|
Recap: LA Clippers vs. Charlotte
Gerald Wallace scored 23 points, grabbed six rebounds and handed out eight assists to lead the Charlotte Bobcats to a 107-100 victory over a shorthanded Los Angeles Clippers squad at Staples Center.
Wallace hit on eight of his 11 field-goal attempts, and Jason Richardson added 20 points to help the Bobcats to their second win in three outings. Charlotte hit 7-of-16 three-pointers and limited LA to an 0-of-8 performance from beyond the arc en route to its first ever win over the Clippers in Los Angeles.
Emeka Okafor went for 14 points and nine boards and Jeff McInnis scored 10 to go with his seven assists for Charlotte, which shot a torrid 56.7 percent from the floor. Point guard Raymond Felton, in his first game back from a nagging ankle injury, had 10 points and eight assists.
"The Clippers were banged up, and we felt we had to take advantage of it," Wallace said. "The energy was there and the teamwork was there. We forced the Los Angeles Clippers out of what they wanted to do. We were out there having fun."
Tim Thomas had a season-high 29 points and 13 rebounds for Los Angeles, which was without starters Chris Kaman and Corey Maggette, both stricken with the flu. Chris Kaman has also been hampered by a bruised left shin.
Sam Cassell scored 17 points and dished out seven assists, while Quinton Ross contributed 15 off the bench for the Clippers, losers of three straight and four of five.
"Offensively, we moved the ball well," said Clippers head coach Mike Dunleavy. "Thirty-four assists is pretty good. But we had too many lapses in the first half. We gave up too many easy baskets. The big difference in the game was 21-0 from the three-point line. That is kind of tough to swallow."
Charlotte opened up a 21-12 lead and led 29-22 going to the second. The Bobcats pushed their lead to as many as 16 late in the second before LA closed the half with six unanswered to make it 59-49 at the break.
A 14-2 Bobcats run capped by back-to-back threes from Felton extended the cushion to 73-53 with under eight minutes remaining in the third. But LA chopped the lead back down to single digits during the latter stages of the stanza and trailed just 83-71 going to third.
Charlotte used an 8-2 spurt midway through the fourth to create some distance and effectively put the Clips away, with Nazr Mohammed scoring four straight points in the paint to push the margin to 96-78 with 7:18 to go.
Cuttino Mobley's jumper with 5:30 left brought LA back within 15, at 99-84, but the Bobcats continued to have their way on the offensive end and had the game in hand by the three-minute mark before a late Clippers flurry made the score more respectable.
See more at www.pressofatlanticcity.com
| 
