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Marbury, lowly Knicks rally past Bulls

Jan 9, 2008 - 5:43 AM CHICAGO (Ticker) -- Stephon Marbury and the New York Knicks rallied to drain some of their sorrows away.

Marbury scored six of his 18 points in the fourth quarter as the struggling Knicks ended a six-game losing streak, defeating the Chicago Bulls, 105-100, on Tuesday.

Eddy Curry scored a season-high 29 points and Jamal Crawford scored 24 for New York, which also had dropped six in a row on the road.

"I thought that we fought hard, particularly in the fourth quarter, even after they had such a good third quarter on us," Knicks coach Isiah Thomas said. "We kept battling and eventually got some bounces out there. It was just nice to get one win on the road."

The Knicks also snapped a seven-game slide at the United Center.

Trailing, 88-77, to begin the final period, the Knicks also were behind 100-95 after Ben Gordon's jumper gave Chicago a lead with 4:16 remaining.

However, New York closed the game on a 10-0 run, taking the lead for good on big-time plays by Marbury.

"Those were big shots that he made," Crawford said of Marbury, who also nailed a bucket from the arc to cut the team's deficit to 100-98 with just over three minutes to go. "It's tough because we have so many guys who can score, guys can get frustrated when they don't get the ball. But Steph never did tonight and he stepped up and hit some big ones late."

After Crawford had knotted the contest at 100-100 with 2:29 remaining, Marbury - one of the Knicks' captains - drove the lane from the left side before spinning and feeding David Lee, who dunked on several Bulls' defenders to give the Knicks a two-point lead with 1:59 left.

"I'm disappointed with our play in the fourth quarter," Bulls interim coach Jim Boylan said. "We started holding the ball. There was no movement. We became stagnant and let a 12-point lead slip away. I don't think I did a good job managing the team."

After both teams went scoreless over the next 1:48, Marbury drilled a 25-foot 3-pointer after a back-tap by Curry as the shot clock expired to give New York a 105-100 lead and drain the life out of the United Center with 11 ticks on the clock.

"I (deflected) the ball out to him," Curry said. "(Bulls center) Ben Wallace got a piece of the ball and I just re-directed it to Stephon."

Jared Jeffries blocked a 3-point attempt by Bulls forward Andres Nocioni with five seconds left to secure the victory.

"We were up 12," Bulls guard Chris Duhon said. "(Our) defense has to bear down more. We kind of relaxed and let them back in the game."

Lee had 11 points and eight rebounds and fellow reserve Nate Robinson added seven and a career-high 10 assists for the Knicks, who shot 51 percent (39-of-77) and won just their second road game of the season.

Joe Smith scored 22 points and grabbed 12 rebounds and Kirk Hinrich scored 20 for Chicago, which shot 44 percent (42-of-95).

"With a lead like we had, you have to find a way to close the game out," Smith said. "Don't take anything away from the Knicks. They just took the game away from us."

Ben Gordon netted 21 for the Bulls but was just 1-of-5 from the field in the final period.

"I took a couple of bad shots at the end (of the game)," said Gordon, who missed all of his attempts in the last 2 1/2 minutes. "We've just got to figure out how to make plays down the stretch."

The Bulls now are 0-13 when their opponents score 100 or more points.

An irritated Boylan warned his team that they are digging a hole for themselves in the Eastern Conference. "There is no way we can make up ground and be thinking about making the playoffs if we continue to play like that at the end of the game," Boylan said.