Los Angeles Clippers bench steps up in a 102-83 win over Toronto Raptors: NBA Recap
Blake Griffin, Chris Paul and the reserves lifted Los Angeles Clippers to a 102-83 win over the Toronto Raptors on Sunday night. The Clippers' subs once again contributed the bulk of scoring - they have averaged 48 points per game
in their five game winning streak.
"I think the bench performed well and they deserved to be out there, but that is not always going to be the case and everyone's got to be ready to play." Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro on the depth of his team.
Blake Griffin led the Clippers with 19 points and 9 rebounds, Jamal Crawford came off the bench to post 16 points and Chris Paul collected 16 points on the night.
DeMar DeRozan paced the Raptors with the night high 24 points, Linas Kleiza scored 17 points while Andrea Bargnani chipped in with 12 points.
For the second straight night, Del Negro threw in his reserves at the start of the fourth period to give his starters some respite, and once again the plan paid dividends as the Clippers outscored the Raptors 25-10 in the final
quarter.
The score was tied on 7 and 9 early in the first period before the Clips went for an 8-0 run to take the lead on 17-10. Later on, Terrence Ross connected one from downtown to reduce the deficit down to 17-19. Los Angeles were leading
25-21 by the end of the period.
Ed Davis made a layup to put the Raptors within 28-31 of the Clippers early on and it was still a three point game when Amir Johnson scored a deuce to leave the Raptors trailing 32-35, but the Clippers started to pull ahead after
that as Crawford tipped one to make it 44-36. However, the Raptors were unfazed and went wild with an 11-0 run to close the quarter, ahead by 47-44.
Linas Kleiza sank a three pointer early in the third period to tie the score on 50. It was pretty close in the passage that followed with the scored getting tied on 60 and then again on 65. The Clippers scored few baskets from
distance to go up 73-67 with 1:24 left in the quarter, and headed into the final period leading 77-73.
Ronny Turiaf layup early in the fourth quarter put the Clippers up 81-75 before Raptors scored 4 straight points to make it a two point game. Toronto scored only 4 points in the last 9 minutes of the game as the Clippers went for
a 19-1 run to crush them. Clips led by 102-80 with 25.5 seconds left on the clock when Kleiza then made a three pointer for the Raptors,who went down 83-102.
Tags: