The Los Angeles Clippers left the Boston Celtics battered and bruised in a physical 106-77 victory on Thursday to extend their franchise-record winning streak to 15 games and remain on top of the NBA standings.
Building on contributions from their All-Stars, balanced bench and ferocious defense, the Clippers (23-6) continued to prove they are legitimate title contenders with another impressive home win over a highly regarded opponent.
Reserves Matt Barnes (21 points) and Jamal Crawford (17) led the way as all 11 Los Angeles players who stepped on the Staples Center court put a number in the scoring column.
Photo: Reuters
“The special thing about our team is no one cares who gets the credit,” Clippers point guard Chris Paul told reporters after finishing with eight points and 11 assists. “Right now our entire organization has a winning mentality and we expect nothing less than that.”
At the other end, the Celtics were held to just 40 percent shooting and out-scored 24-10 in the final quarter to complete the formalities of a blowout victory.
Kevin Garnett recorded 16 points, but Boston suffered their fifth loss in seven games and heaviest defeat of the season.
Considered one of the grittier teams in the league, the Celtics (14-14) were no match for the Clippers in a scrappy battle that featured bodies flying around, a flagrant foul and a bloodied lip for Paul Pierce after a collision with Paul.
Boston left the Staples Center clearly frustrated by the reality of being manhandled.
Point guard Rajon Rondo, the NBA’s leading assist man, finished with just six as he failed to reach double figures in that category for the second straight game.
He also tallied 10 points while Pierce added 12.
Los Angeles took a 30-20 lead after the first quarter and gradually increased their advantage after each break.
High-flyer Blake Griffin delighted the home crowd with an array of dunks, netting 15 points and eight rebounds.
The Clippers, who have not lost since a Nov. 26 defeat against the New Orleans Hornets, were aiming for a 16th consecutive victory against the Jazz in Utah yesterday.
“I’m a big believer in not looking too far ahead,” Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro added.
THUNDER V MAVERICKS
AP, OKLAHOMA CITY
Kevin Durant scored 40 points while Russell Westbrook added eight of his 16 points in overtime to help the Thunder beat the Mavericks 111-105 for their 11th straight win at home.
Serge Ibaka added 19 points and matched his season-high with 17 rebounds as Oklahoma City charged back from ten points down in the final 7:17 of regulation and found a way to win after losing back-to-back games for the first time this season.
Darren Collison scored a season-best 32 points for Dallas.
Dirk Nowitzki scored nine points in his second game back after having knee surgery in the offseason, showing some rust down the stretch.
Westbrook turned the game around with six straight points after the Mavs had gone up 104-101 on Chris Kaman’s bucket inside midway through overtime.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier