San Antonio Spurs pull away in the third to thump Los Angeles Clippers 115-90: NBA Recap
Wednesday’s contest at the AT&T Center was a matchup between two entirely different teams. On one side were the hosts, San Antonio Spurs, who are on the last stretches of a dominant era under talisman Tim Duncan and the team they faced were the Los Angeles Clippers, the perennial under dogs, who have just added some metal to their setup in the form of Chris Paul and to some extent Chauncey Billups.
On the night though, it was the home team which had the better of the two. After going down by 5 to start the game, the Spurs first reeled off an eleven point unanswered run to set the ball rolling and then replied with an 8-2 deep in the quarter, which finished with them leading by 26-19.
The Spurs kept on pounding the Clips in the second frame and took their lead to 38-23 inside the first four minutes.
The Clippers responded.
Caron Butler knocked down a three to start a 29-14 stretch which saw three more treys from the Clips and was ended by a signature jam from Blake Griffin to make it 52-all. Richard Jefferson and Manu Ginobili replied with two triples in the last thirty seconds of the half, which ended at 58-54, advantage Spurs.
After the break, the game changed completely.
The Spurs entered the court firing on all cylinders while the Clips froze. They made only 5 of the 14 shots attempted and also gave away five turn overs in the third quarter, in which they were outscored by 38-17. By the time, the frame ended at 96-71, the game was lost.
All the Spurs starters ended the night with double figures while James Anderson chipped in with 12 from the bench. Manu Ginobili had 24 points and 6 dimes, DeJuan Blair canned 20; Richard Jefferson netted 19; point guard Tony Parker scored 14 points and dished out 9 assists while Tim Duncan finished the night with 10 points and 8 rebounds, all defensive.
The Clippers were lead by Griffin’s 28-9. Chris Paul, Caron Butler, Mo Williams and Chauncey Billups were also in double figures but none of them had more then 12. The visitors scored at a paltry 39.2 percent from the floor as compared to 56.2 percent by the Spurs, who have more or less knocked the hype around the newly refurbished team.
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