Matt Barnes played solid defense on Carmelo Anthony on New Years Eve/Photo courtesy of Los Angeles Clippers, NBA.com

– Matt Barnes scored nine points in this  one. But his biggest contribution came on the defensive end, where he helped harass Carmelo Anthony into a 7-for-18 shooting night. Anthony had a team-high 19 points, but he had to really work for them. Barnes also had two steals and a block.

– J.J. Redick scored a game-high 20 points after getting off to yet another quick start; he had 18 of his points in the first half, 13 in the first quarter. He finished 2014 by averaging 17.8 points in the month of December. He scored 20 or more points in eight of the 17 games, with a high of 25 on Dec. 13 in a 111-106 loss at Milwaukee.

– It was good to see that three bench players scored in double figures. More importantly, backup post Spencer Hawes was one of them. In his second game back after missing nine with a bone bruise in his left knee, Hawes scored 10 points on 4 of 7 shooting – 2 of 3 from 3-point range. He also had seven rebounds in 23 minutes.

– The Clippers had a fine rebounding game, getting 50 to 40 for the Knicks. Besides Hawes’ seven, fellow reserves Reggie Bullock and Glen “Big Baby” Davis each had five. DeAndre Jordan led with 12 with Blake Griffin getting seven and Matt Barnes five.

– With all of these accolades, let’s remember one thing – this was a very poor Knicks team that now has a record of 5-29. Had the Clippers not routed them, that would have made those currently wondering if the Clippers are truly an elite team, wonder even more. With the victory, the Clippers are still just 6-6 in their past 12 games. Only two of the victories during that stretch came against teams currently with winning records. Of the six losses, five came against teams currently with winning records.