Clippers pull away late, drop Sixers 127-91

Eight different Clipper registered at least one 3-pointer and turned a too-close-for-comfort game into a laugher. The Sixers played with a lot of heart and had the score as close as 67-64 in the third quarter. But the Clippers simply outclassed the young Philly squad down the stretch.

Chris Paul led the way for the Clippers with a near triple double despite playing only 30 minutes. He registered 24 points on 7-11 shooting with 12 assists and 8 rebounds. He had 2 steals and only one turnover.

The game looked lopsided from the outset. The home stars came out on fire, CP3, JJ Redick and Blake Griffin were perfect through much of the first quarter. As a team, the Clips were 5 for 11 from beyond the arc in the first. They went on to sink 15 for 33 total.

The home team continued its dominance into the second frame. It seemed as though the Clips were following up their Friday practice with a Saturday scrimmage. The lead stretched to 19 and it looked like things were about to get ugly.

But the Sixers started to show signs of life with Tony Wroten leading the charge. The team shot an unsustainable FG% of 50 en route to outscoring the Clips 32-28 in the second.

The close of the first half was pretty fun. The Sixers closed the gap to 6 but Paul followed up with a 3, Wroten answered  with a 3 of his own and then Paul came right back with an and-1. The lead was 9 going into halftime.

The Sixers came out swinging in the 3rd, they had the Clips clinging to a narrow 67-64 lead, but it just wasn't their night.

The Clippers came to life, bombing shots from all over the court. Even the bench looked great. In time with the Clippers making shots, the Sixers began to miss and the margin continued to grow. An 11-3 run by the Clippers invoked Lawler's Law with 7:12 remaining in the 4th quarter.

The human victory cigar, Ekpe Udoh, checked into the game with 5 minutes left and ended up scoring his first field goals in a Clipper uniform. The Sixers waived the white flag with 4:37 remaining by benching all their best players. Despite this obvious surrender, the Clips continued to pour it on with 3s from Farmar, Hawes and Cunningham. Much of the final margin was due to these garbage time antics.

The win is the 3rd in a row for the Clippers. Their next game is Monday against the Hawks, who just went into Portland to drop the Blazers. It will surely be bigger challenge than tonight so it's great many of the Clips starters were able to log minimal minutes. Paul played a game high 30, Griffin - 29, Redick - 27, Jordan - 26 and Barnes logged 22 minutes.

Random Thoughts

-Ralph Lawler and Mike Smith were joking about how they didn't know who any of the players on the Sixers were. It made me feel a bit better because I had that same feeling when I was writing the preview. I mean, I have no idea who Robert Covington is but he sure had himself one hell of a game.

-Tony Wroten seems to be putting it together. He is playing much better in the NBA than I thought he would based on watching him at Washington.

-I'm starting to get bothered by all these near triple-doubles. Maybe I'm getting selfish, but I would really like to see one hit here pretty soon. I swear, it is almost worse to see them get close and miss it than to not get close at all. Almost...

-Is it just me or are Reggie Bullock and Jared Cunningham kinda starting to look like they might be dependable rotation pieces in the near future?

-Don't forget to vote for your favorite Clippers to be in the All Star Game. Steph Curry and Kobe Bryant are the current leaders for the back court. You know we can't have that. Vote for CP3 here.