Five things to take from Clippers’ 104-90 victory over Miami

Cole Aldrich, right, of the Clippers dunks as Miami’s Justise Winslow tries to defend/Staff photo by David Crane

 

– This victory was the Clippers’ 10th in a row, ninth without the services of Blake Griffin (partially torn quad tendon) and first without DeAndre Jordan (pneumonia). That snapped Jordan’s 360 consecutive games streak, which had been the longest current streak. Griffin figures to still be out when the Clippers host Sacramento on Saturday. Jordan is listed as questionable.

Cole Aldrich is getting better and better. Starting for the first time this season because of Jordan’s absence, he scored a team-high 19 points on 7 of 14 shooting. Aldrich also pulled down seven rebounds, doled out three assists and made a steal in 24 minutes, his longest stint of the season.

Paul Pierce rebounded from two horrible shooting games to score 15 points on 6 of 10 from the field, 3 of 7 from 3-point range. Pierce had shot a combined 3 of 16 his previous two games, 1 of 12 from beyond the arc.

Josh Smith had a DNP next to his name in eight of the previous 10 games. With Jordan out, he played 20 minutes off the bench and scored nine points on 4 of 11 shooting. He also grabbed three rebounds, had one assist and made three steals.

– The Clippers had just eight total turnovers – seven individual, one team. The Heat had 24. Some of that was Miami’s own sloppiness, some of it was the solid defense now being played on a more consistent basis by the Clippers.