Lakers Win Christmas Day Meeting With Clippers

Without forward Blake Griffin to start and Chris Paul to finish, the Clippers went exclusively to their bench in the fourth quarter to pull out a 106-101 victory over the Spurs.

The largest lead of the night for the Lakers was 18 points, and they controlled the second half, ultimately winning, 111-102.

“We’ll be fine”, the coach’s son said.

Jokic scored 10 points in the fourth quarter, including a key 3-pointer that broke a 95-all tie and gave the Nuggets the lead for good. Suddenly, the Clippers were only down by four points and LA looked prime to blow another big lead.

“I thought we were very good for three quarters”, said Gallinari, who scored 15 points in the first half. “I did see fatigue down the stretch”.

A balanced scoring effort and stout defense held off Los Angeles down the stretch.

“It was really one quarter that killed us”, Clippers coach Doc Rivers said, referring to the second. Overall, the Clippers outshot the Nuggets 46.4 percent to 43.9 percent. Meanwhile, the Denver Nuggets suffered a heartbreaking one-point home loss to the Atlanta Hawks, 109-108. The Clippers play five games in seven nights including a three-game road trip to New Orleans, Houston and Oklahoma City to finish the year. “This is the National Basketball Association and they still have good players out there”. “One time, Jamal was supposed to bring [the ball] up; he didn’t want to”. Redick wasn’t sure when he will return, but acknowledged he could miss multiple games during this compressed schedule. In his previous seven starts, he was averaging slightly more points (19.3 to 16.1) than as a reserve this season.

The Clippers scored the first 11 points of the fourth quarter, cutting the deficit to 89-85 with 8:53 remaining.

Los Angeles Clippers center DeAndre Jordan took that motto to heart to close out the day’s action against the Los Angeles Lakers.

“Unfortunately, but luckily, I’m well-versed in dealing with a hamstring injury. With hamstrings, you can’t take a chance.”. “I’m glad we’re so much deeper than we were past year”.

Lou Williams and D’Angelo Russell added 14 points each for the Lakers, who hadn’t beaten their Staples Center co-tenants since opening night of the 2013-14 season. “We’re gonna make mistakes, that’s part of the game, but we have to be able to cover for each other”.

“That [third quarter] was the highlight of the game for me”. So, as I’ve slightly missed the first quarter trend for early takes and analysis, I hope Clippers fans can cut me a little slack. The Nuggets host the Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday.

Lakers win Christmas evening matchup with the Clippers: Lakers guard Nick Young nailed the three-pointer, then trotted down the court as he does after all of them, with his tongue hanging out as his hands signaled with three fingers to show what he’d just contributed. Since starting 14-2, the Clippers are 8-8 since November 25.