New-look Cavs crash at home
Warriors get rhythm back, hold off Clippers
CLEVELAND— Maybe life without John Wall won’t be as miserable as the Wizards feared. The All-Star break barely slowed them down, and the Cavaliers couldn’t stop them either.
Bradley Beal scored 18 points, Kelly Oubre Jr. added 17 and tried to untie the sneakers of one of Cleveland’s new players, and the Washington Wizards withstood a late assault by LeBron James to beat the newlook Cavaliers, 110-103, on Thursday night.
The Wizards, who have been playing for weeks without Wall, their super-speedy star guard, nearly blew a late 11-point lead as James scored 14 straight points to pull the Cavs within, 106-103. But Beal hit a driving layup and James missed a free throw and committed a lane violation while intentionally missing the second one and the Wizards held on.
“We hung together,” said Wizards coach Scott Brooks. “We showed great resolve. That’s what we talked about. Resiliency is what successful teams do in this league. We’ve been showing that. We’ve just got to keep doing it.”
Washington is 8-2 since Wall went down with a knee injury. Tomas Satoransky, who has been starting in Wall’s spot, added 17 points, eight assists and didn’t have a turnover in 31 minutes.
James, back from winning MVP honors at the All-Star Game, scored 32—14 in the fourth—for the Cavs, who dropped to 2-1 since acquiring four new players before the trade deadline. JR Smith added 15 for Cleveland.
The Wizards spoiled the home debuts for Larry Nance Jr., George Hill, Rodney Hood and Jordan Clarkson, four new faces the Cavs are hoping can get them back to the NBA Finals.
Meanwhile, Draymond Green wants the Golden State Warriors to be rolling into the playoffs again this spring.
Steve Kerr is looking for ways to spark the defending NBA champions to make sure that happens, to bring the highflying Warriors back to playing superb basketball on both ends.
He returned from a Hawaiian family getaway over the AllStar break and changed starting centers. It worked well enough for him to stick with JaVale McGee over Zaza Pachulia for another night.
Stephen Curry swished a beautiful buzzer-beater from way back early and hit another timely 3-pointer late on the way to scoring 44 points, and the Warriors held off the Los Angeles Clippers, 134-127.
“We’re a championship team. We’re not about to sit here and act like we’re this battered team that had a horrible season and we’re looking for any glimmer of hope,” Green said. “I understand we haven’t been as great as most people expect. We’re still a damn good basketball team so we don’t need no ‘but it’s a step in the right direction.’ You may get that out of someone but I don’t really roll like that.”
Kevin Durant had 21 points and eight assists for the Warriors.