a 42-point effort, while Dwight Howard had 19 with 20 rebounds for the visiting Lakers (9-13), losers in eight of their last 11 games.

In other games, the visiting Denver Nuggets rallied to drop the Detroit Pistons 101-94; and the league-worst Washington Wizards overcame the New Orleans Hornets 77-70 for their first road win of the season.