Fresh off a great game against the visitng Nuggets, Blake Griffin overcame a huge game from Kevin Love and a lot of looks for Nikola Pekovic, to help the Clippers clinch an overtime win at home on Sunday night, 120-116. With CP3 struggling, Blake had to carry the offense, and he was up to the challenge.
First, Kevin Love’s performance cannot be overstated enough. He dropped 45 points, on 15-for-23 shooting (2/6 3pt), grabbed 19 rebounds and dished six assists in the loss. The ‘Wolves needed that all-around brilliance because — with the exception of Pekovic’s 34 points and 14 rebounds — there was no one else who produced. Ricky Rubio played more than 38 minutes and didn’t score a single point (though he did have 12 assists). Aside from Pek and Love, only J.J. Barea (12) and Kevin Martin (16) reached double-figures in the OT loss.
Love even survived an encounter with the irascible Matt Barnes, whose foul on a driving Love in the third quarter led to a Flagrant 2 and an ejection.
We’d like to see less of these flagrant 2 upgrades, obviously. And this one by Barnes shouldn’t qualify since it doesn’t appear he had malicious intent, except if you judge it by Love’s mean mugging after-the-fact. Love didn’t even fall.
Regardless, it was Blake’s night: he had 32 points, 10 rebounds and four steals in the OT win.
Griffin even found time to smash the ball a couple times, particularly this one on poor Rubio.
Recent signing, Stephen Jackson, had a perfectly measured Captain Jax reaction to the slam.
After Kevin Love forced Blake to pick up his final foul in overtime, CP3 scored 9 of LA’s 14 points in the extra session, and the Clippers found a way to win.
What do you think?
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