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Clippers Defense Struggles In 131-127 Loss To Blazers

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Entering Monday night’s matchup against the Portland Trailblazers, the LA Clippers were on a three game skid. The team needed a spark to turn things back around and reignite that hot start the team enjoyed to the season.

For LA, that spark has been harder to capture as defense has waned and Lou Williams remains sidelined with an injury. After tying a career-high in points with 34 the last time these two teams squared off, Tobias Harris was the Clippers best chance to get things rolling in the right direction. Harris got off to a scorching hot start with 14 points and 5 rebounds in the opening quarter and he never cooled down. Getting over 30 points for the third time this season, Harris finished his impressive night with a career-high 39 points and 11 rebounds.

The Clippers were going to need to give Harris some help if they planned on beating a potential playoff team in the Blazers. Rookie Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and bench dynamo Montrezl Harrell did their best to step into that role. Gilgeous-Alexander became king of the midrange and knocked in those shots with tremendous consistency to the tune of a career-high 24 points on 9-15 shooting. Harrell brought his signature energy to the contest and punched home 15 points to go along with 6 rebounds and 4 assists. The most impressive stat line for the big man was his shooting from the free throw line as he put home 7-8, making 7 straight before missing one.

Harrell disappointingly was ejected in the fourth quarter after a stray elbow caught Blazers Center Jusuf Nurkic in the face.

Despite the play from those three, LA continuously was fighting from behind all game long. Defensively the team struggled, none as much as guard Avery Bradley. While many struggle against the guard tandem of Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum, Bradley is only on the floor for his defense and in this one he played very little. Bradley was a game-low -22 in +/- and managed a resounding 0 points in 30 minutes of play. I’ve rarely been one to call for change as usually Doc Rivers leaves little reason to question his judgement, but somebody might want to tell Rivers there are better guards on this team that do what they’re paying Bradley $12 million a year to do better than he does.

The defensive struggles certainly started with Bradley but they didn’t end there. Lillard put up 39 and McCollum put up 27 as they both scorched the nets from long range. They didn’t do the scoring alone though as all but one Blazers starter scored in double digits.

Despite a late surge led by Danilo Gallinari and Patrick Beverley the Clippers defensive struggles would be too much to overcome and they’d fall at home 131-127.

The schedule isn’t easing up for LA to take a breather after four straight losses with the Mavericks coming up next as DeAndre Jordan makes his first trip back to Staples Center since leaving the club last offseason.

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