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Pelicans Hold Off Clippers With 116-109 Win

Coming off an impressive victory over the Houston Rockets on Sunday the Los Angeles Clippers hit the road for this first time this season, taking on the Pelicans at the Smoothie King Center in New Orleans Tuesday night.

One thing the Clippers did well in that win over Houston was get to the foul line and convert when they got there, as the team went 26-26 from the line on Sunday. It looks like the Pelicans decided to rip a page out of the Clippers book for this one and get to the line often. New Orleans shot a staggering 39 free throws on the night, knocking in 30 of them.

Pelicans star Anthony Davis led the team in free throw attempts and makes with 10 and 15 respectively. Davis used those free throws to put together an excellent night offensively with 34 points by the time this game was all over, but unsurprisingly his game was too well rounded in this one to just talk about offense. Davis also managed to snatch up 13 rebounds and a very impressive 5 blocks in a night full of swats for his team with New Orleans finishing the game with 9 blocks total.

With Davis controlling the paint it was difficult for Los Angeles to get much of a groove going offensively, however, they were able to find scoring here and there to keep the game within striking distance. Tobias Harris led the team in scoring with 26 points while fellow forward Danilo Gallinari followed not so far behind with 24. Both managed to crash the boards better than expected against the powerful Pelicans frontcourt with Gallinari getting 6 boards and Harris finishing with 9.

It’s still early on in this season but one thing remains clear with this team, the bench is going to help the starters put points on the board and this contest was no different. Guard and sixth man Lou Williams led the bench yet again with 17 points while the big man Montrezl Harrell finished with 12 to go along with 6 rebounds. Rookie Shai Gilgeous-Alexander continues to impress in his bench role and he did so again in this one with 9 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, and 1 block. The length of the rookie defensively mixed with his quick driving ability towards the basket offensively has made him a deadly combo guard so far this season.

The Clippers tried seemingly everything to shut down the Pelicans star Davis but no matter who they put on the big man he continued to succeed at getting to the hoop and punishing the defense. This game would end with Davis halting a Clippers comeback attempt and closing out a 116-109 Pelicans victory.

Sitting at 2-2 in this young season, Los Angeles will head to Houston for their 5th contest of the season this Friday. The two just faced off on Sunday with the Clippers coming out on top 115-112 over the Chris Paul-less Rockets at Staples Center. The matchup on Friday should have some fireworks with plenty of bad blood still between some of the players.

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