LOS ANGELES — Mike Dunleavy will always remember his 600th
regular-season victory because of the way his team earned it for
him.
Eric Gordon scored 29 points and the Los Angeles Clippers
rallied from a 20-point deficit to beat the Memphis Grizzlies
98-88 on Sunday.
“I’m very proud of the guys,” Dunleavy said. “Our guys stayed
with it and never gave up. All of a sudden, we came together and
Eric Gordon got into that attack mode. We did the things we
needed to do.”
Al Thornton scored seven of his 18 points in the final 2:26 for
the Clippers, who held the Grizzlies to just 2-for-18 shooting
in the fourth quarter. Marcus Camby added 14 points and 14
rebounds for Los Angeles.
Dunleavy is the 21st coach in NBA history with 600 wins. He
guided the Lakers to the NBA finals in 1991, and was named coach
of the year in 1999 after his Portland Trail Blazers won a
division title with a 35-15 record during the lockout-shortened
1998-99 season. His overall record is 600-698, including 202-308
with the Clippers.
“If you’re in this long enough, you just keep trying to win and
they all add up,” said Dunleavy, who has been an NBA head coach
for 17 seasons – seven with the Clippers – and has been in his
current job longer than anyone except Utah’s Jerry Sloan and San
Antonio’s Gregg Popovich. “It’s always great to get them all,
but I would rather have us healthy now. I hope there are more
wins in there for me.”
Marc Gasol led Memphis with 26 points and was 13-for-18 from the
field after starting the day tied with Portland’s Greg Oden for
the league’s best field goal percentage at .633. Rudy Gay had 15
points and 10 rebounds, and reserve Jamaal Tinsley had 12 points
and seven assists.
Former Clippers forward Zach Randolph missed his first six shots
and was 1-for-8 overall, finishing with five points, six
rebounds and three turnovers in more than 40 minutes.
Trailing by 18 in the opening minute of the fourth, the Clippers
outscored the Grizzlies 33-5 the rest of the way. After Gordon’s
three-point play sliced the deficit to 88-78 with 7:02
remaining, Los Angeles kept pouring it on after Gay missed a
pair of free throws.
“Eric’s a phenomenal player,” Camby said. “I think he has the
potential to be a special player like the LeBrons, the Kobes and
the Carmelos. You’ll be mentioning Eric Gordon’s name for a long
time.”
Gordon tied it at 88 with a fastbreak layup after Camby blocked
a shot by Gasol, and Thornton converted another fastbreak layup
after a missed jumper by Gay with 1:39 remaining to give the
Clippers their first lead. Thornton followed up with a
three-point play after Randolph threw the ball away, and
Sebastian Telfair provided the dagger with a 3-pointer in the
final 37 seconds after Gay missed a 17-footer.
“We couldn’t close it out, and they executed better,” Gasol
said. “We thought we had it, but they played better in the
fourth quarter. It was more our lack of playing than it was
them. They played good defense, but we need to be mentally
tougher if we want to win.”
Randolph was 0-for-5 in the first half, but the Grizzlies shot
64.9 percent collectively over the first two quarters to build a
58-43 lead. Sam Young made a pair of 20-foot jumpers during a
10-0 run that extended Memphis’ three-point lead to 38-25 with
8:08 left in the second quarter.
Clippers center Chris Kaman got in early foul trouble, picking
up his third with 7:34 left in the half and his team down by 11.
He got his fourth foul with 9:19 left in the third and Memphis
leading 59-47. The Grizzlies widened the gap to 77-57 on a
3-pointer by Tinsley with 2:43 left in the quarter.
“We fell apart. It started with myself, being the leader of this
team,” Tinsley said. “At the end of the game we were turning the
ball over, missing opportunities and countless shots. This is a
frustrating loss for us.”
It was the third meeting between the teams this season,
following the Clippers’ 113-110 win Nov. 7 at Los Angeles and
the Grizzlies’ 106-91 win on Nov. 8 at Memphis – the day the
Grizzlies gave disgruntled point guard Allen Iverson a leave of
absence that eventually became permanent. The team is 3-3 since
Iverson played his third and final game for them.
Clippers longtime TV play-by-play man Ralph Lawler and color
analyst Michael Smith met with Memphis Grizzlies reserve center
Hamed Haddadi, his manager and three representatives of the
Alliance of Iranian Americans before the game to express their
regrets for the remarks they made about him during the Nov. 18
broadcast from Memphis that led to a one-game suspension for
both broadcasters.
NOTES: The seven points by the Grizzlies were the lowest ever in
any quarter by a Clippers opponent. … Haddadi, in his second
NBA season, has played a grand total of 22 minutes in six games
this season and has scored four points. Last season, he appeared
in 19 games, averaging 6.3 minutes and 2.5 points. He didn’t
play Sunday. … The Clippers, who made a franchise-record 18
3-pointers against the Grizzlies last February in a 126-105 win
at Memphis, were only 2-for- 11 from behind the arc. …
Clippers reserve C DeAndre Jordan returned after missing three
games because of a sprained right ankle.
0 Comments
Loading more comments...
This comment and all replies have been deleted This comment has been deleted Undo delete