Clippers-Spurs Preview

By DAN PIERINGER
Posted Dec 27 2011 6:40PM

The new-look Los Angeles Clippers acknowledged after their season opener that it will take some time for them to develop chemistry and reach their potential. Their progress will be put to the test early with a trip to San Antonio, where the Clippers haven't won in nearly a decade.

Chris Paul and the Clippers look to build on their season-opening victory Wednesday night when they visit the Spurs, who have won 16 straight at home in the series.

Los Angeles expects to contend in the Western Conference with three new players in its starting lineup, including its entire backcourt. With Paul, Chauncey Billups and Caron Butler making their debuts with the team Sunday night, the Clippers struggled to execute early and trailed at halftime before pulling away for a 105-86 win at Golden State.

"A win like that, we'll take it, especially the first one," said Blake Griffin, who led Los Angeles with 22 points. "We've had practice for about a week now together. It's going to take some time."

Paul echoed Griffin's sentiments, but stressed that the Clippers aren't planning on a long development process.

"While we try to figure each other out and learn guys' hot spots and stuff like that, we want to win at the same time," said Paul, who had 20 points and nine assists in his highly anticipated Clippers debut.

Paul was especially concerned about his team's rebounding after the Warriors grabbed 17 offensive boards and outrebounded the Clippers 48-43 overall.

"I think the biggest thing that killed us was our rebounding," Paul said. "Our rebounding was horrendous. Our defense wasn't as nice as we'd have liked it to be. We were good in spurts."

The Clippers haven't had many good spurts against the Spurs lately, having lost 46 of 51 meetings since Dec. 10, 1997. Los Angeles has dropped 16 straight in San Antonio by an average of 14.3 points, last winning there Jan. 31, 2002.

The Clippers, however, won the last meeting 90-85 at home Dec. 1, 2010, snapping an 18-game overall losing streak in the series behind Griffin's 31 points and 13 rebounds. Griffin averaged 14.0 points in two losses to the Spurs last season.

San Antonio beat Memphis 95-82 in its season opener Monday night, defeating the team that upset the top-seeded Spurs in the first round of the playoffs last spring.

"We played a very good defensive game," said coach Gregg Popovich, whose team forced 24 turnovers. "Very active, we crowded things, got back in transition, got our hands on a lot of balls. We did a good job of that and it fueled the break back the other way."

While the Clippers weren't all on the same page in their opener, Popovich was impressed with his veteran team's performance after a long offseason and an abbreviated training camp due to the lockout.

"They executed much better than I expected. They looked real sharp," he said.

Manu Ginobili, who led the Spurs with 24 points against the Grizzlies, has been held to 13.5 per game in his last six against the Clippers.

While with the Hornets, Paul lost 11 of 13 games in San Antonio, including playoffs. However, he has averaged 26.3 points while shooting 56.2 percent from the field and 59.2 percent (13 for 22) from 3-point range in his last eight visits.

Ginobili scores 24 as Spurs top Clippers 115-90

Posted Dec 29 2011 12:27AM

SAN ANTONIO (AP) The Los Angeles Clippers might be the talk of the Western Conference right now, but the San Antonio Spurs showed they still have plenty of life left.

Manu Ginobili scored 24 points and DeJuan Blair added 20 to lead the Spurs to a 115-90 win over the Clippers on Wednesday night.

Blake Griffin scored 28 points for the Clippers, while Chris Paul was held to 3-of-10 shooting and finished with 10 points.

Richard Jefferson added 19 points on 8-of-9 shooting for the Spurs, who have won 17 straight home games against the Clippers, a streak that dates to Jan. 31, 2002. Tony Parker scored 14 points, James Anderson 12 and Tim Duncan 10.

The Spurs hit 45 of 80 shots from the field while limiting the Clippers to 29-of-74 shooting. San Antonio led by only four points at halftime but outscored Los Angeles 38-17 in the third quarter to take control.

"Our defense in the second half was great," Ginobili said. "They couldn't get lobs. They scored under 40 in the second half. We were pretty good on defense. We moved the ball, and everybody scored."

San Antonio outscored Los Angeles 57-36 in the second half.

"They tore us apart in that third quarter," Griffin said. "Our defense needs to be better, and it can get better. The good thing about the mistakes out there is that they are easily correctable."

While Blair didn't limit Griffin's scoring, he was able to do enough offensively to nearly offset him.

"I try to read them," Blair said. "They're very athletic. They jump high. I jump a little bit, but I'm undersized, so I just try to read them. Just look for schemes to get around the taller defenders. I watch a lot of Charles Barkley and Karl Malone, try to get a low shot. But I'm doing great with what I'm doing."

The Clippers weren't able to get closer than 19 in the fourth quarter. After DeAndre Jordan's free throw made it 98-79, Ginobili hit a 3-pointer then found Blair for a short jumper to put the Spurs up 103-79.

"They're dunkers," Blair said while laughing when asked about the Clippers being called Lob City. "But, yeah, not tonight.

The Spurs hit 16 of 21 shots in the third, with Parker scoring 10 on 4-of-4 shooting from the field and 2 of 2 from the free throw line. Anderson converted a three-point play with 0.3 seconds left in the quarter to give San Antonio its biggest lead of the game at that point - 96-71.

"We were down four, and I look up to see we are down 68-58 at one point," Paul said. "We are going to practice tomorrow and figure out what we did right and figure out what we did wrong. First things first, we need to start with me."

The Spurs led 58-54 at halftime behind 16 points from Ginobili, who hit 4 of 6 attempts from 3-point range in the half.

