The LA Clippers bounced back in a big way, defeating the Atlanta Hawks 150-101. Here are three takeaways from the team’s big blowout win.
Where are all my Debbie Downers!? After dropping two road games in a row earlier this week, the LA Clippers returned home for the debut of Paul George.
As far as debuts go, this was darn near perfect. The Clippers blew out the Atlanta Hawks 150-101. The team was clicking on all cylinders, even with both Kawhi Leonard and Patrick Beverley sitting out.
Here are three takeaways from the victory.
1. First quarter offense returned!
Wow. The Clippers actually looked like a basketball team in the first quarter. Their struggles to generate offense in the first quarter of games has been well documented. However, last night, the team looked stellar.
The bulk of the scoring came from Paul George (more on that later), but the whole team was ready. George came out strong, scoring 15 points on 5 of 7 shooting. Ivica Zubac added in another seven points, continuing his great play that has fans calling for more minutes.
When the bench came in, Lou Williams began firing. He scored eight points in just six minutes, only missing one shot.
What’s even crazier is that Montrezl Harrell didn’t score a point in the first. The team still found a way to get buckets.
According to the team’s PR, the 43 points scored in the first quarter by the Clippers is the most that the team has scored in a first quarter since February 9, 2014. Now, obviously we cannot expect that kind of output every night, but when Kawhi and PG finally take the court together on Monday, it sure will be interesting to see how productive this team can be.
A couple of other scoring notes (not related to just the first quarter via the team’s PR (they were super buys last night).
The 49-point victory is the largest margin of victory in franchise history
The 150 points are the second-most scored in franchise history