Jamal Crawford had 24 points, Chris Paul had 22 and the Clippers overcame a poor first half shooting performance to defeat the Warriors 100-86. Wow, that was ugly,” Clippers coach Doc Rivers said. “Neither team shot the ball well. It really came down to mental toughness — having the ability to hang in there. And we did that. It’s nice winning games when you don’t play great. In the first half, we had shots that I would take all day. They just didn’t go in.” The Clippers shot only 17% in the opening frame but overcame that to win on Christmas Day. “We’re not invincible,” Warriors point guardStephen Curry said. “We have to play the way we’re supposed to play — at our highest level — in order to win games. It you don’t, you’re susceptible to getting beat. But we’re a good team. These last two games haven’t shown our full potential, but it’s important not to overreact to losing two games in a row.”
Category: NBA
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BLAZERS TOP SPURS IN 3OT
Damian Lillard had a career-high 43 points as the Portland TrailBlazers defeated the San Antonio Spurs 129-119. LaMarcus Aldridge added 32 points and 16 rebounds and Wesley Johnson added 16 more points. “This was a big win for us, probably our best win of the season,” Trail Blazers coach Terry Stotts said. Lillard’s message to his teammates to “Step on them,” Lillard said.
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KD INJURED IN LOSS TO WARRIORS
In the first half Kevin Durant was unstoppable, in the second half he was on the bench. KD ripped through the Golden State defense for 30 points, then the MVP sprained his right ankle and the Warriors beat the Thunder 114-109. “I thought we did a tremendous job on him in the second half. I didn’t even notice him in the second half,” Kerr joked. “We completely stopped him.””I wanted to play. I wanted go back out there but we wanted to be cautious,” Durant said.
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GRIZZLIES SURVIVE TRIPLE-OT THRILLER VS SPURS
Marc Gasol had 26 points, including banking in a three at the end of regulation to send it to overtime. The Grizzlies overcame blowing a 23 point lead as they finally defeated the Spurs in San Antonio in a 117-116 triple-overtime win. Memphis hasn’t won there since April 17th 2011, that’s 1,340 days.”It’s the biggest game for us because they’ve been beating us,” Grizzlies forward Zach Randolph said. “The last time we won here was what, the playoffs, right? It’s a long time. They have our number. It felt good to get a win, to get that confidence.” Randolph had 21 points and 21 rebounds as the Grizzles, who are red hot right now won their 6th straight.
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JABARI PARKER TEARS ACL
Milwaukee forward Jabari Parker tore his ACL on Tuesday Night in a 96-94 win over the Suns. At first we thought it was a sprain, instead now his torn ACL will require surgery, ruling the star rookie out for the rest of the year.
@_John_Henson_
Sending one up for the young homie @JabariParker for a speedy recovery !
@iamisiahthomas
@JabariParker praying for you, stay positive!
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PELICANS SPOIL KD’S RETURN
Kevin Durant looked like his normal MVP self, netting 27 points in his return from his foot injury earlier in the year. But his teammates defense looked lackluster as Anthony Davis scored 25 points and added 10 rebounds and Tyreeke Evans had 30 pioints and 5 assists. “I was confident in myself. I knew my wind wasn’t where I wanted it to be, obviously, but I felt good out there, I just got to keep putting together good days and I’ll keep getting back to where I want to be,” Durant said. “To get back to midseason form like I want to be is going to take some time. No excuses for me. I’m out there; I got to play hard as I can no matter what and I got to go out there and be the best leader and player I can be.”
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SPURS TOP CAVS IN THRILLER
With less than 5 seconds left and no timeouts Lebron James quickly scurried for the hoop, and tried to go behind the back on Manu Ginobli, but that move cost Cleveland the game, the ball slipped out of James’ hand and San Antonio let the clock run out 92-90 FINAL. Ginobli hit the game leading layup, a clutch free throw and poked the ball away from James to secure the win. “I went behind my back and just lost it,” James said of his turnover. “That’s how the ball rolls sometimes.” Although Cleveland, lost it could have been a lot worse says James “This is a game I’m happy about,” James said. “I hate to lose, but I’m happy about the progress we made tonight.”
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CAVS RALLY TO BEAT CELTICS
Lebron James had 41 points, Kyrie Irving added 27 points and rookie Joe Harris shut down Rajon Rondo as the Cavaliers came down from letting up 42 in the third to only letting up 20 in the fourth and winning 122-121. “We had a couple of different options,” Celtics coach Brad Stevens said. “(Rondo) had a good matchup, but Joe Harris did a nice job on him.” The min takeaway from this game is the resilience of this Cleveland team. After being down 17 points heading into the final frame the Cavs found a way to win. “That’s quite a homecoming,” said Cleveland coach David Blatt, who grew up in nearby Framingham. “I thought Boston played great basketball for three quarters (and) we waited a long time to get it in gear defensively.”
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CAVS SURVIVE NUGGETS 110-101
The Cavaliers shared the ball well, dishing out 25 assists (11 of which were Lebron’s) As Lebron James recorded a double-double in a 110-101 win on the road against the Denver Nuggets. “We were in tune defensively from the beginning and … sharing the ball,” James said. “We were locked in. I was very pleased with that.” Seven players scored in double digits for the Cavaliers in a great performance sharing the ball. “We stressed (ball movement),” James said. “We were like, `Let’s get the ball moving from side to side. Let’s get the best shot, not a good shot, the best shot.” The Nuggets, who were without Ty Lawson lost their 4th straight, dropping to 1-4 on the year.
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ROCKETS IMPROVE TO 5-0; JAZZ STUN CAVS
James Harden nearly had a triple double with 25 point 10 assists and 9 rebounds and Dwight Howard added 26 points and 10 more rebounds as the Rockets improved to 5-0 on the season in a 108-91 win over the Miami Heat. After a questionable offseason for Houston a lot of people were asking why they didn’t do more, but it seems like they did just enough. “I don’t care what anybody thinks,” Rockets coach Kevin McHale said to doubters about what they did in the offseason. “Why would I care what you’ve thought? I don’t care. I care about what we do in that locker room with our guys.” “We’ve started great,” Howard said. “We just want to finish great.”
Gordan Hayward just stepped back and let it fly at the buzzer, and it went in. With a 21 footer as the clock expired the Utah Jazz stunned the Cleveland Cavaliers 102-100. “I’ve never really done that before,” Hayward said. “It was just one of those moments.” Hayward had 21 points and 7 assists in the win. “How can you not show emotion after a finish like that? For us to win the game after being in control the whole game and then see it slipping away, it was pretty special,” Hayward said. “Just exhilaration!” For the Cavs the struggles continue. “Rome wasn’t built in a day and we understand that,” James said. “You have to continue to work the process. You hate to lose as competitors, but we felt like tonight we improved. We improved and proved in the second half we’re capable of playing some good basketball.”