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Tuesday 19 March 2019

Williams’ 3-pointer lifts Clippers

to 119-116 win over Nets

By JOE REEDY 18-point cushion in the sec- ing on DeMarre Carroll’s
AP Sports Writer ond quarter evaporate be- dunk. The Clippers called a
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Lou fore halftime. timeout to set up the win-
Williams continues to prove “I can’t explain that game. ning shot for Williams, who
that he is not only the Los It made no sense,” Clippers scored 11 of his 25 points in
Angeles Clippers’ most coach Doc Rivers said. the fourth quarter.
valuable player, but the “The game was disjointed “Fade left, and get a shot
NBA’s leading candidate and it was a full of runs. The at the rim,” Williams said of
for Sixth Man of the Year. game was won, then it’s the play. “They put us in a
The veteran guard contin- lost, or tied, and then we position where we had our
ued his hot play since the made a miracle shot.” backs against the wall. It
All-Star break, nailing a 28- The victory was Rivers’ was a good shot. If I played
foot 3-pointer from the top 300th as Clippers coach, it straight up, they would
of the key at the buzzer to making him the seventh have had an opportunity
give the Clippers a 119-116 coach in NBA history with to guard it. I don’t think
victory over the Brooklyn 300 or more regular-sea- they were worried about
Nets on Sunday night. son wins with two or more that type of shot.”
Williams’ buzzer-beater teams. Williams is averaging 20.4
capped a rollercoaster Los Angeles led 116-106 points on the season, but
Los Angeles Clippers’ Lou Williams (23) shoots over Brooklyn game where the Clippers with 1:02 remaining, only 24.3 this month as the Clip-
Nets’ Jarrett Allen, left, and D’Angelo Russell, right, during the squandered two double- to see Brooklyn score 10 pers have won seven of
second half of an NBA basketball game Sunday, March 17, digit leads in the second straight points and tie it their last eight.
2019, in Los Angeles.
Associated Press half and the Nets saw an with 5.3 seconds remain- “He’s been absolutely
amazing. He makes big
shots,” Rivers said of Wil-
liams. “Lou started making
them early in the fourth
quarter for us. He is one
of those guys who is not
scared.”
Danilo Gallinari had 20
points and 11 rebounds,
while Montrezl Harrell
added 20 points and 10
rebounds. Rookie Shai Gil-
geous-Alexander also had
a double-double with 14
points and 10 assists.
The Nets dominated the
early part of the game and
led 46-27 with 8:07 left in
the second quarter before
the Clippers took over, go-
ing on a 33-9 run over the fi-
nal eight minutes to take a
60-55 lead at halftime. Gal-
linari scored 13 and Harrell
added 12 during the run as
Los Angeles went 11 of 14
from the field and was 3 of
4 on 3-pointers.
Brooklyn started the game
making nearly half its shots
from the field, but was 3 of
17 during the Clippers’ run.
A 3-pointer by Landry
Shamet gave the Clippers
an 11-point lead four min-
utes into the third quarter
before the Nets fought
back. It was tied at 87 go-
ing into the fourth quarter.
“Teams are going to make
runs, but we’ve got to take
the same aggressive men-
tality that we had at the
end of the game and bring
it throughout the whole
game,” Carroll said.q