Blair added 12 points on 6-of-8 shooting and Jefferson had 10, including a pair of 3-pointers. Griffin had 16 points in the first two quarters and scored all but four of those points on either layups or dunks.

San Antonio led by as many as 15 points in the first half, but the Clippers went on a 16-4 run and tied the game 52-all on Griffin's dunk with 47 seconds left in the half.

The Spurs led 26-19 entering the second quarter after holding the Clippers to 8-of-22 shooting in the first. The Clippers jumped out to a 5-0 lead, but Ginobili responded by scoring the next nine points. Ginobili sandwiched two 3-pointers around three free throws after he was fouled by Chauncey Billups on a 3-pointer.

I'm kind of surprised," Ginobili said of the team's 2-0 start. "I didn't think that the team was ready to have two games like this -- to be so solid defensively. We're looking sharp, but I don't want to get too confident. I don't think it's fair or it's true. We still have a long way to go. It just so happened we played two very good games."

Notes: Jordan hit 4 of 6 free throws. He went 4 of 12 in the opener against Golden State. ... Since Dec. 10, 1997, the Spurs have won 47 of 52 against the Clippers. ... The Spurs are off to a 2-0 start for the first time since 2008. ... The big win allowed the Spurs to rest several key players. Duncan played 26 minutes, while Ginobili and Parker played only 27. ... Caron Butler and Mo Williams each had 12 points for the Clippers. Billups had 11 . Ginobili hit 5 of 8 3-pointers and 7 of 7 free throws.

Notebook: Spurs 115, Clippers 90

By Tim Price, for NBA.com
Posted Thursday December 29, 2011 1:34AM

THE FACTS: After shooting 39.8 percent from the floor in the season-opening victory over Memphis, the San Antonio Spurs used a 56-percent shooting night to down the Los Angeles Clippers 115-90 on Wednesday at AT&T Center. While L.A.'s Blake Griffin scored 28 points, all five Spurs starters scored in double figures. Manu Ginobili scored 24, including a 5-for-8 night shooting from 3-point range.

QUOTABLE: "The shots went in tonight. Some nights they don't drop, and that's why we try to depend on defense to get us through those nights. Again, tonight the best part of our game was defense, just like Game 1."
-- Spurs coach Gregg Popovich

THE STAT: San Antonio shot 45-for-80 from the floor, 10-for-19 from 3-point territory and was a perfect 15-for-15 from the foul line. The Spurs also had no trouble converting in transition. They outscored Los Angeles 20-14 on the fastbreak while converting eight of 10 opportunities.

TURNING POINT: The Spurs used the opening 5 1/2 minutes of the second half to go on a 17-6 run and take a 75-60 lead. San Antonio had earlier led by 15 in the first half, but the Clippers erased all of that before settling for a four-point deficit at halftime. The Spurs missed only five of their 21 third-quarter shots, outscored Los Angeles 38-17 and took a 25-point advantage into the final quarter.

QUOTABLE II: "They pretty much got what they wanted. We gotta realize the key to this season is going to be on the defensive end. We were taking the ball out of the net every time down. They were scoring at will."
-- Clippers point guard Chris Paul

HOT: Richard Jefferson was 8-for-9 from the floor and is shooting 65 percent through the opening two games. He was 3-for-4 from 3-point range and had 19 points in 27 minutes.

NOT: Paul gave his new Clippers teammates nine assists, but he shot 3-for-10 from the floor.

FANTASY SPOTLIGHT: Griffin fell one short of a double-double by adding nine rebounds to his 28 points.

GOOD MOVE: The Spurs already have incorporated a young corps into a steady rotation with rookie swingman Kawhi Leonard and second-year players Tiago Splitter and James Anderson filling in and playing on the floor together. The trio combined for 18 points on 7-for-14 shooting and 14 rebounds, and Matt Bonner also added a pair of 3-pointers for six points. And the Spurs will try to fit in another second-year player, Gary Neal, once he returns from appendectomy surgery next week. Neal averaged almost 10 points in his reserve role last season.

BAD MOVE: It was inevitable that the Spurs' reserves would not be able to keep enough of a lead for Popovich to be comfortable enough to keep the veterans Tim Duncan, Ginobili and Tony Parker on the bench after the team entered the fourth quarter with a 25-point lead. It would have been useful since the Spurs have to complete a back-to-back on the schedule with a game Thursday at Houston. Once it got to 12 points with eight minutes left, Duncan and Ginobili re-entered while Parker sat the rest of the game. Still, neither Duncan nor Ginobili had to play more than four minutes of the fourth.

ROOKIE WATCH: Leonard had another strong rebounding night for the Spurs with eight in 20 minutes (he had four offensive rebounds in the season-opener). Clippers rookies Travis Leslie and Trey Thompkins combined for eight minutes during garbage time late in the game.

NOTABLE: The Clippers have lost 17 straight in San Antonio dating back to January 2002. ... In games played against the Spurs in San Antonio with Duncan on the court, the Clippers are 1-27, losing by an average of 15 points in those games. Paul has lost 12 of 14 games in San Antonio during his career.

UP NEXT: For the Clippers, Friday vs. Chicago, Sunday vs. Portland, Wednesday @ Houston. For the Spurs, Thursday @ Houston, Saturday vs. Utah, Monday @ Minnesota.

• Clippers: --
• Spurs: Neal

• Clippers: --
• Spurs: --

• Lead Changes: 1
• Times Tied: 2

• Arena: AT&T Center, San Antonio, TX
• Officials: #55 Bill Kennedy, #54 Nick Buchert, #71 Rodney Mott
• Attendance: 18581
• Duration: 2:14