Jose Calderon hit a 3-pointer with two-tenths of a second left to give the New York Knicks a 90-87 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers on Sunday night.
Carmelo Anthony scored 12 of his 26 points in the fourth quarter for New York. He shot 10 for 20 and had 12 rebounds.
Kobe Bryant had 14 points in his 29th and final head-to-head matchup in the regular season with Anthony. The Lakers had a combined 16-13 record in those games against the Knicks and Denver Nuggets.
The anticipated rematch between lottery picks Kristaps Porzingis and D'Angelo Russell never materialized. Porzingis, the Knicks' 7-foot-3 forward and fourth overall pick, was felled by a stomach virus and returned to the team's hotel.
Derrick Williams made his second start of the season in place of Porzingis and had eight points and nine rebounds in 31 minutes. Arron Afflalo had nine points in 27 minutes off the bench, after missing two games because of a strained abdominal muscle.
Robin Lopez, who had a career-high 19 rebounds along with 20 points Friday night at Staples Center in a loss to the Clippers, had 16 points and eight boards. Sasha Vujacic, who played his first six-plus NBA seasons with the Lakers and won two rings, made his third straight start at shooting guard and shot 1 for 8 with five points.
The Knicks are 5-9 since Derek Fisher was fired and replaced as head coach by Kurt Rambis. They are 6-18 since posting consecutive overtime wins over Philadelphia and Utah at Madison Square Garden on Jan. 18-20, the first one coming in double-OT.
Local
Russell, the second overall pick in the draft, had just four points on 1-for-7 shooting. Lou Williams scored 12 of his 15 points in the fourth quarter for the Lakers after missing five games with a left hamstring strain.
The Knicks led by as many as 16 early in the third quarter before the Lakers cut it to 65-60 entering the fourth and pulled ahead 77-76 on a 3-pointer by Williams with 4:50 to play.
Bryant reported back in with 3:32 remaining and the Lakers ahead by three. He hit a 9-foot turnaround jumper for an 81-76 lead, but Anthony drained a 3-pointer and a 21-footer to put the Knicks up 86-85 with 54.8 seconds to go.
This was the first time the Knicks played the Lakers and Clippers back-to-back on the same road trip since the Clippers relocated from San Diego to Los Angeles for the 1984-85 season. New York is a combined 7-26 against the Lakers and Clippers at Staples Center since the arena opened in October 1999.
Knicks president Phil Jackson, who coached the Lakers to five NBA titles, received a thunderous ovation from the sellout crowd when he was shown on the video board between the first and second quarters and the theme from "Welcome Back Kotter" was played on the public address system.
