On a night when the Red Claws gave away commemorative bobblehead figurines of Coach Scott Morrison, the final bounce failed to go their way.
A potential winning jump shot from near the left corner by Jalen Jones struck the front rim as time expired, giving the Greensboro Swarm a 98-97 NBA D-League victory over Maine before a crowd of 2,409 Friday night at the Portland Expo.
The Claws (18-11) trailed by four with 51 seconds remaining. They had a 3-pointer by Abdel Nader taken off the board after a video review showed newcomer Ryan Kelly, in setting the pick that freed Nader, had been fouled prior to the shot.
Kelly, a four-year NBA veteran recently released by Atlanta, made one of two free throws to make it 98-95. After a Swarm turnover, Demetrius Jackson drove for a basket with 30 seconds left to cut the deficit to one.
Jones blocked a shot by Greensboro’s Xavier Munford with 10 seconds left and the Claws took possession with about five seconds remaining after a missed 3-point attempt. Jones raced up the left side, tightly covered by Munford, and gave Maine a chance to win.
“I thought I had more time,” Jones said. “I was trying to find one of the guards, but they didn’t seem to be open. So I just tried to push it down as fast as I could and try to go to the basket, but they were clogging the lane. I didn’t get the shot that I wanted.”
Greensboro (9-19) and Maine play again Saturday night at the Expo, the only time all season the Claws will play the same opponent on consecutive nights.
Making their first appearance in two weeks at the Expo, the Claws scored the game’s first 10 points and opened a 14-point lead late in the opening quarter. They sank five 3-pointers, but managed only five more the rest of the way.
“I thought in the second quarter we settled for some bad shots,” Morrison said, “but by and large they picked their defense up. They had really good ball pressure, took us out of our offense and really controlled that end for the second quarter and parts of the second half. You have to give them credit for being a little tougher than we were.”
Archie Goodwin led Greensboro with 21 points and Rasheed Sulaimon added 20. The Swarm went ahead 40-38 midway through the second but Maine pulled ahead 56-53 at intermission.
The score remained close throughout the second half and was tied at 94 after Nader (19 points) hit a contested 3-pointer with 2:40 remaining. Kelly led the Claws with 20 points and 12 rebounds. Jones had 14 points, 11 rebounds and six blocked shots and Marcus Georges-Hunt chipped in 18 points.
Munford scored eight of his 14 points in the fourth quarter. The Claws hurt themselves with 23 turnovers and allowed Greensboro 17 offensive rebounds (to Maine’s seven).
“We’re giving up an average of 19 extra shots to our opponent than we’re getting the last three or four games,” Morrison said. “It’s harder to control the turnovers than it is defensive rebounding, so we’re going to try to focus on that. Hopefully we can cut down that difference in shot attempts for (Saturday).”
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