Record breaking night for Clippers in loss to Nuggets
- Updated: February 25, 2016
The Clippers shot and kept shooting all night however it wasn’t enough to overcome a desperate Denver side in a 87-81 loss at home.
The Clippers started in similar fashion to the game on Monday night vs. Phoenix with an 11-2 run courtesy of Chris Paul and J.J. Redick. The pair would eventually hit all 19 of the Clippers opening quarter points as Denver mounted a comeback with a 17-3 run of their own as the Clippers hoisted 15 three point attempts in the opening quarter – only hitting 5 – while Denver, through Kenneth Faried, dominated the paint to lead 23-19 after the first quarter.
The Clipper bench started more positively in the second quarter with a 9-1 run, with the first points in the paint coming from a Cole Aldrich dunk 13 minutes and 10 seconds into the game. However the youthful and energetic Denver lineup would not lie down as they steadied their own ship once again to end the half on a 14-0 run in what could be considered one of the worst halves of the Clippers season to date.
Faried led all scorers with 17 points on 8-10 shooting while of his eight rebounds, six were offensive, thanks in large part to the old and slow Paul Pierce. Denver led the rebound battle by 35-19 at halftime, with DeAndre Jordan only managing to gather in two misses.
Many of the Clippers players have talked in recent times about it’s defense becoming its offense when their jump shots are not falling however that wasn’t the case in the first half tonight.
Chris Paul called a timeout early in the second half after tweaking what seemed to be like his left ankle on a play. He would return immediately as a pair of Redick treys and a Jordan dunk left the Clippers on a 14-6 run to cut the deficit to six.
Paul then bumped elbows with Jusuf Nurkic with all these niggling injuries coming as a result of extended minutes to the absence of Austin Rivers and Blake Griffin.
After three quarters, the Clippers were down by nine points as despite numerous runs.
Jordan finished the night with four blocks with two crucial blocks down the stretch in the fourth quarter as the Clippers tried to mount another comeback as they went down the other end where Jamal Crawford drained a pair of long balls to eat into the Denver lead. A Paul three answered Gary Harris‘ trey at the other end before Jeff Green – who replaced Paul Pierce in the closing line up – provided some good help defense in the post to record his second of three blocks on the night as Redick drained his sixth three up the other end to cut the margin to two with a little over three minutes to play. That three would be the 42nd attempt for the Clippers, a franchise breaking mark.
Mike Malone refused to play Kenneth Faried down the stretch and as Green registered another block on Jokic, it appeared as though the Clippers might find a way to pull out a win.
However it was not to be. A couple of turnovers in the final minute all but ended the Clippers chances as they dropped their 10th game at home for the season.
As a team, they shot 35% from the field, 28% from deep and 57% from the line. You won’t win too many games shooting those kinds of numbers.
Chris Paul, despite the injuries, finished with 17 points, 10 assists and four steals while Redick dropped 20 points on 7-16 (6-12 3P) shooting. Jordan had seven points, 12 rebounds and four blocks and Crawford had 20 points on 8-18 shooting off the bench. Jeff Green played 26 minutes – his highest as a Clipper – hopefully a sight Clipper fans see more of.
Essentially, the game was lost on the glass (particularly in the first half) as the Clippers lost the rebound count by 10 and when your three point attempts total nearly amounts to your total rebounds, that generally won’t produce the W.
The Clippers now drop a further game back of Oklahoma City who won in Dallas as they get ready to host the Sacramento Kings (who lost against San Antonio) at Staples Center on Friday.
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