Clippers Win Buzzer-Beating Thriller 96-94

By Connor Aylward
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Updated: March 24, 2016

The Los Angeles Clippers returned home Thursday evening after a rough road stretch that saw the team dropping 4 out of 5 games played away from Staples Center. Still things looked promising for Los Angeles as they were set to take on a Portland Trail Blazers team that has struggled away from the comforts of their own home arena going just 15 of 23 away from the Moda Center in Portland this season.

It was clear Doc Rivers had game planned to shut down Blazers star Damian Lillard in this one. His club succeeded greatly in doing so as in the first half the point guard was only able to manage 5 points and things didn’t get much easier for him the rest of the night as he finished the contest with just 18 points on 4 of 16 shooting.

Portland started out hot winning the first quarter but Los Angeles responded strongly by winning the second by a margin of ten points thanks to the stellar play of their stars Chris Paul and DeAndre Jordan. Through one half Jordan was nearing a double-double with 8 points and 9 rebounds. Meanwhile, Paul was on triple-double watch early on with 13 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists at the half. The two would finish the night fantastically as Paul had 25 points, 7 assists and 5 rebounds while Jordan had 12 points, 13 rebounds and 3 steals.

The Clippers would lead the Blazers 46-39 at the half but an abysmal 1 for 8 from three spelled trouble for a Clippers team that uses the three ball to open up the floor for other scorers.

Portland came out firing in the second part of this game as CJ McCollum and former-Laker Ed Davis started to heat up. The Blazers would take the lead in this one but it would never be enough to count the Clippers out. Jamal Crawford came in off the Clipper bench and helped keep his club close as the game wore on,

Jamal is cookin’ 🔥🔥🔥

— LA Clippers (@LAClippers) March 25, 2016

Crawford would finish his night with 25 points all of which were much-needed for his team in this one. The Clippers undoubtedly would’ve struggled greatly without his production, particularly late in the game where he drained some huge three-balls that would keep the Clippers in the game despite some amazing shots from Lillard.

When it came down to it with just six tenths of a second remaining it would be J.J. Redick who would win the Clippers this game 96-94! He only had 11 points in this one but the last two proved to be the most important.

JJ Redick beat the Blazers on this last second jumper https://t.co/KFwETcVqN7

— The Cauldron (ICYMI) (@CauldronICYMI) March 25, 2016

A great final second win for Los Angeles moves the team to 44-27 on the year with just 11 games remaining. Next our Clippers will take on the Denver Nuggets Sunday back at Staples Center. Huge win Clipper fans, lets keep this momentum going!

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