NBA Game Summary - LA Clippers at Brooklyn
Brooklyn, NY (SportsNetwork.com) - Jarrett Jack's tie-breaking jumper with 1.3 seconds remaining capped a furious late comeback that lifted the Brooklyn Nets to a stunning 102-100 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers.
The Nets trailed 90-79 with 5:16 to play and were down by 10 with four minutes left before outscoring Los Angeles by a 21-9 margin the rest of the way to halt a seven-game home losing streak.
Joe Johnson buried a pair of 3-pointers during the game-closing tear and finished with 22 points, while Deron Williams returned from an 11-game absence to give Brooklyn a big lift with 15 points off the bench.
Brook Lopez added 24 points to help the Nets overcome a monster 22-point, 20- point effort from Clippers center DeAndre Jordan.
"We made some big shots," said Nets head coach Lionel Hollins. "We made 12 threes tonight, we haven't made that many in a long time. We just kept battling and battling."
Los Angeles also received 20 points and eight assists from Chris Paul and 18 points from Jamal Crawford, but had its fate sealed by lousy free throw shooting. The Clippers went just 8-of-25 from the foul line, with Jordan missing 10 of his 12 attempts.
"We just didn't make them tonight for whatever reason," Clippers head coach Doc Rivers said. "But we had our chances. We had the lead and we blew it. The last two-and-a-half minutes were the disappointing part for this game."
The Clippers appeared on the way to an eighth win in nine games after Jordan's putback of a Paul miss had them up 98-90 with 1:11 left. But the Nets, who sank 12-of-27 tries from beyond the arc for the night, came roaring back behind their sharp perimeter shooting.
After Williams and Johnson knocked down triples in between a pair of Blake Griffin missed free throws, Griffin committed his sixth foul while contacting Alan Anderson on a successful corner 3 with 15.3 seconds on the clock. Anderson then completed the 4-point play that gave Brooklyn a 100-98 lead.
Paul beat Williams off the dribble and scored on the subsequent possession, but Jack used a crossover move with the clock winding down and swished through a 17-footer for the win.
"We executed (down the stretch," Anderson said. "We set some good screens, made the open pass and knocked down shots."
The teams were deadlocked at 72-72 early in the fourth quarter before the Clippers put forth a 12-3 surge to create some distance. A Jordan dunk off a Paul feed increased the lead to 90-79 just past the midway mark of the final frame.
Brooklyn owned a slim 38-36 edge at halftime largely due to the play of Lopez, who deposited 12 points in the second quarter and had 18 by the break on 9- of-13 shooting.
The Clippers came out strong to start the second half, however, with Matt Barnes recording the first five points of an 11-2 run that began the third quarter. Los Angeles was up by as many as nine during the stanza, though a 14-5 stretch in which the Nets hit four shots from 3-point range sent the hosts back in front by a 70-67 count near the end of the period.
The Nets closed out the opening quarter on a 7-0 run to forge a 22-22 tie at the period's end. The Clippers had an opportunity to separate had Jordan hit his foul shots, as the big man went a woeful 1-of-9 from the stripe during the frame.