Cavaliers balance 55-point loss vs. Lakers at home
What’s wrong Lakers? Los Angeles hit the defeat line for the third straight time and could not stand the shockingly energetic Cleveland Cavaliers, 109-89, Wednesday night. The “Cavs” finally avenged their long awaited 55-point loss that they suffered at
the hands of Lakers back on January, 11.
L.A had one of the biggest upset of the season and surprisingly, the Cavaliers showed their best effort in the game.
Cavaliers took a halftime advantage against the Lakers who stumbled really badly this time. As quoted by Joseph Heller, “Destiny is a good thing to accept when it's going your way. When it isn't, don't call it destiny; call it injustice, treachery, or simple
bad luck.” Perhaps, it is injustice on the two-times NBA defending champions and may be they deserved better than this.
The victory was as huge to the Cavaliers as hard it was for the Lakers. Ramon Sessions produced a season-high 32 points and dished out eight dimes for the winners. Pau Gasol was awesome even in the loss. The Lakers centre counted 30 as the 30-year-old acquired
his last basket and grabbed 20 rebounds to enjoy one of his best games of the season.
Taking a look back at the pages of history, Los Angeles humiliated the Cavaliers back on Jan, 11, so Cleveland had to stir it up. The Lakers saw an emotionally charged road trip coming to an end in a rather upsetting manner. It wasn’t their night indeed.
They lacked the energy to chase the opponent team and could not concentrate. The Cavaliers had some easy shots as the Lakers benefitted them with 19 turnovers. Oops!
Lakers coach Phil Jackson was so disappointed that he had to scream at the team during the timeouts. The truth is that the Lakers did see an upset and they could not defend themselves against one of the league’s worst teams.
The loss was big, but even bigger than that was the number of shots missed by Kobe Bryant. The Lakers shooting guard produced a much relaxed 8-of-25 shooting from the field as he notched 17 points and 12 rebounds. Derek Fisher floated with season-high 19
points and Shannon Brown added 15 in the loss.
Antawn Jamison clinched 19 points and grabbed 10 boards whereas J.J. Hickson contributed 13 points and had a whopping 15 rebounds in the win.
The Lakers were in a struggle in shooting from the field. Everything seemed dark when they could only collect 37-of-87 shots, letting go of a whopping 50 shots. Cleveland took the reins of the game in their hands from the very start with some top notch shots
as Sessions leaped on to the court for his season-best score.
The Lakers struggled to cut the 10-point lead produced by the Cavaliers to two-points, 97-99, in the last minute of the final quarter. At that moment, Anthony Parker and Sessions hit two free throws each to widen the gap 103-99.
Lakers, well, they did struggle. Only, their struggle did not come to fruition. A 3-pointer clinched by Bryant late in the third quarter cut a 12-point lead to just three. Christian Eyenga dunked fantastically at that point to seal a lock on their score,
74-71. This was Cleveland’s final take off.
Even bothering was that Bryant had his second foul right in the first quarter and the 32-year-old received a technical on his way back to the bench when he mumbled something to referee Kane Fitzgerald. This helped open a new gateway for the Cavaliers who
were seeking one such unlocked door.
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