The Los Angeles Clippers played without Chris Paul again on Monday and to make matters worse, they also had to scratch Blake Griffin with a sore hamstring. That was more than they could overcome as they lost again 98-90 to the Washington Wizards. The Clippers have now dropped three in a row and seven of their last nine and have dropped 4.5 games behind the San Antonio Spurs in the Western Conference playoff standings. And they still don’t know when Paul will be back as they get ready to play the team that started all this mess, the Orlando Magic, tomorrow night.
The Clippers were cruising right along with the NBA’s best record before the lowly Magic came to Staples Center and beat them. The win is one of only two games the Magic have won in their last 23 games. The loss proved to be extremely costly to the Clippers though when J.J. Redick collided with Paul going for a loose ball. The collision left Paul with a bruised kneecap and he’s played only one game since. So far the Clippers can pin eight losses on that game.
Washington is a team that can sympathize with both the Magic and Clippers on the injury front. They played much of the first half of the season without star point guard John Wall. So Wizards coach Randy Wittman was not in the mood to hear excuses after his team won on Monday.
”Hey, listen, we played enough games this year without players,” the Wizards coach said. ”Don’t give me the (bull) about who was here and who wasn’t here. … You guys would have printed it a wholly different other way if we had lost. … Now you’re going to print, ‘Ah, you won because Blake didn’t play.’ Give me a break.”
Martell Webster led the Wizards with 21 points while Nene and Garrett Temple added 15 points each as they improved to 12-35 on the year. The Clippers were led by Jamal Crawford with 28 points.
The Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Dallas Mavericks 112-91 on Monday night. The Thunder was led by the usual suspects, Russell Westbrook with 24 points and Kevin Durant with 19 points. The Thunder is now 36-12. The Mavericks were led by Shawn Marion with 23 points as they fell to 20-28. Oklahoma City gained another game on the Clippers to put them three games ahead for the second seed in the West, 1.5 games behind the San Antonio Spurs.
The Miami Heat beat the Charlotte Bobcats 99-94. Lebron James was 13-14 from the field and led the Heat with 31 points as they improved to 31-14. The shooting performance by James was the best in the NBA since Dwight Howard went 14 of 15 against the Philadelphia 76ers in April of 2007. Miami is the top seed in the Eastern Conference, one half game ahead of the New York Knicks.
The Knicks beat the Detroit Pistons 99-85 on Monday night to run their record to 31-15. Carmelo Anthony led the Knicks with 27 points and Amare Stoudamire chipped in 20 points as well. The win was New York’s fifth in a row.
