Recap: Pelicans 66, Cavaliers 62

Posted Mon Jul 15, 2013 9:38 PM - Updated Mon Jul 15, 2013 9:38 PM

New Orleans' Austin Rivers knocked down consecutive layups within a span of 33 seconds to guide his Pelicans (2-1) to a 66-62 win over the previously unbeaten Cleveland Cavaliers (2-1) on Tuesday afternoon from UNLV's COX Pavilion. New Orleans, who nearly led from coast-to-coast, had to fight off a resilient Cleveland squad that rallied from 11 and 12 points and tied the game on six different occasions.

With the score knotted at 60-all, Rivers snapped the final tie of the contest with 1:18 remaining in the fourth quarter. Following a game-tying attempt by Cleveland's Dion Waiters, Rivers, the second-year pro from Duke, went to the hoop once more and connected on another bucket with 33 left on the clock to put his squad ahead by four -- 64-60.

The Cavaliers' Justin Harper cut the lead to two with a short jumper, but the Pelicans' Brian Roberts pushed the advantage back to four with a jumper before time expired.

Rivers and Roberts were two of four players on the winning side to score in double figures. Rivers tallied 13 points to Roberts' 11, but both trailed the team-high 14 registered by teammate Lance Thomas, who also had a double-double by adding 10 rebounds to his stat line. Darius Miller rounded out the foursome with 11 points of his own.

Waiters led all scorers with 16, while Tyler Zeller followed closely behind with 15 points and 12 boards for a double-double. Taylor was the third and final player for Cleveland to score in double digits, as he contributed 10 points.

The Pelicans scored the game's first bucket early and put a seven-point differential between themselves and the Cavaliers on seven occasions before eventually building the lead to 11 points prior to the expiration of the first 10 minutes.

With under 60 secodns remaining in the first, Cory Higgins hit a three-pointer to spark a 10-2 run spanned 6:10, and it evened up the contest at 26-all with 3:28 off the clock in the second stanza.

The game would stay within one possession until New Orleans pushed out to a nine-point lead before Zeller hit a layup as the buzzer sounded for halftime.

Cleveland cut the lead to five off another Zeller basket to open the third, but New Orleans scored seven straight points to put 12 points between the two teams. Unfortunately, those seven points were the only ones that the Pelicans would score in the period. The Cavaliers responded with 12 straight in 5:44 to knot the score at 49-all heading into the fourth.

The final frame was tightly contested with neither team putting more than three points between each other.

The two squads will have to wait until the conclusion of the remaining NBA Summer League 2013 schedule on Tuesday night to learn their seeding for the inaugural tournament that begins on Wednesday.

• Cavaliers: --
• Pelicans: --

• Cavaliers: --
• Pelicans: --

• Lead Changes: 4
• Times Tied: 6

• Arena: Cox Pavilion, Las Vegas, NV
• Officials: #26 Brett Nansel, #126 Byron Jarrett, #50 Michael Terry
• Attendance: -
• Duration: 1:41