The Los Angeles Clippers walked into Auburn Hills having lost their last 13 meetings with the Detroit Pistons. After a disasterous meet-up with the Indiana Pacers the Clippers were looking to work on a few loose screws, but it doesn't seem easy.
Clearly, the game plan in the first half was to come out and play hard, and take good shots. Which they did, shooting a fantastic 55%. The only problem is the Pistons took more shots (49 to the Clips 33) and wound up leading the Clippers 54-47 after two quarters.
An amazing lack of second half fortitude has been a staple of this season's Clipper party. How many times do they have to come out of the locker room looking uninspired, lethargic and Clipper-like? Besides that, the Clippers have lost to some teams playing without their star player, like New Orleans without Chris Paul and Indiana without Danny Granger, Steve Perrins thinks they may be leading the league in this category. The Pistons leading scorer, Ben Gordon is out, along with Tayshaun Prince and Rip Hamilton.
The roundup
Baron Davis and Rodney Stuckey came out firing in the 2nd half, but then the hot shooting of Jonas Jerebko made it a game. Who is that? Didn't matter, because the Clippers actually came out and played a second half! They outscored the Pistons 57-42, and were led by an big game from Baron with 25 points and ten big assists.
Chris Kaman struggled mightily in the last two games, but he was strong throughout, including a 10-foot jumper along the right baseline with 51 seconds remaining. It capped an 11-13 shooting night for the big man who reportedly had some family cooking for turkey day while in Michigan.
The Pistons were strong on the boards, led by Ben Wallace who nabbed 16 bricks (ten offensive!) and 43 for the game to the 34 Clipper rebounds.
Notes:
L.A. Times writer Lisa Dillman was at the game and tweetported this one: "Smack talk from behind the bench/press row cranking up in 3Q. Fan yelling at Dunleavy: "The Lions make you look good!" Now that's cold."
The game went out on Prime Ticket, late in the 4th quarter due to a rumored blackout. But, also according to Dillman, there was no blackout: "Someone tweeted that there is a power outage at the arena. Not accurate. Am not typing in the dark at the Palace..." Viewers got The World Poker Tour during a close 4th quarter, so let's hope the fans can get some answers.
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