Clippers Look Out of Style

It’s Fashion Week in Manhattan, and the New York Knicks showed off their chic, new accessory Sunday night.

The Clippers, though, needed no introduction to Stephon Marbury.

When he was playing for the Phoenix Suns, the Coney Island native torched the Clippers for 40 points in a Dec. 29 Sun victory in Staples Center, after scoring 30 points against them two weeks earlier in a Sun loss.

Traded last month to his hometown team, Marbury lit up the Clippers again in front of a sellout crowd of 19,763 in Madison Square Garden, scoring 42 points on 15-for-20 shooting and helping the Knicks to a 110-104 victory.

Also finishing with eight assists, he scored 20 points in the fourth quarter, 17 during a period-opening 21-8 run that gave the Knicks a 14-point lead en route to their fifth consecutive victory and 10th in 13, all since Marbury’s arrival.

So ended the “easy” part of the Clippers’ eight-game trip.

After splitting six games against Eastern Conference teams with losing records, they’re headed west. They’ll play the Minnesota Timberwolves on Tuesday and the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday before returning home.

A victory against the Knicks, of course, would have assured them a split on the trip, but Marbury wasn’t about to let that happen.

He scored 20 points before halftime, efficiently guiding the Knicks to a 12-point second-quarter lead that the Clippers cut to 58-51 before the break, then seemed to coast through the third quarter before his bravura finish.

The Clippers, who led briefly near the end of the third quarter, had nobody who could effectively guard Marbury, who commanded so much attention that forward Kurt Thomas often was left wide open. Working the pick-and-roll with Marbury, Thomas made 12 of 19 shots and scored a season-high 28 points.

“That’s why I think he and Jason Kidd are the best point guards in the league, straight up, because he’s really making his teammates better,” Clipper reserve Keyon Dooling said of Marbury.

“He’s a special breed, man. He’s one of those elite players in the league that bring it every night -- him, K.G. [Kevin Garnett], Tracy [McGrady], those guys. They’re special, man. So, you’ve got to take your hat off to them.”

Dooling, assigned to Marbury for most of his 14 minutes, said that even as Marbury undressed him, he complimented him.

“He said, ‘Boy, I love the way you always play hard,’ ” Dooling said, laughing. “But it seemed like the harder I played, the more shots he hit.”

Said Marbury: “I just got into a nice groove, nice feel.”

Against the Clippers -- again. When asked what it was about the Clippers that seemed to bring out the best in his game, he laughed.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I was just playin’, ballin’.”

Marbury’s brilliance helped the Knicks to 56% shooting, 64.1% in the first half.

“He’s like the Energizer Bunny,” Clipper Coach Mike Dunleavy said. “I don’t know if the guy ever gets tired. He just keeps bouncing around. You’re trying to stay with him and then [on] your [defensive] rotations, you’re not exactly sure where people are. He’s all over the place, and that makes it tough.”

The Clippers, who’ve lost two in a row after winning three in a row, stayed close behind Elton Brand and Corey Maggette, who both scored 28 points and combined to make 28 of 31 free throws. All told, the Clippers made 42 of 46 free throws.

From the field, however, they made only 40.8% of their shots, 35.7% in the fourth quarter, when questionable shot selection -- and Marbury -- ruined them.

“The learning curve for us is still there,” Dunleavy said. “On this road trip, every game we’ve lost has been a winnable game, but we’ve either succumbed to poor shot selection or we’ve made mistakes. That, in some ways, is what young teams do, but that’s what we’ve got to get away from.”

Getting away from Marbury probably should help too.

“He’s on a pretty good roll right now,” Dunleavy said.