Clippers' center DeAndre Jordan, lead, grabs a rebound ahead of Ut Jazz's forward Derrick Favors a prior weekend not too long ago in Salt Lake City.
FRED C. WILSON, ASSOCIATED PRESS
SODIUM LAKE CITY – The finish variety was in sight.
All the miles, the airplane rides across the country, the hotel mattresses – all of it – was about you should be over. The Clippers just owned one game left.
But File Rivers knew the legs shall be heavy. He knew his players' minds would be on all the convenience and coziness of your own household of home. He just really needed 48 more minutes.
So , utilizing the Clippers' win in Houston Nov. 25 night, he broke one of this rules. He looked ahead.
"We talked about this one, " Rivers agreed. "We started in the locker spare space last night, and I rarely mention a subsequent team after a game. I noted this last night. We had such a quality trip. We didn't want to end of the line it on a poor note. "
Whatever was said worked, for the Clippers stormed out early moreover held on to beat the Utah Classical 112-96.
The Clippers finished generally the 7, 231-mile trek 6-1 : a franchise record for victories on a seven-game road trip. The Clippers have also won the second game coming from all five back-to-backs this season.
"It provides how focused we were, " Bob Paul said. "We talked about the application before the jump ball, me Blake (Griffin iphone 5) and (DeAndre Jordan). Our goal is to make sure we set the shape. We wanted to make sure we set generally the pace. "
The Clippers would just that, breaking open the game the begining of the thanks to Blake Griffin iphone's outside-inside gaming. Griffin opened the night with 4 straight jumpers before driving the particular line for a dunk on his fourthly made basket.
Griffin scored 15 of his 28 points of the first quarter, helping the Clippers build a 20-point lead.
The Classical fought back, but the too much pillow case had been built. Utah got inside of the body five in the second quarter thanks to shoddy seat play from the Clippers, but the specialists rebounded to open things back up.
A Clippers padded their lead of the third and fourth quarter, owing to 22 points from Jamal Crawford and 17 and 10 that will from Paul. Jordan pulled below a game-high 12 rebounds, among them four on the offensive glass, capping a road trip they needed to peg.
"It shows a lot of character. It is the perfect hard to win on the road, " Crawford said. "It really is, especially with people young and old outside the locker room kind of panicking about us before we left. Consider it shows a lot of heart moreover character, and it shows a lot of knows.
"We've found our identity, the way we want to play, and hopefully, it's rather a great starting point for us. "
The response to the Clippers situation at minimum forward, for the time being at least, has been a platoon of four players, with Rivers essential match-ups and situations for the gurus he has on his roster.
"We're quite frankly trying to platoon. I think I mentioned that before the season started, " Arrêters said before Saturday's game. "We're just doing that. But , we will weren't doing it well early on, however now we are. "
If the situation needs an athletic defender, the Clippers can turn to Matt Barnes. If they just want scoring, they can pair Jamal Crawford with J. J. Redick. As long as they want size and shooting, that are usable Hedo Turkoglu.
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