The Clippers had their best win of the season beating the heralded Miami Heat in over time. At times it wasn’t pretty for both teams (thank you David Stern and the lockout owners) in fact, it was downright ugly, but the Clippers won a game that let’s face it, in the past would have been a moral victory for keeping it close. But this time the Clippers gutted out the win. They won despite being out rebounded again, although not by much, but tight defense and clutch free throw shooting by Chauncey Billups pulled them through. They were even aided by the free throw gremlin which had plagued them though out this season, but this time it jumped on the Heat specifically LeBron James.
The game started out as a dunk feast as both Clippers Blake Griffin and LeBron James had thunderous dunks, which drew gasps from the fans. But it soon settled down to be a grind it out type game, as both teams played the previous night and seem to lose their legs as the game wore on. Chris Paul had his best game as a Clipper as he scored 27, had 11 assist and only one turnover. He and Griffin kept them in the game in the first half as the other Clippers had trouble making shots. It was their defense that kept the Clippers in the game. DeAndre Jordan was a big factor despite scoring only eight points. He had 11 rebounds and 6 blocked shots, and it wasn’t just the blocks were swatted into the upper deck, which is his tendency, but they were control blocks. His shot blocking and intimidation made the Heat a jump shooting teams, despite his efforts the Clippers still trailed by five at half.
The Clippers offense was stymied in the second half as Griffin was constantly double- teamed when he caught the ball and getting up shots. Caron Butler took advantage and started making jump shots and slashing to the rim for easy buckets. Reggie Evans in only second game provided toughness by gathering 8 rebounds and playing tough low post defense in limited minutes. It was the Clippers defense down the stretch that kept them within striking distance, as they held the Heat without a field goal, in the last eight minutes. They needed the defense because they weren’t exactly swishing the nets either as fatigue and the Heat defense kept them from extending to a comfortable lead. In the final seconds after a rare LeBron free throw tied the game late, the Clippers had a chance to win at the end of regulation, but Paul after faking out LeBron who almost fell down, couldn’t get his floater to drop. The Clippers survived in OT as both teams were dead legged and couldn’t make shots. The key play was a late block by Jordan on Bosh which kept the Clippers ahead. And the Clippers made late free throws and Lebron did not.
This was an important win for Clippers. They can celebrate beating a top flight quality team when they didn’t play their best. But their next step is to knock off their hall way neighbors. Since Saturday is a Clippers home game, I can hear the Clipper fans now. “Beat the Lakers! Beat the Lakers! Beat the Lakers!”
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