Blake Griffin drops 27-14 as Los Angeles Clippers rout Phoenix Suns 103-86: NBA Recap
On Wednesday night Los Angeles Clippers won their 3rd straight game by double digits after annihilating Phoenix Suns, 103-86 here at Staples Center.
This victory was a big sigh of relief for Coach Vinny Del Negro who recently received a vote of confidence this week from owner Donald Sterling. Del Negro’s job was rumoured to be on the line after Clippers’ 0-3 road trip less
than a week ago.
Blake Griffin was on song as he tallied a game high 27 points and 14 rebounds, and capped the victory after connecting 3 dunks at the death.
"Winning is the best medicine," Griffin said. "We lost three games in a row before we came home, and the world was about to fall apart for us. But we're doing a better job of not letting teams fight back into it and making it harder
on ourselves - at least we have the last three games. We're trying to finish out games and go to the playoffs on the right foot."
Clippers are now just 2 games behind Los Angeles Lakers for the 3rd playoff spot in Western Conference. They also received a big boost from Chris Paul as he netted 15 points and dished out 15 assists. Forward Caron Butler
poured in 14 and DeAndre Jordan chipped in with 13 points.
The Suns rolled down to a 2 game losing streak and playoff position is now a wild goose chase for them. They had 5 players in double figures, led by Marcin Gortat’s 23 points. Channing Frye collected 16 points while Jared Dudley,
Shannon Brown and reserve Robin Lopez shared 10 apiece in Phoenix’s 26th defeat of this season.
Steve Nash, who was struggling with a back problem, had only 1 point but he did dish out 15 assists.
"I was kind of questionable before the game with a back, so I wasn't really feeling mobile and I just tried to do whatever I could to help the team. Maybe I should have let someone else play, but I still thought I could contribute."
The Suns opened the game with a 15-8 run but Clippers clawed that off with a 10-4 spurt and changed hands 19-18 deep into the frame. Phoenix reeled off a 9-2 run and reclaimed their lead with 27-21 and the Clippers could only reduce
the gap to 27-24 by the end of opening frame.
With 5:46 to go in the 2nd frame, Los Angeles had a fragile 37-33 advantage and an 8-2 Phoenix run set them back at 39-41. However the Clippers scored 4 points in a row to regain their upper hand with 43-41 advantage
by the end of 1st half.
The game remained neck to neck in the 3rd as well and late through the frame scores were tied at 58 each. Los Angeles came back furiously and blasted their way with a huge 16-8 spurt. They had a double digit, 74-64,
lead by the end of the third.
Clippers cruised through the decisive quarter and with 4:14 to expire they were comfortably leading by 90-77 before embarking on a 13-6 spurt, augmenting their lead to 103-83.
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