San Antonio Spurs breeze past the Los Angeles Clippers to win 97-88
The poor shooting rate and the faltering defence at the start of the second half has been a headache for the Clippers this season and prior to the match, their coach Del Negro exhorted his team for a better performance. "Our tempo
has to pick up. I don't like our tempo right now,'' he said. It was to no avail though as the Clippers lost pace midway to lose the match 97-88.
The Los Angeles Clippers were faltering at 0-3 for the season prior to the match and the odds were heavily stacked against them going into this one as well. They were facing a team that has edged them out sixteen straight times
and this time was no different, as the losing trend continued for an embattled Clippers team that slumped to their seventeenth straight defeat against the San Antonio Spurs, much to the disgust of a 14,964 strong home crowd at the Staples centre.
The first half started with both teams maintaining parity and never allowing the other to take a lead of more than 5 points. The scene was set for an exciting contest with the first quarter finishing on an even note at 26 points
each. Eric Gordon scored 9 points in the first period for the Clippers while Blake Griffin had 8 points. Manu Ginobili chipped in with 10 points in the quarter for the San Antonio Spurs.
The second quarter started with Gary Neal, who had already scored 5 points in the first quarter, making a three pointer to give the Spurs an early advantage. The Spurs gradually started to tighten their grip on the match. A Gary
Neal jump shot stretched the Spurs lead to 8 points with two minutes into the second period. Clippers forward Ryan Gomes made two consecutive 3 pointers midway through the quarter to equalize the scores again, but Anderson nailed in a three pointer and Parker
followed it with a series of buckets to hand a 6 point advantage to the spurs at 50-44, as the teams headed for the locker rooms.
The third quarter, which had been the sore point of the Clippers outfit in the previous three encounters, started on a slightly even note. Clippers did put a halt to the trend of shaky performances at the start of the second half,
but were still outscored by four points in the quarter as the Spurs increased the tempo midway. The teams went into the final quarter with the Spurs holding a crucial 10 point advantage at 75-65.
The San Antonio Spurs started a fourth quarter in a confident mood with a Tiago Splitter driving dunk shot followed by Neal 3-pointer extending their advantage to 15 points. The Spurs kept a tight leash on the match there on in,
not allowing their opponents to get within a ten point difference, until the dying seconds when Rasual Butler netted a three pointer to finish the match at 97-88.
The San Antonio Spurs had five players in the double figures as they humbled the Clippers. Tony Parker led the charge for the Spurs with 19 points and 9 assists. Richard Jefferson scored 18 points while Gary Neal finished the game
with 16 points and six rebounds. Manu Ginobili, who led the Spurs charge in the first quarter, finished with 14 points and 7 assists.
Eric Gordon led the Clippers offense with 23 points and 11 assists. Chris Kaman scored 18 points with 5 assists and 8 rebounds and Blake Griffin also came in handy with 17 points and 8 rebounds. Although the Clippers lost the match,
they improved on their shooting performance. They had an average shooting of 37.7 percent in the starting three games, but shot 38-82 on the night at 46.3 percent. They will have to do better than that if they want to halt their losing streak at the start
of the season.
Tags: