Fatigue Or Fluke? Nuggets Rout Weary Clippers At Home, 112-91
LOS ANGELES, CA – On a night in which celebrities such as Billy Crystal and Rihanna would be seen courtside, the Clippers may have been blinded by their own spotlight.
The Clippers who would win for the first time in Utah since 2003, would be caught flat-footed in a 112-91 rout at the hands of the Denver Nuggets.
Denver, the highest scoring team in the league at 105.4 points per game, would lose to the Clippers at home, 109-105 last Sunday, would gain revenge by shooting 57 percent from three point range, and hand the Clippers only their fourth loss at home and end Los Angeles’s four game win streak.
The Nuggets would be led in scoring by power forward Danilo Gallinari’s 21 points, the 6-10 Italian import would shoot five-of five from behind the arc.
Denver would get balanced scoring from point guard Ty Lawson, who would score 18 points, shooting guard Aaron Affalo would add 15 and Russian center Timofey Mozgov would add 11 points.
Spanish shooting guard Rudy Fernandez would add ten points from the bench.
Los Angeles would be led by All-Star’s in power forward Blake Griffin, who would add 18 points on 9-of-12 shooting and point guard Chris Paul, who would score 15 points on six-of nine shooting.
Swingman Caron Butler would add 11 points on 5-of-14 shooting. Guards Mo Williams and Randy Foye would score 13 and 17 points off the bench.
The Clippers, who would be playing the second game of a back-to-back, looked and played like they left their legs in Utah, as they would hoist up air-balls and lack the explosive spring in their steps that have given them their “Lob Angeles” nickname.
Los Angeles would jump out to a 32-19 lead after the first quarter, before getting out-scored 67-35 in the second and third quarters, did not look like the high-flying, rim-rocking “Lob City” Clippers that many have grown accustomed too in the first 20 games of this lockout-shortened season.
Fatigue or not, credit must also be given to Denver—who may have the deepest team in the NBA—for showing why they are considered an outside favorite to come out of the West.
Their combination of a relentless up-tempo, guard-oriented offense under head coach George Karl, combined with physical big men in Nene, Mozgov and a outside-shooting big man in Gallinari proved too much for the gassed and weary Clippers.
As Denver now flies back home to face the Lakers and the Clippers embark on a pivotal East Coast rip to Washington to face the Bullets, the Clippers must now show a new trait, that all contenders already have—resiliency.
If the Clippers can bounce back from a 21-point drubbing on its home court 3,000 miles away, then perhaps there is some heart in the young Clippers, if they cannot bounce back in a expected fashion, then look for questions about their toughness and legitimacy to become more common.
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