Clippers 104 - Detroit 98 - After 13 Straight Losses to the Pistons

I missed the game of course, but there appears to be good news and bad news in the box score.

Good News:

They got a road win of course.  That's always good news.  When it comes against a struggling team missing three starters, maybe it's kind of expected, but with the Clippers, you almost have to expect the worst in that situation.  The fact that the win snapped a 13 game losing streak against the Pistons is especially nice.

They won a fourth quarter.  Trailing by one going into the fourth, they took the lead early, lost it briefly, but then took it back for the final six minutes.  They won the quarter 30 to 21.

Chris Kaman broke out of his shooting slump.  Maybe I should take credit for it, working my patented reverse mojo.  Mere hours after I wrote about his slump (4 for 27 in the prior game and a half) he blew up, shooting 11 for 13 against the Pistons.  He finished with a game high 26.

Baron Davis had his second consecutive 25 point game - and he did it on 9 shots.  Some players routinely put up numbers without putting up a lot of shot attempts.  Baron isn't one of them.  So to see him have a game where he's close to three points per shot attempt is unusual and very welcome.  11 for 11 from the line tends to help the True Shooting Percentage.

Al Thornton, like Kaman, bounced back from a nightmare game with a strong shooting performance.  He scored 12 points in the fourth quarter, which has of course been the nightmare quarter for the team this season.

Marcus Camby blocked six shots, helping contribute to Detroit's shooting woes on the evening.

Eric Gordon scored 14 points in 28 minutes.  He was 0 for 4 from the three point arc, but there's no reason to be concerned about that.  We know he can shoot - he may be a little rusty with the time off.  But he was getting points driving to the basket and getting to the line.  That's a welcome sight - and the three will fall.

Bad News:

19 offensive rebounds.  That's an astounding number.  Another astounding stat is that the Clippers shot almost 58%, while the Pistons shot under 40%.  So why was this a 3 point game in the final minute?  19 offensive rebounds, that's why.  The Pistons had 28 more shots than the Clippers did.  It's actually hard to fathom winning a game in which your opponent takes 28 more shots, but the Clippers did it.  So there's that.

Once again, the Clippers turned a role player into a star.  Jonas Jerebko, the first Swede in the NBA, scored 22 points.  His previous career high was 10.  He went 4 for 4 from three - he was 3 for 17 on the season coming into the game.  At least Citizen Marten is happy - his favorite team won, and his countryman had a monster game.