NEW YORK -- Jamal Crawford was back in the locker room throwing up, a tough way to start a lengthy road trip. A little illness wasnt going to stop the Los Angeles Clippers. Neither is a grueling schedule nor the absence of their All-Star point guard. "For us, theres no excuses," Crawford said. "We have to go on the road and do a job." Blake Griffin scored 32 points, Crawford added 29, and the Clippers opened a seven-game road trip with their fifth straight victory, 109-95 over the New York Knicks on Friday night. DeAndre Jordan had 11 points and 16 rebounds for the Clippers, who dominated the second half to hand the Knicks their third consecutive loss. Carmelo Anthony had 26 points and 20 rebounds for the Knicks in a disappointing start to an eight-game homestand that matches the longest in franchise history. That doesnt guarantee any success this season, with the Knicks now 7-13 at Madison Square Garden. "It seems that we cant figure it out here on our home court," Anthony said. "But despite these last couple of games, I think weve got a great stretch that can work in our favour if we get some things right, adjust some things and figure it out quickly." One of those adjustments could be to the starting lineup, with coach Mike Woodson said he may have to consider it after starting guards Raymond Felton and Iman Shumpert combined for two baskets and five points -- all by Felton -- on 12 shot attempts. Anthony shot only 4 of 23 from the field, but made all 16 free throws in the first 20-20 game by a Knicks player since David Lee on April 2, 2010. J.R. Smith added 24 points off the bench. Its the second seven-game trip of the season for the Clippers, who will fly about 11,275 miles as they give up Staples Center for the Grammy awards. They went 4-3 in December on the first one, and got this one off to a winning start while improving to 10-10 on the road this season. Crawford couldnt even join them for warmups, remaining in the back with stomach sickness. But after needing a stunning rally to erase a 17-point deficit inside the final 5 minutes and beat Dallas 129-127 on Wednesday, the Clippers methodically pulled away from a 50-all halftime tie in this one and improve to 6-1 this season without the injured Chris Paul. "Something CP always says when we are on a road trip, Cant win them all without winning the first," Griffin said. "So to get the first one for us is obviously great, to get the win to start the road trip and help our mindsets for the rest of the games." The Knicks led 65-62 with 4 minutes left in the third before helping the Clippers pass them by continuously sending the visitors to the line. Ten of the Clippers final 14 points of the quarter came from the foul line -- one of them when Griffin was fouled throwing down an alley-oop pass from Crawford with 52 seconds left. Los Angeles then blew it open early in the fourth on consecutive jumpers by newly signed Hedo Turkoglu and Crawford, before Crawford nailed a 3-pointer to make it 85-70. Consecutive 3s later in the period by Griffin, Jared Dudley and Crawford, a former Knicks guard, extended it to 96-75 and brought out plenty of boos from the home fans. With the Knicks at home for the rest of the month, Woodson said he considers January the pivotal month of the season. Yet home hasnt been the place to be, with the Knicks absorbing their three worst losses here. And they could play this entire stretch without forwards Amare Stoudemire and Kenyon Martin. Both players sprained their left ankles in Thursdays 117-89 loss at Indiana and are expected to miss about two weeks. The homestand still includes visits from sub-.500 Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Charlotte, the Lakers, Boston and Cleveland, but the Knicks cant assume wins against anyone after falling to 15-25. "The thing that we have to do is just, we have to fix it," centre Tyson Chandler said. "Youve got to attack the problem head on. Theres going to be no pity parties. Just got to take care of it and fix it." The Clippers tied it at 50 going into halftime despite shooting under 33 per cent and going 3 of 18 on 3-pointers. Anthony was 2 of 10, but made all nine free throws for his 14 points. NOTES: The Knicks also had an eight-game homestand in December 1986. The Dallas Mavericks are the only other team with eight straight home games this season. Tony Oliva Jersey . This game was inside. Adrian Peterson was missing. The stage was set for another step toward the playoffs. Joe Mauer Jersey .Y. -- In a span of three days, Shabazz Napier and Connecticut knocked out both Philadelphia schools in the NCAA tournament. https://www.cheaptwins.com/1462t-jason-castro-jersey-twins.html . - Loosening up for their first training camp practice, the Miami Dolphins high-stepped sideways up and down the field while House of Pains song "Jump Around" blared on the loudspeakers. Twins Jerseys 2020 . Kerber will next play Estonias Kaia Kanepi, who beat American qualifier Victoria Duval 6-1, 6-3. In other first-round matches, Lucie Safarova beat 2010 French Open champion Francesca Schiavone 6-4, 6-4 and American Bethanie Mattek-Sands had a 6-4, 6-3 win over Canadas Eugenie Bouchard. Michael Pineda Twins Jersey . - Novak Djokovic beat John Isner 7-5, 6-7 (2), 6-1 on Saturday to reach the final of the BNP Paribas Open, where hell resume his longtime rivalry with Roger Federer.Chester, PA (SportsNetwork.com) - A pair of teams in desperate need of points will clash on Thursday as the Philadelphia Union welcome the Chicago Fire to PPL Park in a classic six-pointer. Philadelphia enters the match sitting in seventh place in the Eastern Conference with 38 points, three behind New York for the fifth and final playoff berth. Last time out, the Union suffered a 1-0 defeat to East-leading D.C. United which put a significant dent in the Unions playoff hopes. The games lone goal came after 10 minutes. A deflected cross found its way to United fullback Chris Korb, who quickly whipped the ball in to the top of the six. Luis Silva was waiting and deftly headed the ball past Union goalkeeper Rais MBolhi and into the back of the net. The Union suffered their first loss since Aug. 15 -- when they lost 2-0 at the Houston Dynamo -- though the defeat at D.C. United followed a pair of draws. The goals have dried up. You know, were struggling. We are getting chances. Were creating chances, maybe a little more commitment to get in the box, said Union manager Jim Curtin. We are going to have to find a way to fight through it, and we need to now win three games in a row to give ourselves even a chance at the playoffs. The Union were also shut out at the attacking end for a second consecutive match, the first time since April 19-26 they were blanked in back-to-back games. Conor [Caseys] up there fighting with two center backs and thats not good enough, Curtin said. We have to have more commitment from Chhaco [Maidana], from Vincent [Nogueira], from Amobi [Okugo] to get in the box late.dddddddddddd You saw today there were probably ten crosses that get knocked down around the 8-to 12-yard-line and we dont have anyone there to get on the end of it. Thats a commitment to getting in the box. Chicago, meanwhile, is coming off a 2-0 loss to the Houston Dynamo which extended its winless run to five matches. The Fire fell behind just after the quarter-hour. From the left side of the field, midfielder Ricardo Clark got the best of Fire veteran Logan Pause before firing a cross toward the back post. Omar Cummings split a pair of defenders to come sliding in for a simple finish. Houston then added a second goal in the 67th minute. Defender Kofi Sarkodie hit a cross from the right side to midfielder Brad Davis, who headed the ball back to a wide-open Boniek Garcia at the penalty spot, and he thumped home a picture-perfect volley with his left foot. Its been tough all year, weve tied 16 out of 29 games and youve got to turn some of those ties into wins and we havent, Fire head coach Frank Yallop said. So were not good enough. I guess we have something to slightly build on that we dont lose a ton of games, but we lost which is obviously a very disappointing result at this time of the season. But weve got to pick ourselves up, weve got play on Thursday, so weve got to get ready for that one. This will be the third and final meeting between the sides, which played to draws on April 5 and July 19. ' ' '