Five takeaways from the Clippers’ 103-90 victory over Milwaukee
Clippers point guard Chris Paul steals the ball away from Bucks forward Khris Middleton in the first quarter.
Home or road, it doesn’t seem to matter. The Clippers are starting to come together, with a 103-90 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday night at Staples Center the latest evidence that they may be putting their slow start to the season in the rearview mirror. Here are five takeaways from the game:
1. The Clippers got it done when the excuses were theirs for the taking. They’re in the midst of a crazy stretch in which they returned home for one game sandwiched in between seven road games. Center DeAndre Jordan was ejected midway through the third quarter after two rapid-fire technical fouls. The lights even went out in the first quarter just as forward Blake Griffin was about to shoot a free throw, prompting Jordan to say, “What the …?” None of it mattered. The Clippers persevered to win their third consecutive game and move a season-high six games above .500 thanks to solid all-around play from Griffin and point guard Chris Paul and some energy off the bench from Josh Smith and Lance Stephenson.
2. Technical difficulties continue to be an issue for the Clippers. Jordan’s dual technicals and resulting third-quarter ejection gave the Clippers a league-leading 20 technical fouls this season, including the three called on Coach Doc Rivers. “That was a goal coming into the season,” Griffin said dryly when asked about the Clippers’ technicals. Griffin and Jordan each have six technicals, tying Indiana’s Paul George for the league lead. Griffin said the same rules don’t always seem to apply to the Clippers as to other teams. “I watch a lot of basketball games and I watch a lot of guys react to certain plays and I see our guys do the same thing and sometimes it’s not quite the same amount of cushion,” Griffin said, “so we need to be better and I think we’ve put ourselves in that position, but it’s not always fair.”
3. Stephenson’s up-and-down playing time is so, so curious. For all his head-scratching mistakes such as defending the wrong man (this is not a hypothetical; it actually happened Wednesday), celebrating assists like they’re championships and flinging passes that seem as likely to end up in the second row as they do in the hands of teammates, it’s clear that Stephenson is a net positive for the Clippers. His energy is contagious and his playmaking often trumps that of fellow reserve Austin Rivers, who is usually the second-unit point guard. “The way he pushes the ball,” All-Star point guard Chris Paul said of Stephenson, “I wish I could push it like that.”
Stephenson finished with four points, four assists and two rebounds in 18 minutes after not having played at all two days earlier against the Detroit Pistons, but his impact far exceeded those modest statistics. There is part of Stephenson’s play that still appears to grate on Doc Rivers, however, most notably his celebrating every highlight play. “I said, ‘You can’t have a parade after every basket’ and he did that,” Rivers said, “but on the upside of it, he’s doing so many other things for us and I think our guys now get him. They understand he really wants to make plays, he doesn’t necessarily want to score and I think our guys are trying to get him the ball so he can run in transition more.”
Said Griffin: “The dunk and the celebration and the missed defensive assignment on the other end, we’ll live with it for now. I remember I said something to him right after that and he was like, ‘Awww.’ He didn’t even know he did it. I love Lance because he wants to get better and he wants to be a team player and he is and he’s always looking to make guys better and distribute the ball. That’s the kind of guy you want to have on your team.”
4. Paul Pierce surpassed 26,000 points. His six points, which all came in the first half, gave the Clippers veteran forward 26,004 for his career. “Paul’s just special,” Rivers said of the player he has coached for nearly a decade, including their time together with the Boston Celtics. “He frustrated me when I coached against him because I didn’t see the athleticism. It used to drive me crazy. You think, this slow guy, how is he scoring? Then, when you coach him, you realize he’s not slow. He’s got a great first step and he’s a better athlete than you think and he’s strong as heck. But I think Paul has scored most of his points from fundamentals. Every kid should watch his footwork. And he’s still beating guys off the dribble and it’s amazing.”
5. Now it’s time for a Texas two-step. First up on the Clippers’ trip is San Antonio, the team the Clippers dispatched in an epic seven-game first-round series last season. Paul’s banked-in jumper that won Game 7 is probably replaying on an endless loop in the heads of Spurs mainstays Tim Duncan, Tony Parker and Manu Ginobili. But the Spurs are the only team in the Western Conference within striking distance of first-place Golden State, thanks to a 22-5 start.
“It will be intense,” Griffin said of the atmosphere he anticipated Friday at the AT&T Center. “You’re always going to get a great game against San Antonio. They’re obviously well-coached, obviously they have a ton of talent, great leaders. I mean, across the board they’re a team that does things the right way and any time you go there and play or you play them anywhere, they’re going to be well prepared, they’re going to execute, so we have to be even more prepared, we have to execute even better. We can’t allow game-plan mistakes to happen, the things that we go over and the things we know that they’re trying to get to, we can’t allow that to happen. If we do, they have too much firepower.”
The Clippers will conclude their trip against Houston, the team that knocked them out of the playoffs last season in the conference semifinals after rallying from a three-games-to-one deficit in the series.
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