Los Angeles Clippers snap skid with rout of NBA champ Cavaliers
What you need to know:
- LeBron James and the Cavaliers endured their second straight defeat on the heels of an upset loss to the Milwaukee Bucks on Tuesday.
- It's the first time this season the 13-4 Cavaliers have lost two straight.
LOS ANGELES
The Los Angeles Clippers snapped a three-game NBA skid in impressive style Thursday, humbling the reigning champion Cavaliers 113-94 in Cleveland.
LeBron James and the Cavaliers endured their second straight defeat on the heels of an upset loss to the Milwaukee Bucks on Tuesday.
It's the first time this season the 13-4 Cavaliers have lost two straight.
"Those guys did a good job — they played desperate basketball, with them losing the last three," James said of the Clippers. "They played some good ball. We've got to figure it out, which we will."
The Clippers held an eight-point lead over the lackluster champs at halftime, and opened the third quarter with a 13-2 scoring run to seize control.
JJ Redick scored 23 points, Chris Paul scored 16 and Blake Griffin scored 13 and matched his career high with 11 assists for the Clippers, who were coming off an embarrassing double-overtime loss in Brooklyn.
DeAndre Jordan pulled down 15 rebounds and the Clippers as a team passed for a season-high 33 assists.
"I thought it was a team win because I thought every single guy had a contribution," said Clippers coach Doc Rivers, who blasted his team's complacency in the loss to the Nets.
That was never going to happen against the Cavaliers, he added.
"The reason was we respected them," he said. "They're the Cleveland Cavaliers. They get your attention."
But the Cavaliers never really fired.
"It was a weird game," James said. "Especially in that first half, the second quarter the whistle was blowing so much we couldn't get in a rhythm. The game just kind of unravelled, we got in foul trouble ... they just broke our rhythm."
After that unsettling opening half, the Cavs started the second half with three successive turnovers, followed by missed shots on their next five possessions.
They didn't score their first basket of the second half until almost four minutes into the third quarter, when the Clippers were up by 16.
Kyrie Irving scored 28 points and James added 16 for the Cavs, but Cleveland were held to 40.6 percent shooting and made 18 turnovers leading to 21 Clippers points while producing just 12 assists as a team.
"We played the right way," Clippers point guard Paul said. "It was important for us to see what it felt like to win a game.
"When you're running off (wins) like we were and then you lose three in a row, you need to get that feeling back just to get our locker room back right."
