Blake Griffin works hard in the paint in Thursday’s win over Brooklyn. He scored 24 points/Staff photo by David Crane
– Chris Paul said afterward he doesn’t go into any game wondering how he’s going to go about things. But it seemed from the beginning he decided he was going to be more of a distributor than anything. He took just five shots in 24:01 of play, but doled out 17 assists. He passed up open looks to get his teammates the ball and became only the third player in history with 17 assists in under 25 minutes. His coach, Doc Rivers, and Brad Davis (Mavericks) are the other two. Paul had been in a shooting slump, making just 17 of his previous 54 shots (31.4 percent) heading in, so perhaps this was a way for him to break out of that. He shot 2 of 5 in this one.
– Austin Rivers, in his fourth game playing for his father – coach Doc Rivers – finally had something to shout about. Although he did most of his damage when the game had long been decided, he did score nine points on 4 of 7 shooting with six assists and two turnovers in 23:59 of play. He did miss all four of his free throws and afterward he said he’s got to do better in that regard. He’s only a 62.3 percent career shooter from the free-throw line in 2 1/2 NBA seasons, and that’s low for a guard.
– One of the best things for the Clippers in this one is their starters only had to play until about midway through the third quarter because of the lopsided nature of the game. That gave them rest, and it gave the reserves a chance to get extended minutes. A win-win situation.
– Any time his team doesn’t get that many assists, Doc Rivers talks about the lack of ball movement. Well, there was nothing lacking in that department because the Clippers had a whopping season-high 41 assists. Besides Paul’s 17 and Rivers’ six, Spencer Hawes had four assists and Blake Griffin and J.J. Redick each had three.
– Let’s not forget the defense played by the Clippers. Brooklyn is averaging 95.5 points, so it was held to well under that. The Nets were also held to just 37.5 percent shooting – just 19 percent (4 of 21) from 3-point range. The Clippers were active throughout.
