Cleveland Cavaliers beat Washington Wizards in the battle of Eastern Conference minnows: NBA Recap
Luke Harangody was called from the D-League by the Cleveland Cavaliers to play on Saturday night against the Washington Wizards, so that the team could rest Antawn Jamison. Harangody made full use of the opportunity by scoring
a team high 16 points and grabbing 10 rebounds to lead the Cavaliers to a 98-89 victory over the Wizards. John Wall of the Wizards led the overall scoring with 19 points and 9 assists.
“He was the MVP tonight. To play in a D-League game last night and come up here tonight and start right off the bat and play the way he played; you've got to give him a lot of credit” said Cleveland coach Byron Scott referring
to Harangody, who also had three steals.
Cleveland put the first 4 points on the board and took an early lead in the match. However, Washington responded with a 7-0 run to take a 15-14 lead. After a couple of lead exchanges, Manny Harris connected a 3 pointer for Cleveland
to tie the game at 22 with 31.9 seconds remaining in the period. The score remained the same at the end of the quarter.
Cleveland took the lead early in the 2nd quarter with a 3 pointer followed by a jump shot by Lester Hudson. The Wizards tried to catch up with the Cavaliers, never letting them get too far ahead, but trailed the whole
of the quarter to finish the first half trailing by 43-50.
The Wizard applied pressure on Cleveland throughout the 3rd quarter, but Cleveland narrowly held on to their lead. The Wizards started the 2nd half with 5 consecutive points to trail by only 2, but Cleveland
brought their lead back up to 9 points courtesy an 8-0 spurt. However, 3 pointers by Chris Singleton and Roger Mason Jr. at critical points helped ensure that the Wizards stuck to the tail of the Cavaliers and close the 3rd period trailing by just
2, 71-73.
The Wizards however, let the Cavaliers get away in the fourth quarter owing to poor shooting and bad ball handling. After starting the final quarter 3 of 3 from the field, the Wizards went 4 of 17 then after and gave Cleveland
the opportunity to get away. The Cavaliers capitalized, extending their lead to 9 points with 6:04 remaining in the game. Washington could never make their way back in the match after that. Cleveland eventually won the game 98-89.
6 Cleveland players had points in double figures for the night. Anthony Parker added 15 points and 5 assists for the Cavs and Tristan Thompson had 14 points for the night. Lester Hudson came off the bench to score 10 points. The
Wizards scoring was led by John Wall, while Jordan Crawford had 18 points and Kevin Seraphin had 15. Jan Vesely added 11 points and 11 rebounds.
Washington had 42 points in the paint, 12 more than Cleveland and also turned the ball over 10 times as compared to 17 for Cleveland. However, they lost their footing in the final quarter and let Cleveland get away.
Cleveland shot well from the field, going 51.5% for the night. They were also 27 of 33 from the foul line, while Washington were only 9 of 12. Washington also failed to make any impact from the 3 point line, going 4 of 14 for the
night. Cleveland, on the other hand, were 3 of 8.
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