The Los Angeles Clippers exorcised the demons of nine straight years of losses, of 22 years of futility, when they finally got a win over the Utah Jazz in Salt Lake City tonight.
Citizen johnnyoc21, now on a roll with big wins, will be along with the full recap soon, but I feel compelled to toss out a few key items from the win.
The Clippers won:
- Without Caron Butler, who sat out with a sore back.
- Without a small forward to speak of, as Ryan Gomes scored zero point and grabbed zero rebounds in 21 minutes. (What the hell happened to this guy? He was never this bad.)
- Without making three pointers. After raining threes on the Nuggets and Thunder, making those wins seem perhaps a little flukey, the Clippers were 5 for 22 tonight. Chauncey Billups was 0 for 5 and Mo Williams was 2 for 8, on the shots they've been making consistently.
- By executing down the stretch. Of course a team with Chris Paul will have a tendency to do that.
- By making their free throws. This is huge news of course, for one of the worst free throw shooting teams in the league. They did it by getting the ball into the hands of their shooters, but then those guys made the shots. The Clippers were 10 for 11 in the crucial fourth quarter, with the lone miss coming from Chris Paul early.
This win is big. This team is real.