Clippers Streak To Six With 109-104 Win Over Nuggets

By Connor Aylward
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Updated: January 17, 2018

Coming off of an emotional win Monday against the Houston Rockets, the Los Angeles Clippers had yet another key game Wednesday against the Denver Nuggets. The Clippers and Nuggets entered the contest tied for the sixth seed in the Western Conference and a win for either team could be of massive importance later on in the season.

The Clippers would once again be without All-Star big man DeAndre Jordan in this one. This is the third straight game Jordan has missed and it doesn’t look like Los Angeles will be getting their defensive leader back anytime soon.

Doc Rivers says DeAndre Jordan’s ankle is progressing slower than the #Clippers have expected. The swelling hasn’t gone down, adds Rivers, and he doesn’t want to put a timeline on DJ’s return.

— Tomer Azarly (@TomerAzarly) January 18, 2018

In the absence of Jordan, the Clippers needed their other bigs to step up against a Nuggets squad that has talent in the post. Luckily for Los Angeles, Blake Griffin was feeling it from the opening tip and was able to knock in 9 points and gather 7 rebounds in just the first quarter. By the time this game was all over the Clippers leader had a double-double with 20 points and 12 rebounds while also managing to spread the ball around with 4 assists.

Blake Griffin with the lefty 🔨 to give the @LAClippers the lead!

📺: @ESPNNBA pic.twitter.com/zibEjX6sMs

— NBA (@NBA) January 18, 2018

Griffin was dominating the post on one end but the Nuggets weren’t ceding him control on the other. Denver bigs Nikola Jokic and Mason Plumlee had fantastic games of their own. Plumlee managed to get a double-double for himself with 16 points and 14 rebounds. Meanwhile, Jokic impressed with 18 points of his own.

A poor performance from Jordan’s fill-in Willie Reed made things a bit easier for the Nuggets post players. Reed only managed to mount 4 points with 3 turnovers in 17 minutes of action. Due to his struggles, Reed ended up not getting the majority of the minutes at the Center spot and it’s a good thing because Montrezl Harrell once again brought energy off the bench. Harrell crashed to the bucket and was able to finish with 18 points and 8 rebounds.

Harrell and the Clippers bench knew they would need a big performance if their team was going to win this one and they provided it. Outscoring the Nuggets bench 44-28.

In what was a back and forth game that saw the Nuggets lead by an many as 10, a strong second half from Los Angeles helped them pull away late in the fourth quarter and close this game out with a 109-104 victory.

This gives the Clippers their sixth straight win and due to the playoff implications, this may have been the most important one of the stretch. Los Angeles will stay home to take on the Utah Jazz in their next matchup Saturday.

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