Lakers' troubles persist with loss to Knicks following LeBron suspension

The Los Angeles Lakers saw their troubles deepen with a 106-100 loss to the New York Knicks on Tuesday, with their star player LeBron James sitting out a one-game suspension following his ejection in Sunday's game against the Detroit Pistons.

In that game, James was ejected for fouling and drawing blood from Isaiah Stewart's face, after which the Pistons player tried to rush James and in turn received a two-game suspension.

In Tuesday night's game, Evan Fournier scored 26 points, Immanuel Quickley had 12 of his 14 in the fourth quarter after New York had blown a 25-point lead.

Julius Randle added 20 points, 16 rebounds and five assists for the Knicks, but sat for eight minutes of the fourth quarter after picking up his fifth foul. Quickley made sure that didn't matter, hitting four 3-pointers in the period.

Russell Westbrook had 31 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists, with 18 points in a sensational third quarter that allowed the Lakers to tie the game.

But with James not in the arena, Anthony Davis struggling through an illness and Carmelo Anthony's shot off in his old home, the Lakers never could take the lead.

Davis, feverish

Davis, who woke up with a fever, had 20 points on 7-for-17 shooting. Anthony was just 3 of 14 for 12 points, and the Lakers lost for the fourth time in five games.

Randle went to the bench with his fifth foul with 9:18 remaining and was hit with a technical foul from there that allowed the Lakers to cut it to 90-87. But Obi Toppin scored before Quickley made a 3-pointer to push it back to eight, and it was back into double digits when another 3 by Quickley made it 105-93 with 4:58 to play.

The Knicks raced to a 10-0 lead that grew to 36-15 on RJ Barrett's 3-pointer with 1:11 left in the first quarter. It was 59-35 with under 5 minutes remaining in the half before the Lakers put together a 16-2 run that trimmed it to 61-51 just before the break.

The Lakers scored nine straight to open the third and cut it to 63-60, and finally tied it for the first time at 79 on Anthony's dunk.

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