Duncan Leads Spurs Past Cavs
89
93
Starting Lineups
Cleveland Box Score
San Antonio Box Score
By the time the first quarter was over, the Cavaliers were already down by 22 points. Not a good way to start out a ballgame. "That was the main reason that we lost the game, the first quarter." said coach Mike Brown after the Cavaliers loss. "We were too worried about trying to stop Tim, Manu, and Tony that we weren't playing the game." The Cavaliers did have a good 2nd quarter though only allowing 12 points, most by Tony Parker. The score at halftime was a lot closer than it started being 51-43 now. "We executed better on offense and played man defense after switching from the zone that we were playing at the beginning of the game." said LeBron James when asked about what changed in the two quarters.
During the third quarter, the game was pretty much controlled by Cleveland again as the Spurs came out at halftime shooting in a bad 0-6 slump. The Cavaliers capitalized off this and scored 27, which brought the game to a 70-70 tie after the third. "We came out shooting on fire with two huge threes from Larry and LeBron. Than we just kept rolling through the quarter." Anderson Varejao said to a reporter after the game. As the game progressed, the Spurs finally found their hot hand in Tim Duncan who had only scored 10 points prior to the 4th quarter. Once the 4th quarter was over, Tim Duncan had 23 points and a few huge momentum killing shots. The Cavaliers could not find an answer and fell down by 4, which eternally made them lose 93-89. That puts Cleveland's record now at 1-1.
Damon Jones came off the bench to score 10 points and diming out 2 assists in 10 minutes. LeBron James had another great night, but a better night shooting from the field going 13-23 with 28 points, 5 assists, and 6 boards. Zydrunas Ilgauskas finally slowed down after a career game only scoring 14 points and ripping down 9 rebounds. The backcourt once again had a pretty good game after Hughes scored 14 and Snow scored 10. For the Spurs, the gameball went to Tim Duncan as he scored 25 points, a season high, and grabbed down 9 rebounds. Parker and Ginobili combined for 30 points as they led the Spurs past the Cavaliers in a close game.