Griffin Leads Clippers Past Fading Knicks, 114-105

LOS ANGELES — Blake Griffin led the way in scoring, while Chris Paul and DeAndre Jordan each had double-doubles and the Los Angeles Clippers beat the New York Knicks 114-105 in the NBA on Monday night.

Griffin, who scored the first bucket of the game, shot 12-of-19 from the floor and made 3 of his 4 shots from 3-point range to finish with 30 points and six rebounds for Los Angeles, which won two straight.

Paul added 13 points and 13 assists to go with five rebounds, Austin Rivers tallied 17 points off the bench on 6-of-10 shooting, while DeAndre Jordan had 14 points, 10 rebounds and three blocks for the Clippers (42-29), who pulled to within one game of the Utah Jazz for fourth in the Western Conference Standings.

Also reaching double-digit scoring for Los Angeles were J.J. Redick and Jamal Crawford, who both scored 14 points for the Clippers, who shot 49.4 percent overall as a team.

New York was led by Kristaps Porzingis, who recorded a double-double with 18 points and 11 rebounds

Derrick Rose also had 18 points on 6-of-11 shooting, with five assists and four rebounds and Carmelo Anthony ended with 16 points for the Knicks (27-43), who dropped two straight and five of the last six games.

The Knicks trailed 29-23 at the end of the first quarter and 63-53 at halftime.

However, the Clippers used a strong third quarter to build a 25-point lead, while outscoring the visitors 34-19 in the third period.

“That start of the third quarter really hurt us,” New York coach Jeff Hornacek said.

With 11 regular season games remaining, Los Angeles is hoping to finish strong and grab the fourth spot in the battle with Utah for homecourt advantage in the playoffs.

“It’s important. I would love it. But I’m not going to focus on it,” Clippers coach Doc Rivers said about the situation.

“I’m going to try and get this team better each game, and then at the end, we’ll see where we’re at.”

The Knicks travel to Salt Lake City to face the Jazz on Wednesday.

Los Angeles is staying at Staples Center on Tuesday night, but will be the visiting in matchup against the Los Angeles Lakers.