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Clippers Run Away With 111-80 Win Vs. Knicks

Rowan Kavner

NEW YORK CITY – They wanted to win to gain position in the West.

They wanted to win to keep the winning streak alive.

They wanted to win for assistant coach Mike Woodson, who was let go by the Knicks after two and a half seasons as the team’s head coach and was coaching at Madison Square Garden for the first time since leaving.  

In the end, with Doc Rivers feeling “sick,”  the head coach sent Woodson to talk to the media postgame after the Clippers’ (47-25) fifth straight win in a 111-80 shellacking against the Knicks (14-58) at Madison Square Garden, where the Clippers had never won by more than 17 points ever before.

“This is not about me,” Woodson said. “This is about the Clippers and the fine team that Doc put together.  We are playing for something.”

That’s true. The Clippers could use as many wins as possible while they continue to crawl up the Western Conference standings, now just a game and a half behind the third-place Rockets.

But it also meant something for the Clippers to win for Woodson, which they did emphatically, recording their largest margin of victory on the road this season.

J.J. Redick recalled exactly how many wins Woodson’s Knicks recorded two seasons ago (54) in a playoff season and said Woodson was in the back of their minds, while Chris Paul said everyone on the Clippers is part of a family and Blake Griffin added that everyone sticks up for one another.

“We know how it ended here,” Griffin said. “We know it’s probably not exactly how everybody wanted it, but I wouldn’t say we have any bad (grudge) toward them. It’s just good to get wins like this to help support guys and also just because we need wins.”

The win could’ve been predicted halfway through the first quarter Wednesday night. That’s how quickly the Clippers took hold of a double-digit lead that ballooned to a 30-point advantage by halftime.

It’d be easy to point to the 56.4 percent shooting, the 31 assists and the highlight-reel plays that occurred seemingly every time the Clippers went down the court, with athletic dunk after athletic dunk.  Many of them came on lobs from Paul, who finished with 16 assists.

But Paul focused on another aspect of the Clippers’ game that made it all possible.

“I actually called everybody in the huddle and said, ‘What’s making this fun is that we’re getting stops,’” Paul said. “It’s not even about the dunks and the lobs – that’s all good and well…but the only way we can do that is we’re defending.”

The Clippers stole 12 passes and held the Knicks to 35.4 percent shooting on the night while getting 17 fast-break points. The Knicks didn’t have any fast-break points.

“Our pace was really good and part of that was because our defense was so good in the first half,” Redick said. “We limited them, and when we can get out after stops and play on the move, we’re pretty good.”

Redick said there’s times the Clippers can fall victim to their desire to entertain and put on a show, but Wednesday night he felt they cared much more about competing and showed signs of maturity.

All five Clippers starters scored in double figures, but none of them played more than 28 minutes. The starters enjoyed that rest, and the backups took over from there.

Austin Rivers led all scorers with 21 points, starting 9-of-9 from the floor before recording his only miss of the night. The reserves scored 44 points, as the Clippers were able to coast. Paul called it a luxury to get to sit late, but it was just as crucial to get the second team quality minutes that the reserves took advantage of.

“It’s very key,” Paul said. “Those guys are still getting used to one another. They key to that unit, Jamal Crawford, is not in right now. But we stay on those guys because we’re going to need them.”

Nate’s Knee

Nate Robinson missed Wednesday’s game against the Knicks with a sore left knee.

Robinson, who’s playing on his second 10-day contract, injured the knee after banging it in the Clippers’ last game Sunday against the Pelicans but doesn’t believe he’ll miss much time.

“It feels better every day,” Robinson said. “The first day it hurt so much I couldn't even walk on it really. Our doctors and trainers are great, they've been keeping an eye on it so we're going to take a couple games off and comeback. It not this trip, then back home when we play (Golden State).”

Robinson stayed in the game after hurting the knee but said when he returned to the bench he said his adrenaline decreased and the pain followed.

“It kept feeling funny,” Robinson said. “After the game, I iced it and it felt better and every day it's been gradually improving. I just want to take my time with this and get back to 100 percent.”

NOTES: The Clippers swept the season series with the Knicks and held them to 80 points or fewer in both matchups … Paul said it’s still a goal of his to play in all 82 games … DeAndre Jordan’s streak of games with at least 14 rebounds ended at 19 … Jordan came up with multiple highlight dunks among his 14 points, 10 rebounds and five blocks … The Clippers will take their five-game winning streak to Philadelphia on Friday …