New York Knicks try to back owner’s belief with better play in NBA clash against Los Angeles Clippers

NEW YORK – New York Knicks owner James Dolan spent Jan 5 giving a rare interview in which he said he expected his team to win the National Basketball Association (NBA) Finals.

Hours later, the Knicks did not exactly make Dolan look prescient.

The Knicks will look to snap a four-game skid – their longest losing streak of the season – on Jan 7 (Jan 8 morning, Singapore time) when they host the Los Angeles Clippers.

Both teams were off on Jan 6 after playing on Jan 5, when the Knicks were routed by the hosts Detroit Pistons 121-90, while the Clippers held off a furious fourth-quarter rally by the visiting Golden State Warriors to squeak through with a 103-102 win.

The loss to Detroit – in which New York set a season low for points while suffering their most lopsided defeat in more than 10 months – continued to diminish the buzz the Knicks built during December, when they authored a seven-game winning streak that included

a victory over the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Cup final

.

The Knicks, who have not won the NBA Finals since 1973, declined to raise a banner in honour of the NBA Cup title.

“We want an NBA championship,” Dolan said on WFAN Radio in his first interview with a New York outlet since an appearance on WFAN in January 2023. “We don’t want a consolation prize.

“We’re going to raise the NBA championship banner. That’s the banner we want to raise.”

Dolan, who approved the firing of Tom Thibodeau last June just after the coach had led the Knicks to the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time since 2000, said on Jan 5 that “we should win the Finals”.

“This is sports and anything can happen,” Dolan said. “But getting to the Finals, we absolutely got to do. Winning the Finals, we should win.”

But the Knicks have yet to win in 2026 – a decline that began on New Year’s Eve, when they lost to the Spurs 134-132.

New York then fell by double digits to the Atlanta Hawks and Philadelphia 76ers before leading just once, at 1-0, in the game against the Pistons.

The Knicks’ longest losing streak since a similar sequence from Feb 8 to 14, 2024, dropped them into third place in the East behind leaders Detroit (27-9) and the Boston Celtics (23-12).

“If we want to be the team we say we want to be, then we’ve got to be better,” Knicks point guard Jalen Brunson said. “Simple as that.”

Despite the absence of James Harden, who sat out on Jan 5 with a sore right shoulder, the Clippers (13-22) continued a much-needed resurgence by winning for the seventh time in eight games following a 6-21 start.

Los Angeles led by 13 with 4min 48sec left before the Warriors ended the game on a 21-9 run. Golden State pulled within one point twice in the final 65 seconds and had a chance to take the lead with three seconds left, but Jimmy Butler missed a mid-range jumper.

Even with the fast finish, the Warriors shot just 38 per cent from the field (35-of-92), including 24.4 per cent (10-of-41) from three-point land. The defensive effort continued a recent trend for the Clippers, who have given up fewer than 110 points in each of their last seven wins after surrendering at least that number 20 times in their first 27 games.

“That’s a huge reason why we’ve been back to playing pretty good – our defence has been really good,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said.

With the Jan 5 win, the Clippers had pulled within two games of the 10th-placed Memphis Grizzlies in the Western Conference. The Clippers have made the play-offs in 12 of the last 14 seasons.

In NBA action on Jan 6, Darius Garland posted 29 points and six assists as the Cleveland Cavaliers won 120-116 in Indianapolis to send the Pacers to their franchise-record 13th consecutive loss.

In New Orleans, Luka Doncic and LeBron James both scored 30 points as the Los Angeles Lakers beat the New Orleans Pelicans 111-103. REUTERS