The Los Angeles Clippers extended their seven game winning streak, notching their 12th road win of the season, as they defeated the Portland Trail Blazers, 109-98, at the Moda Center.
Clippers off to a quick start
While this win was not a wire-to-wire victory, it was extremely close after trailing for only 18 seconds after Portland scored the first basket through Al-Farouq Aminu jumper from just inside the three point line. After that though, the Clippers went on a 13-2 run with nearly all of the starters finding the bottom of the hoop.
Throughout the first half, Doc River’s men would get into fantastic spots on the court, after an extra pass or two, and hit an open jumper as they shot an astounding 55% as a team in the opening half, taking a big 23 point advantage into the break.
At the second half, the Trail Blazers made a little bit of a run to try to get back into this game. They were able to trim the lead from 21 all the way down to single digits, clamping down on the defensive side of the ball which turned into some easy points down the other end.
Pierce's big night
However, Paul Pierce had one of his best nights in a Clipper uniform in tonight’s victory, shooting 5/6 from behind the arc and 5/9 overall, ending the game with 17 total points. Each one of his made threes came at a huge time in the game.
His biggest three came during the middle of the third quarter after Portland was slowly trying to get back into the game. Out of a time out, Paul Pierce was wide open and sunk a backbreaking shot that killed any kind of hope that the Trail Blazers may have had.
Los Angeles got good contribution from everyone who played tonight. It was Chris Paul who led the way tonight, finishing as the game’s highest scorer with 21, making nine of his 19 attempts from the field. With Blake Griffin having been injured for the last several weeks, it has been Paul’s duty to get his teammates involved and he did that again tonight. Five other’s finished with double-digit points, which included Austin Rivers and Jamal Crawford coming off of the bench.
While Luc Richard Mbah a Moute only contributed to two points of the overall total, the veteran big man did excellent work on the defensive side of the ball per usual, limiting his opposite number to seven points on the night.
On the other side of the court, Portland could barely buy a basket all game, especially with CJ McCollum out because of a clerical mistake. This left the home team with only Damian Lillard as a true scorer. However, he did do his job, scoring 20 points to lead his team in scoring but made a couple of careless errors on offense as he tries to get shake off a bit rust as he still tries to come back from injury.
Mason Plumlee, the former Duke Blue Devil, put in a solid shift against one of the league’s premier rim protectors. Not everything he did showed up on the stat sheet, including stopping DeAndre Jordan from hauling down some offensive rebounds and finishing as his side’s second leading scorer, as most of his points came easily inside the paint.
The Clippers will hope to continue their run at home on Saturday when they host the Charlotte Hornets. Meanwhile, Portland will play hosts to the Golden State Warriors Friday night.