Marbury leads Knicks

NEW YORK – The New York Knicks are enjoying their best stretch of the season, and they know who is mostly responsible for it.

Stephon Marbury had 23 points and a season-high 15 assists, the final one setting up rookie David Lee for the tiebreaking basket with 21 seconds left, and the Knicks beat the Seattle SuperSonics 120-116 on Sunday for their season-high third straight win.

Playing 44 minutes without injured guard Jamal Crawford, Marbury had only turnover.

“When Marbury gets 15 assists and one turnover without Jamal in the game, you realize why we won,” Knicks coach Larry Brown said. “He was phenomenal.”

The Knicks’ first three-game winning streak since last February coincides with Marbury’s best span of the season. He is averaging 23.5 points and 12 assists over the last four games – all since he was criticized by Brown following a poor performance in a loss to Orlando when he was 0 for 7 from the field.

“It is everyone. It is not just myself,” Marbury said. “We are just more comfortable. We have a really nice flow right now.”

Seattle had a chance to tie, but Luke Ridnour – who came into the game shooting a league-leading 95 percent (76 of 80) from the line for the season – missed two free throws with 9.8 seconds remaining. Trevor Ariza rebounded and was fouled, making both free throws for a four-point advantage.

Seattle’s Vladimir Radmanovic scored a career-high 30 points, including 16 in the fourth quarter. He had eight 3-pointers.

Radmanovic scored five straight points to give the Sonics a 113-111 lead with just over a minute remaining before Eddy Curry tied it for the final time with two free throws.

Allen scored for 33 points for the Sonics, who fell to 1-2 since firing Bob Weiss and replacing him with former Knicks coach Bob Hill. Rashard Lewis added 19.

“They did a lot of good things tonight,” Hill said. “In spite of losing the game, I have to feel good about the progress that we’ve made in a short amount of time.”