Cleveland Cavaliers hold their nerve to upset Los Angeles Clippers 108-101: NBA Recap
Cleveland Cavaliers maintained their composure down the stretch to defeat Los Angeles Clippers 108-101 at the Staples Centre here on Monday night. Clippers have now lost 11 out of last 12 encounters against the Cavaliers. They
failed to capitalize on their home advantage, match the energy and pace of the visiting team and thus fell short on the night. Rookie guard Dion Waiters scored an impressive 28 on only his fourth NBA game for the Cavs.
Clippers started well when Caron Butler bagged 5 points at the start to make it 7-0. Willie Green scored a three pointer to increase the lead to 17-9 later on, but the Cavs fought back and Daniel Gibson knocked down a three pointer
to make it 26-25, the first time Clippers trailed in the game. The first quarter ended in slight favour for the Cavaliers at 31-28.
At the start of the second quarter Jamal Crawford put the Clippers ahead once again with a 3 pointer. CJ Miles made a step back jump shot to level it at 33-33. Crawford running shot equalled it again at 41-41 with nearly five minutes
remaining in the half. He got fouled on that shot and put the free throw to hand the hosts a one point lead. That turned out to be short lived as the Cavs responded with a 10-2 run to make it a seven point game in their favour. By the time, teams headed into
the locker room the score was 57-50, advantage Cleveland.
Clippers managed to outscore Cavaliers in the third quarter but only by a margin of one. Cavaliers made a brief run to make it 63-50, but Clippers responded well and kept up the scoring, making it 61-66, minutes later. The quarter
ended at 84-78 in favour of the Cavaliers.
The final quarter was the lowest in terms of scoring with only 47 points in it. Griffin’s alley oop slam dunk five minutes from the end brought the Clippers within two points of the Cavaliers, but 3 treys, two by Waiters and another
one by Irving sealed the deal for the Cavaliers as they ended up winning the game 108-101.
Waiters stole the show with 28 points that included 10 of 17 from the floor. K. Irving was also impressive with his 24 points and 10 assists. Anderson Varejao put up 15 points and grabbed 15 rebounds for the Cavaliers, who also
had 15 points and seven rebounds from Tyler Zeller.
Six Clippers made it to double figures in the scoring. Blake Griffin and Chris Paul were their star performers with 20 and 17 points respectively. Interestingly Clippers shot better from the field, at 52.7 percent compared to 43.5
percent from the Cavaliers. However, Cavaliers scored an impressive 48.3 percent (14-29) from the three point range compared to only 36 percent (9-25) for the Clips.
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