NEW YORK — The Knicks spared themselves rock bottom.
For a while Saturday they flirted with losing to the lowly Rockets, a team so pitiful they may be in contention for worst in NBA history.
But a late surge from Alec Burks avoided such disaster, and the Knicks survived at Madison Square Garden, 106-99. It still felt like a defeat.
The Rockets (1-15) have dropped 14 straight while sustaining nightly blowouts. But they led midway through the fourth quarter Saturday and had the Knicks (9-7) against the ropes.
Julius Randle again struggled while missing 11 of his 15 shot attempts. Kemba Walker was even worse with nine points in 21 minutes. He was benched the entire fourth quarter. Evan Fournier scored 19 points and logged fourth-quarter minutes for the first time in five games, but he also air-balled two 3-pointers in the final five minutes.
Saturday marked the return of Nerlens Noel, who missed the previous four games with a sprained knee. His presence was necessary because the third center, Taj Gibson, was ruled out with a groin strain and Mitchell Robinson didn’t play after taking an elbow to his nose in the second quarter.
Robinson retreated to the locker room and never returned to the bench.
