The Los Angeles Clippers got away with a win last night against the Orlando Magic, thanks to a rally led by Jamal Crawford.
According to TSN, Crawford scored 16 of his 32 points in the fourth quarter, while former Laker Wesley Johnson added 21 points off the bench that resulted into the Clippers achieving a hard-earned 103-101 victory that snapped the Magic's five-game winning streak.
Crawford said, "The bigger sigh of relief is winning, if I had the same game and we lose, it doesn't mean as much. We showed a lot of character. We really responded to the challenge."
As for Johnson, It should be noted that all of his field goal-attempts were 3-pointers, He made six and went 3 of 5 from the line.
Johnson said, "They were sinking off so I had to take them," he said. "When I went in, J.J. CP and the coaches all told me to shoo the ball and to not think about it. I knew the ball was coming to me and I just had to be ready. I am really settling in. It's a good feeling."
Clippers superstar Blake Griffin also had a game night that resulted into 28 points and 13 rebounds, with DeAndre Jordan scoring 15 points and grabbing 14 rebounds.
The team managed to squeeze in a victory even though star point guard Chris Paul and J.J Redick missed the game.
In a related report by USA Today, reserve player Victor Oladipo scored a season-high 24 points and Elfrid Payton added 21 points for the Magic, however those attempts were not enough because the team still managed to blew all of their 12-point lead early in the fourth quarter.
Payton said, "We played well enough to win, we just didn't pull out the game," he added that, "We just got away from taking great shots."
The Magic had an early run in the last quarter, but the Clippers answered with three straight 3-pointers, one from Johnson and two from Crawford, which became the start of a 22-7 run that gave the Clips a 99-96 lead.
In that stretch, Crawford had 15 points, but Orlando went 3:33 without scoring a single basket.
The Los Angeles Times said in a report that Clippers head coach Doc Rivers credited the team's win on their defense and said, "We won the game with our defense, and our offense came off our defense. I thought it was a good lesson for us."
The Orland Magic's next game will be with Denver on Tuesday, with the Clippers opening a five-game road trip at Minnesota on Monday.
