Los Angeles Clippers rap Los Angeles Lakers again; Carve out a 108 – 103 win - NBA Preseason Recap
After the Los Angeles Clippers pulled off the Chris Paul trade, they were always expected to be tough and on Wednesday night, they gave a proof of that by beating the Los Angeles Lakers in a second game running.
The star of the show this time was Blake Griffin. The ultimate posterizer erupted with a mammoth 30 points, pulled down 6 rebounds and also dished out 7 assists. Maurice Williams and Caron Butler both added 16 while DeAndre Jordan had 14 points for the Clippers.
For the Lakers, centre Andrew Bynum scored 26 points and 11 rebounds while Steve Blake pounded 20 points on a 5 for 7 effort from downtown. Power forward Pau Gasol also accumulated 13 points and missed a double -double with 9 rebounds. The loss was a bitter pill to swallow for the Lakers, who were playing Kobe Bryant. On the night, the Lakers were better from the floor, poured in more free throws and also handsomely out-rebounded the Clips. However, they gave away 22 turnovers as compared to only 6 by the Clippers and that hurt them badly in the end.
The Clippers trailed throughout the first half, however they kept the lead in check and never allowed Lakers to pull away. The first time they got ahead was in the 2nd minute of the third frame, when Griffin, DeAndre Jordan and Caron Butler combined for a 6-0 phase to make it 59-58. T
A few minutes later, the Clippers bolted off another 12-0 burst to take a 73-62 lead. They managed to maintain a double figure lead throughout the frame and ended it at 83-73.
Brian Cook drilled a three in the opening minutes of the deciding quarter to make it 86-73 and the game was quickly drifting away from the Lakers. This was where Gasol and Steve Blake jumped to the rescue and initiated a 14-4 run, capped by a superb 3 from Troy Murphy, to get within a striking distance at 90-87.
Griffin, who was unstoppable tonight, intervened again though and keyed a 10-5 crucial run to put the Clippers well ahead. The run took the gas out of the Lakers tank and even with Blake and Bynum making few quick shots, they fell short by five.
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