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Marbury, Crawford carry Knicks past slumping Kings

Jan 15, 2007 - 10:23 PM NEW YORK (Ticker) -- Stephon Marbury carried the New York Knicks for most of the afternoon. Jamal Crawford closed out the sliding Sacramento Kings.

Marbury scored 25 points and dished out eight assists and Crawford accounted for the final six points of New York's 102-97 victory over Sacramento, which is mired in its longest losing streak in nine years.

"The fourth quarter is the only time that it matters," said Crawford, who has been coming off the bench. "It is a little more difficult coming off the bench, but I do what I have to do."

The Knicks looked lost two weeks ago in a 112-100 loss at Sacramento on January 2, allowing Kings swingman Ron Artest to score a career-high 39 points.

But New York has been outstanding since that loss, winning four of five games and averaging 105.6 points over that stretch. Meanwhile, Sacramento has not won since, dropping six in a row.

"I thought the effort was really there, and we just came up short," Kings coach Eric Musselman said. "The Knicks made some big shots down the stretch, and today we happened to come up short."

The Knicks continued their hot play Monday, shooting 48 percent (36-of-75) from the floor while consistently executing in their half-court offense. Much of the credit belonged to Marbury, who found open teammates and ran the pick-and-roll to perfection with center Eddy Curry, who scored 24 points and grabbed 10 rebounds.

"It's great watching (Marbury's) development, his growth and his maturation," Knicks coach Isiah Thomas said. "He's been very steady, been very solid. His decision-making has been off the charts, even though he'll have a turnover or two. But he's trying to make the right play."

The embattled Marbury has been remarkably efficient over his last six games, averaging 23.2 points and 6.3 assists over that span.

"It's good to see him grow into a level where we all thought he could be," Thomas said. "Right now, this last month or so, he's playing about as (well) as any guard in this league is playing."

Channing Frye scored 17 points and David Lee added 15 and 12 rebounds off the bench for the Knicks, who leaned on the mercurial Crawford down the stretch.

Sacramento took a 97-96 lead when Shareef Abdur-Rahim drilled a hook shot with 26 seconds remaining.

But Crawford responded with the play of the game, knocking down a floating runner through traffic with 18 seconds left to give the Knicks the lead for good at 98-97.

"It's weird because I was cold the whole game," said Crawford, who finished with 10 points on 3-of-11 shooting. "My teammates and coaches have the utmost confidence in me, and the play was really for Eddy to get a deep post up ... I saw him kind of fighting for position, and I tried to take advantage of it."

"I think it's pretty understood on our team that in the last couple of minutes of the game, we depend on him to make a lot of big shots," Thomas said. "We put the ball in his hands to make plays and to make passes."

Crawford drilled four free throws in the last 14 seconds to seal the victory.

"The great thing about (Crawford) at the end of the game is his temperament," Thomas said. "It's a temperament that if he misses a shot or makes a mistake, the next day you see the same Jamal in practice. You see the same personality and the same temperament, and that's a sign of a guy who can and wants the pressure."

Kevin Martin scored 30 points to pace the Kings, who have yielded an average of 110.3 points during their losing streak. It is their longest slide since a season-ending seven-game skid from April 7-19, 1998, the last time they did not make the playoffs.

Artest, a New York native, struggled throughout, scoring just 12 points on 4-of-15 shooting. The defensive demon collected five rebounds, five assists and four steals but missed several key shots down the stretch.

"A lot of guys were open today," Artest said. "I was looking to pass more and was thinking, just pass the ball and kick it out."

"We used a lot of guys on (Artest)," Thomas said. "We gave him a lot of different looks and we gave him basically four different looks of size and speed to keep him off balance."