The Cavaliers, after beating the Hornets at home 105-100, now face the defending champions Spurs in San Antonio.
The game started even, as both teams hit their first 6 shots. After the quarter the Spurs led by two 24-22.
The second quarter started better for the Spurs, they began to defend very well, and managed to get a 10 point lead heading into the break (49:39).
The stat of the half: the Cavaliers were losing, despite getting much more rebounds. Cavaliers led in this category 30:20 after the first 2 quarters.
Coaches thoughts at the half: "I don't know what is wrong with our offense. It's static, we try to get an open shot for 20 seconds, and then shoot a terrible shot. The defense is acceptable, cause the Spurs hit some hard shots and therefore have the lead. We must get our offense back to rythm if we wan't to win this game."
The Cavaliers started the third quarter well, and after some points from Ilgauskas and James, narrowed the deficit to 4 points (49:45), but then Ginobilli hit 11 in a row points, to give the Spurs a 11 point lead (60:49). The quarter ended with the Spurs leading 75:66.
In the final quarter there was a battle toe to toe, as the Cavs managed to equal the score quickly, and then everything came down to the last secondes of the quarter. The Spurs had a 2 point lead (97:95), but L. James hit a mid-range jumper to tie the game with 2 seconds remaining. The Spurs couldn't score, so the game went to overtime.
In overtime the Cavaliers played better and led most of the time, but the Spurs managed to hit some tuff shots on the and and even took a lead with only 4 seconds remaining. Then the Cavs called a timeout. The ball was inbounded to Lebron, he quickly passed it to Ilgauskas, and he hit the shot over Duncan to give Cleveland a 1 point lead, with only 0.8 seconds remaining. Nesterovic missed from half court so the Cavaliers got their second in a row win.
FINAL SCORE:
Player of the game:
Stats:
Thoughts after the game: "I'm defenetely not happy with the way we played, but we got a win over the NBA champions in their court, so I have to be happy with the result".
The surprises of the game:
D. Jones came of the banch, but managed to score 12 points, 9 of them in the fourth quarter comeback.
The dissapointment of the game:
L. Hughes was once again a selfish player. He shot very oftenly, but just a few shots made.