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LOS ANGELES — A youngster successful the beforehand enactment mimicked Paul George precocious successful Tuesday’s 117-109 triumph implicit the Portland Trail Blazers, jumping retired of his courtside spot to flex his biceps backmost astatine the flexing All-Star, whose continued dense lifting helped the Clippers notch their 5th consecutive victory.
George had conscionable converted a handbasket and drawn a foul, portion of an 8-0 spurt precocious successful the 4th fourth that helped enactment the crippled retired of scope arsenic helium and friends kept Portland winless connected the roadworthy (Chauncey Billups’ squad is 5-6 wide and 0-5 arsenic visitors).
Fresh disconnected receiving Western Conference Player of the Week designation Monday, George led the Clippers (6-4) with 24 points, 9 rebounds and 7 assists earlier an appreciative assemblage of 14,131 astatine Staples Center. He changeable 10 of 24 from the field, astir each of them seemingly precocious grade of trouble shots.
Reggie Jackson added 23 points connected 10-for-20 shooting and six assists – and a Gatorade vessel ablution for George during his postgame interrogation connected TNT.
And erstwhile Trail Blazer Nicolas Batum came up with 22 large points – including 11 successful the 3rd quarter.
Off the bench, halfway Isaiah Hartenstein played 17 effectual minutes, directing postulation and finishing astatine the rim, helium finished with 14 points connected 6-for-7 shooting, 2 rebounds and 3 assists.
The Clippers finished 16 for 30 (53.3%) from heavy and constricted the Trail Blazers successful transition, allowing conscionable 5 fastbreak points to L.A.’s 14.
Damian Lillard finished with a game-high 27 points, but helium was conscionable 4 for 13 from 3-point range, arsenic Portland changeable conscionable 14 for 37 from down the arc.
A back-and-forth opening acceptable the tone, arsenic the teams traded the pb six times successful the archetypal 4th aft the Clippers jumped up 13-3.
L.A. led 56-55 astatine halftime erstwhile George had 14 points and Jackson had 13. Norman Powell led the Trail Blazers with 16 first-half points and Lillard had 11 going into the break.
The 3rd 4th featured different mates of pb changes – and a batch of Batum. The Clippers needed his 11 points (3 for 4 from 3-point range) successful the play to support their edge, tenuous arsenic it was, entering the 4th fourth leading, 83-79.
They got immoderate breathing country connected 3-pointers from Luke Kennard and George, which pushed the pb to 10. And Eric Bledsoe’s 2nd 3-pointer (notable due to the fact that it was the archetypal clip this play helium deed 2 successful 1 game) pushed the vantage to 99-88.
But Portland kept coming, closing it to 103-100 connected Jusuf Nurkic’s 3-pointer with 3:39 to play.
The Clippers responded with a bucket from Zubac and different Batum 3, aft which Robert Covington’s layup rolled disconnected the rim – spurring a foul by McCollum to halt the timepiece astatine the 1:42 mark.
More to travel connected this story.
— Bruce Ely (@bruceely) November 10, 2021
English (US) ·