GRIFFIN OUT OF ACTION FOR EIGHT WEEKS

Cleveland make 9 in a row; James sent off for 1st time in career

Los Angeles, Nov. 29: LeBron James’ first career ejection was just a blip in his Cleveland Cavaliers’ ninth straight NBA victory on Tuesday — a 108- 97 triumph over the Miami Heat.

Kevin Love was red- hot, scoring 38 points to lead the Cavs as James lost his cool and was tossed for the first time in 1,082 regularseason games.

James, convinced he was fouled on a drive to the basket, made a beeline for referee Kane Fitzgerald, shouting angrily.

Fitzgerald quickly whistled the superstar for a technical foul and then pointed to the exit with 1: 59 remaining in the third quarter.

“I got fouled,” James said. “I showed my frustration to the ref and he sent me to the locker room.”

James, who had stripped Los Angeles, Nov. 29: Los Angeles Clippers forward Blake Griffin has a sprained left knee ligament that could see him sidelined for up to eight weeks, the NBA team said Tuesday.

Griffin was hurt in the fourth quarter of the Clippers’ 120- 115 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers on Monday.

He and teammate Austin Rivers were both scrambling for a loose ball lost by Lakers guard Lonzo Ball.

Ball, trying to retrieve the basketball, ran into Griffin before Rivers fell onto his teammate’s knee.

As his leg twisted, Griffin hit the court in some deep pain. He played about a minute longer before departing

the ball from Miami’s James Johnson at the other end, said he was “fouled all the way up the court, from the time that I stripped him all the way ‘ til I got to the rim.

“I said what I had to say out of the contest.

“You could see right when it happened,” Clippers coach Doc Rivers said after the game. “I was yelling right away. Lonzo was just trying to make a play, but usually when you go in that hard, they call it ( a foul). But I think Lonzo knocked Austin into Blake and it was a trigger effect.”

A statement posted by the Clippers on Twitter said an MRI exam showed Griffin had a medial collateral ligament sprain, “with no other structural damage.”

“Recovery for this injury can take up to 8wks,” the team said.

and I was moving on,” added James, who thought Fitzgerald had assessed a second technical foul when in fact the ref had handed him a straight ejection after the single technical.

Fitzgerald, in his ninth NBA season, told a pool reporter the decision was “a culmination of a couple different acts.”

“Immediately after the no- call, he turned and threw an air punch directly at me and then he aggressively charged at me and then he used vulgarity in my ear a few times,” Fitzgerald said.

“It is what it is,” said James, who scored 21 points with 12 rebounds, six assists and five steals. “We got the win and that’s the most important,” he added.

The Cavs were leading 93- 70 at the time, and the absence of James for the final period didn’t stop the Eastern Conference champions from notching a ninth victory in a row.

Love’s 38 points were a season- high and Dwyane Wade added 17 off the bench against his former team.

The game marked the first time that Heat coach Erik Spoelstra went up against his former Miami stars James and Wade at the same time. AFP