NBA Saturday: Clippers Thump Bulls
The Los Angeles Clippers continued their hot streak with a convincing 101-80 win over the Chicago Bulls on Saturday at the Staples Center. The win was the fifth straight for the Clippers, who have played only one game away from Staples so far this season. Their home schedule has been anything but easy though. The Clippers now have beaten the Memphis Grizzlies, San Antonio Spurs , Miami Heat, Atlanta Hawks and Chicago, all of whom made the playoffs last year. And they also have a “road” win over the Los Angeles Lakers thrown in there too.
On Saturday, the Clippers got 26 points and 10 rebounds from Blake Griffin and 22 points from Jamal Crawford in their rather one-sided win. Carlos Boozer led the Bulls with 22 points. Luol Deng and Richard Hamilton added 14 each.
Crawford, who comes off the bench but leads the Clippers in scoring at over 20 points per game, furthered his cause for NBA Sixth Man of the Year by coming in and scoring 17 second quarter points to get the Clippers into the locker room with a 53-40 halftime with 5:00 left in the the third quarter, the lead ballooned to 71-48.
The Bulls fought back to get the lead back down to 13 at 87-74 with a little over 6:00 left to play, but they would get no closer.
The Clippers have four tough road games next week at San Antonio, the Oklahoma City Thunder, Brooklyn Nets and the Hawks. The Bulls are also on the road all next week as they try to improver on their 5-4 record. They will play the Portland Trail Blazers , Houston Rockets and Milwaukee Bucks next week.
In other NBA action, The Heat beat the Suns 97-88. Chris Bosh led the Heat with 24 points. Lebron James added 21. The Spurs blasted the Denver Nuggets 126-100. Manu Ginobli led the Spurs with 20 points. DeJuan Blair added 19 for San Antonio.
Memphis won their eighth straight, beating the Charlotte Bobcats 94-87. Mike Conley led the Grizzlies with 20 points. Memphis has the NBA’s best record at 8-1. With the NBA’s worst record at 0-8, the Washington Wizards lost to the Utah Jazz 83-76. Al Jefferson led the Jazz with 21 points. The Boston Celtics beat the Toronto Raptors 107-89, led by Rajon Rondo who had 20 assists.
Milwaukee beat the New Orleans Hornets 117-113. Brandon Jennings had 22 points for the Bucks. And finally, the Dallas Mavericks beat the Cleveland Cavaliers 103-95. O.J. Mayo led Dallas with 19 points.
