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Clippers Fight Off Rockets In 113-102 Win

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The red-hot Los Angeles Clippers welcomed back former Point Guard Chris Paul and his Houston Rockets Monday at the Staples Center. The blockbuster trade made last summer had Clippers players Lou Williams, Montrezl Harrell and Sam Dekker squaring off against their former team as well.

The focus for this one, however, was all on Paul. Seeing his first action against his former team Paul started off sizzling and managed to put together a pretty solid night. Paul finished the game with 19 points to go with 7 assists and 6 rebounds. Paul was closely guarded throughout the night by a host of Clippers, but none were more entertaining than his showdown against his predecessor Milos Teodosic. Teodosic and Paul had a bit of a tit for tat going with Teodosic closing this one out with 12 points and 6 assists while also crashing the boards and grabbing 6 rebounds.

While the two guards essentially canceled each other out, there were Clippers players doing things that the Rockets simply couldn’t match. One was former Rocket Lou Williams. Williams kept his hot streak going of scoring 20+ points as he did so again in this one for a league-leading 13th straight time. Williams was scorching from the field shooting 12-19 and notching 31 points along with 9 assists.

Blake Griffin stepped up in the absence of Center DeAndre Jordan and held down the paint with 29 points on the night. Griffin had a magnificent third quarter with 13 points in that quarter alone. Griffin also contributed with 6 assists and 10 rebounds as he flirted with a triple-double yet again.

The Clippers bench chipped in as well providing some much-needed energy to help the team maintain its momentum. Wes Johnson and Montrezl Harrell both provided the biggest contributions with 11 and 10 points respectively. Johnson also had quite a highlight reel of blocks that show the veterans athleticism in ways we rarely see.

A poor shooting night from the Rockets made things even more challenging as they shot a pedestrian 40% from the field.

The poor shooting performance from Houston mixed with the Clippers playing as confident as they have all season led to a comfortable 113-102 victory for Los Angeles.

A fantastic win for this Clippers team against a Houston team that has been ripping through the Western Conference. This game got a little chippy late with Blake Griffin and Trevor Ariza getting tossed out and even Rockets coach Mike D’Antoni getting a technical for yelling at Griffin from the bench. With these two teams exchanging plenty of players throughout the years the high emotions was not overly surprising but it certainly was fun to watch and should create a fun rivalry moving forward.

The Clippers will take on the Denver Nuggets next on Wednesday at the Staples Center as they try to extend their winning streak to 6.

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