Clippers Sail Into Squall in Loss to Knicks : Pro basketball: New York wins, 101-91, with defense that gives up 11 points in the fourth quarter.

Gary Grant was hit in the eye in the third quarter, and Ron Harper was elbowed in the head early in the fourth quarter.

But the sorest spot for the Clippers came during the fourth quarter when they made only two of 13 shots and scored 11 points--both season lows--in losing to the New York Knicks, 101-91, before 15,743 at Madison Square Garden.

The fourth-quarter earnings: Ken Norman’s 16-footer with 8:32 left. Grant’s three-point jump shot with 59 seconds remaining. Six free throws.

But: Eleven misses and 7 minutes 33 seconds without a field goal. Six turnovers.

The amazing thing is the Clippers were not bankrupt long before the final minute, despite being on the wrong end of a 13-3 run to open the final quarter. With free throws, they trailed only 91-88 with 2:38 to go and, after Grant’s shot, were behind, 97-91.

But any notion of a comeback ended quickly when Danny Manning lost the ball on the next possession, and the Clippers were forced to foul from there.

“One thing about us,” New York’s Xavier McDaniel said after the Knicks held their ninth opponent in their past 12 games to fewer than 100 points. “When we get beat, we get beat bad. If a team scores 90 points, we score 70. We’re a defensive team.

“There is always one quarter when we get to you. Tonight it was the fourth.”

McDaniel got to the Clippers earlier. Just after Grant drove the baseline and passed off, McDaniel’s arm got to Grant’s right eye.

The eye swelled immediately, but despite being bothered the rest of the evening by blurred vision, Grant did not stay out of the game long. McDaniel said he had apologized to Grant, that he only stuck out his arm to deflect the ball. For good measure, McDaniel flashed the bruise on the inside of his arm and said how much it hurt.

“If I meant to take someone out, I’m sure not going to go up and apologize to him,” McDaniel said.

No foul was called. Grant didn’t know if it was an inadvertent forearm or not. He didn’t even remember the play after the game--just getting hit and going down.

Harper fell after leaping to rebound Kiki Vandeweghe’s miss. Patrick Ewing came from behind and got tangled in Harper’s arm. Ewing’s elbow hit Harper in the temple, and Harper hit the floor. Again, no whistle.

“I wasn’t thinking about any foul,” said Harper, who led the Clippers with 23 points. “I was thinking about my head.”

Unintentional or not, both incidents started the Knicks’ fourth-quarter defensive stand. The Clipper offense--not the two Clippers--looked woozy the rest of the night.

“It was just a matter of us getting knocked down,” said Grant, who had six assists and only one turnover the first half and seemed on his way to a second consecutive good game. “We seemed to have gotten intimidated instead of pushing our game up a little. We took jumpers, instead of driving to the basket. That’s not our game.”

Coach Larry Brown saw other reasons for the late breakdown.

“I don’t think we got a lot of good shots,” Brown said. “And they gave us one shot and then out. That was a key.

“We were still in the game. But every time we got a stop (on defense), they (the Knicks) got a long rebound or would make us turn it over.”

The result was the Clippers’ 12th consecutive loss to New York.

Clipper Notes

New York Coach Pat Riley on Danny Manning: “He’s the closest thing to Earvin Johnson in this league today. He’s 6-11, 6-10, can handle the ball, put it on the floor. The fact that he plays forward and not point guard is the only difference.” . . . And Riley caught Manning on something of an off-night--18 points, but eight turnovers and no assists. . . . Patrick Ewing also had six blocked shots. . . . Mark Jackson added 18 points and 16 assists for New York.

* BULLISH

Michael Jordan scores 33 points to help the Chicago Bulls rally for a 113-100 victory over Minnesota. C6