Friday, December 26, 2014

Crawford, Clips knock off Golden State

With about nine minutes to play in Thursday’s game, the Los Angeles Clippers held just a four-point lead over the NBA’s top team. A little over six minutes later, the Clippers were headed for a lopsided victory.

Jamal Crawford scored nine points during a 19-3 run that helped Los Angeles pull away and defeat Golden State 100-86 at Staples Center.

With his team ahead 78-74, Crawford, who finished with a game-high 24 points off the bench, hit two free throws and two jumpers, and in between assisted on Matt Barnes’ lay-in and the Clippers (20-10) led 86-74 and forced a Golden State timeout.

The break didn’t help much as the visiting Warriors went six and a half minutes between field goals, finally getting a Justin Holiday 3-pointer with 2:39 to play that made it 97-80.

Golden State held a lead as large as 10 points in the opening half, the last of which came at the 1:40 mark of the second quarter when Marreese Speights’s bucket put the visitors ahead 42-32. Chris Paul assisted on two baskets during a quick, 9-0 run that made it a one-point game at halftime. It was a tight third quarter and Draymond Green’s lone jumper with five minutes left pulled the Warriors even at 61-61. Paul (22 points) followed with a three-point play at the 4:28 mark that put the Clippers up to stay.

The Staples Center has been a recent house of horrors for Golden State (23-5), which lost to the Lakers Tuesday and have now lost four straight times to the Clippers in the building after dropping three straight there during last year’s first round playoff exit.

Klay Thompson led Golden State with 15 points.

Oklahoma City 114, San Antonio 106

Russell Westbrook scored 34 points, the seventh time he’s scored 30 or more in 14 games since returning from a hand injury in the Thunder’s road win.

San Antonio (18-12) led 93-89 after Tim Duncan’s dunk at the 6:58 mark of the fourth quarter, but Oklahoma City followed with a game-turning run.

Westbrook hit three baskets and assisted Anthony Morrow on a 3-pointer, which capped a 13-0 spurt and put the visitors up 102-93. The Spurs eventually got within 108-104 on a pair of Cory Joseph free throws with 1:19 to play.

Serge Ibaka had 21 points, Steven Adams had 16 points and 15 rebounds, while Morrow (15 points off the bench) and Perry Jones (14 points) also made big contributions for Oklahoma City (14-16). The Spurs, who were led by Matt Bonner’s 17 bench points, lost for the fifth time in six games.

Reserve Manu Ginobli had 13 assists, and after handing out 10 Monday against the Clippers, has double-digit assists in consecutive games for the first time in his 13-year career (basketball-reference.com).

Chicago 113, Los Angeles Lakers 93

Playing against his former team, Pau Gasol made sure the Bulls continued their season-long winning streak.

Gasol had 23 points and 13 rebounds against the Lakers, whom he played for the previous seven seasons, and Derrick Rose and Jimmy Butler combined for 41 points in Chicago’s fifth straight victory.

Los Angeles, playing without Kobe Bryant (rest) for the second consecutive game, were within 75-71 on a 3-pointer by Wesley Johnson (team-high 19 points) with three and a half minutes to go in the third quarter. After three missed shots, Gasol rebounded a miss and hit a bucket, then Butler knocked down two free throws to make it 78-71 and the lead never fell below six points the rest of the way.

Jordan Hill scored 16 points and Carlos Boozer came off the bench to add 14 for Los Angeles (9-20), which was coming off a stunning upset of Golden State on Tuesday.

Washington 102, New York 91

Carmelo Anthony carried the Knicks, but John Wall led five in double figures with 24 points as the Wizards snapped a brief, two-game losing streak.

Bradley Beal scored 17 points and handed out five assists, while Kris Humphries hit 7-of-9 from the field and had 14 of Washington’s 36 bench points.

Anthony scored a game-high 34 points and hit 13-of-28 of his field goal attempts for the Knicks (5-26), who dropped their fifth consecutive game. New York, now 3-13 at home, also lost for the fifth straight time in the series.

Wall added 11 assists, his 18th double-digit assist game of the season.


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