Bucks Topple Clippers 97-96

By Connor Aylward
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Updated: March 15, 2017

Coming off a tough loss Tuesday to their potential first round playoff matchup, the Los Angeles Clippers hoped to turn things around Thursday against a playoff hopeful Milwaukee Bucks team.

Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan came out clicking for the Clippers offense. Jordan took advantage of a size mismatch against the young and thin Rookie Thon Maker early in the first quarter.

BG + DJ = 🔨 pic.twitter.com/5rk8Fi3kEC

— LA Clippers (@LAClippers) March 16, 2017

Jordan closed his night with a monstrous 22 points and 17 rebounds.

Meanwhile Griffin got aggressive against a much smaller Bucks front-court and even managed to drop in a rare three ball. 18 points, 7 rebounds and 4 assists would be his final stat line for Griffin on the night.

However things took a turn for the worse when Los Angeles went to their second unit. As has been the case many times this season, when Doc Rivers chooses to play a lineup of all backups they struggle. In this one they were outscored 9-0 in the first and they didn’t get much better throughout the game. Jamal Crawford finished as the leading scorer off the bench with 14.

A struggling bench wasn’t all that plagued the Clippers in this matchup. Turnovers were a problem all game long for Los Angeles and to the Bucks credit they were jumping into passing lanes and swiping the ball away on many of those turnovers. They finished up the game with 8 steals to the Clippers 15 turnovers.

The majority of those turnovers came from an unlikely source, Chris Paul. Paul, known around the league for having one of the best assist to turnover ratios in the history of the game ended up with 6 turnovers. Overall, this just wasn’t Paul’s night. He went 2-10 from the field and only had 6 points and 7 assists.

Even with all of that working against Los Angeles, this game came down to the last possession. A game-winning shot from the paint by Griffin rimmed out and the Bucks came out on top 97-96.

A second straight loss for Los Angeles couldn’t have come at a worse time as they are fighting for home-court advantage in that first round of the playoffs. The Denver Nuggets are up next at the Pepsi Center on Thursday.

Thanks for reading along Clipper Nation! Here’s to turning things around in Denver.

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