LA Clippers win fifth straight against an ailing Magic team
The LA Clippers finished the first half of the season with their fifth win in a row against an Orlando Magic team that have lost their last four.
J.J. Redick scored a team-high 22 points on Wednesday night to help the LA Clippers (27-14) get a win against the reeling Orlando Magic (16-24) to remain unbeaten in the new year.
Chris Paul recorded 18 points, six assists and seven rebounds for the Clippers, who looked a little sluggish most of the game. DeAndre Jordan grabbed 20 rebounds to go with 10 points and three blocks. Marreese Speights scored 10 of his 13 points in the fourth quarter.
Aaron Gordon again took it to the Clippers, this time for 28 points with 16 in the first quarter alone. Nikola Vucevic had 16 points and 12 rebounds. Jodie Meeks added 14 points off the bench and former Clipper Jeff Green had 10 points on 3-of-13 shooting.
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Gordon and the Magic played extremely well in the first quarter, shooting the lights out at 56 percent from the field. They scored 11 points off six Clipper turnovers. The Clippers led most of the quarter until the end of the first where they would play from behind most of the second before going on a 20-8 run to lead the Magic at half time, 56-51.
The defense in the third cooled by the Clippers and the Magic shot 55 percent in the period while holding the Clippers to 42 percent. The Magic kept coming in the third and were able to take the lead before the start of the last quarter.
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In the fourth, the Clippers had their best quarter of the night with much of it coming from Speights, who made five of the 11 made shots in the quarter. While there were sluggish sells, the hot shooting from the Clippers (61 percent) made enough plays to get the win and send the Magic to their fourth straight loss.
The Clippers had another ugly 20+ night for turnovers, but won despite all the miscues. They also controlled the boards and were +15 in that regard, including nine offensive rebounds.
Notes
Serge Ibaka was out with a sprain in his shoulder.
Blake Griffin is on schedule to return in a couple of weeks.
Doc said Blake feels great. Initial timetable of around 4-6 weeks following Dec. 20 procedure still accurate. "All things are good for him"
— Rowan Kavner (@RowanKavner) January 12, 2017
Austin Rivers returned after having a Flu Game (he did not play).
Chris Paul now has 13,000 minutes played for.
Next: Austin Rivers' impressive journey to success
Up next
The LA Clippers play the Lakers on Saturday night and will try to avenge a Christmas Day loss when they fell by nine points. The Clippers were in the middle of their six-game losing streak then, but now have a chance to win their sixth in a row if they can pull it off against their hall mates.