Tag Archives: Darren Collison

Five things to take from Clippers’ 114-104 victory Monday night at Minnesota

Posted on by
Reply

– It was smart for the Clippers (53-22) to hold Blake Griffin out of this game. He is arguably the team’s best player – though fans of Chris Paul may debate that – and there was no use risking not having a healthy Griffin for the post-season, which is just around the corner.

– Big-time kudos to Jared Dudley, who started in place of Griffin and came through with 16 points, four rebounds and three assists. Dudley shot 6 of 10 from the field, 2 of 3 from 3-point range.

– Jamal Crawford, who had recently missed eight out of nine games, was back on the bench with what was described as a calf injury in an Associated Press story on the game. A strained left calf was why Crawford missed those aforementioned games before playing in five consecutive games ahead of Monday.

– DeAndre Jordan had a career-high 24 rebounds. Dude is just a beast. He also had 11 points and four blocks. However, showing he’s not perfect, Jordan also had five of the team’s 18 turnovers.

– Darren Collison had a terrific night shooting the ball. He was 9 of 17 from the field – 2 of 3 from 3-point range – and he made all eight of his free throws for a game-high 28 points. Picking up the offense like that when the team’s leading scorer (Griffin) is out is nothing but positive. Collison did have six turnovers to go with seven assists, but he also played 43 minutes. The points, minutes and turnovers were season-highs.

Next up, Wednesday at Phoenix.

Five things to take from Clippers’ 106-98 victory over Bucks on Monday

Posted on by
Reply

– The Clippers had 13 turnovers against the worst team in the league, leading to this reaction from coach Doc Rivers: “I wasn’t really happy with us offensively tonight. I didn’t think we moved the ball a lot. And then I thought we were careless with the ball at times as well. But you know, I’ll take the win.” To be fair, the Clippers average 13.9 turnovers per game, so they came in under that. But again, this was against a Bucks team that came in 44 games under .500 at 13-57.

– It was the second game in succession where the Clippers had trouble putting away a far inferior team. It was the same way Saturday when the Pistons hung around until they were defeated 112-103 after trailing by just a point at halftime. Perhaps this is not a good thing. Then again, Chris Paul realizes not every can be wonderful: “I mean, you always want to play well, but you want to win well. It’s not going to be pretty every night. Tonight it was, do whatever you have to do to win.”

– The victory was the Clippers’ 50th of the season. It’s the second consecutive year in which they have reached that plateau. But it won’t mean a thing if they don’t get a chance to play for that ring, said Matt Barnes: “It doesn’t mean anything if you don’t advance in the playoffs. This team has come a long way, but we’re not into moral victories, we’re not taking winning-streak victories, we want to advance and we know we have a good enough team to win a championship.”

– Darren Collison, in his second game back after missing back-to-back games with a stomach virus, had a terrific overall game. He scored 15 points, made 5 of 9 from the field, 3 of 4 from 3-point range. In addition, he had six assists and zero turnovers and even blocked a shot.

– As uncool as it might have been for the Clippers to have struggled so mightily to beat the lowly Bucks, it could have been much worse. Had they lost that game, and that was a real possibility as they led by just four points with 3:24 to play, that could have been disastrous heading out for a five-game road trip. The psyche is a delicate thing. At least they won.

Blake Griffin looking forward to some R & R ahead of next game Saturday

Posted on by
Reply

The Clippers deserve some rest and relaxation the way they have been playing of late. Ahead of Monday’s 10-point loss at Denver, they had won 11 consecutive games, a streak that started with a 125-117 victory at Oklahoma City on Feb. 23.

The Clippers have Tuesday and Wednesday completely off, return to practice Thursday morning but don’t play another game until Saturday when they host Detroit at 7:30 p.m. (on Prime Ticket)

Forward Blake Griffin, for one, is stoked about the break that comes with 13 games left in the regular season.

“I’m looking forward to (the time off), for sure,” Griffin told Clippers.com reporter Eric Patten. “Especially with all the guys we have banged up, getting guys healthy and getting D.C. back and hopefully Jamal and J.J. making improvements. The four days will definitely give us some much-needed rest.”

Clippers guards Darren Collision, Jamal Crawford and J.J. Redick are all injured or sick. Redick has missed about six weeks with a bulging disc in his back, Collison has missed the past two games with a stomach virus and Crawford has not played in eight of the past nine games because of a strained left calf.