Thunder-Clippers Preview

By CHRIS ALTRUDA
Posted Jan 30 2012 1:18AM

Almost everything has gone right for the Oklahoma City Thunder as they have sprinted to the league's best record. They look to continue the strong play as their three-game road trip continues Monday night against the Los Angeles Clippers at Staples Center.

Oklahoma City (16-3) has won four straight overall and enters this game 8-2 on the road following its 120-109 victory at Golden State on Friday night. Kevin Durant scored a season-high 37 points while pulling down 14 rebounds, and point guard Russell Westbrook added 28 points, 11 assists, seven steals and six boards as the Thunder rolled up a 58-28 advantage in points in the paint and a 32-15 edge in free throws made.

"If we play the right way and play team basketball, I don't think there are too many teams that can beat us," Westbrook said.

Though it was one of Westbrook's best all-around games this season, he also matched a season high with seven turnovers - something he's done five times. The Thunder are one of the league's sloppiest teams, averaging 16.8 turnovers, but coach Scott Brooks appears willing to overlook that number as his club continues to find ways to win.

"We have good players, good players that want to be coached that have a high will to win," he said during practice Sunday. "They're competitive in practices and every trip down the court. We're just trying to strive to play with better execution. We're an aggressive team... we overcome offensive rebounds, turnovers, we somehow overcome that with the desire to win and keep making players and never giving up in a game."

Those turnovers may be more costly against the likes of Chris Paul, who has helped turn the perennially moribund Clippers (11-6) into viable playoff contenders in the always challenging Western Conference. While playing for the New Orleans Hornets last year, Paul averaged 18.5 points and 8.8 assists in four games against the Thunder, totaling 35 assists and 15 steals with only 10 turnovers.

Westbrook did average 20.5 points and 9.8 assists in the head-to-head matchups with Paul, but committed 24 turnovers.

"He's clever, tough, he's a coach on the floor," Brooks said of Paul. "He makes Blake (Griffin) better because he finds him in the right spots. It's a perfect combination. He gets to a height NBA teams have never seen before. We can't give a team its strength and that's one of their strengths."

Paul and Griffin did their jobs Sunday night at Denver, combining for 42 points, but backcourt running mate Chauncey Billups stole the show with six 3-pointers and 32 points in the Clippers' 109-105 victory. Billups, still revered in Denver for helping turn around the Nuggets, also drew a key offensive foul that preserved the win for Los Angeles.

"Chauncey's like me. It doesn't matter where you play, you want to win," Paul said. "You couldn't care less if you're at home or you're a thousand miles away from home, you just want to win."

Billups averaged 23.0 points in two games against Oklahoma City in 2010-11, shooting 17 of 27 (63.0 percent). Griffin had double-doubles in three of the Clippers' four games versus the Thunder, averaging 26.8 points and 11.8 rebounds.

Starting Thunder guard Thabo Sefolosha, who sat out the second half of Saturday's victory with a sore right foot, is questionable for this game.

The home team won each of the four games in last season's series, with the Thunder shooting 20.0 percent (8 for 40) from 3-point range and 39.5 percent overall in two defeats at Staples Center.

Paul leads Clippers past NBA-leading Thunder

By BETH HARRIS
Posted Jan 31 2012 2:42AM

LOS ANGELES (AP) Blake Griffin's jaw-dropping one-handed jam over Kendrick Perkins sent Los Angeles Clippers fans into a frenzy, fired up his teammates, lit up the Twitterverse and burned the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Griffin had 22 points to go with Chris Paul's 26 points and 14 assists in a 112-100 victory Monday night that snapped the Thunder's four-game winning streak in a matchup of division leaders.

Griffin downplayed his monster move after the game, a sly smile only briefly breaking his serious expression.

"CP commands so much attention out there. He came off the pick-and-roll and he hit me in stride," Griffin said.

Paul added: "I told Blake after the game, `Thanks for letting me be part of that."'

DeAndre Jordan grabbed Griffin from behind in a celebratory bear hug as the basket got replayed over and over in the third quarter.

Jordan, who had 11 points and 11 rebounds, couldn't help himself.

"I was shocked. I didn't know what to do, so I just grabbed him. I hit him kind of hard," he said. "I'm going to go home and watch it again. It's probably going to be the screensaver on my phone."

Griffin said he knew he'd made an impression judging by the crowd's raucous response. Then he felt Jordan behind him.

"He armlocked me," Griffin said. "I couldn't breathe."

The reaction on Twitter came fast and furious.

Arizona Cardinals wide receiver Larry Fitzgerald tweeted: "Blake Griffin just made one of the top dunks of the season. Maybe even his career. (hashtag) Beast."

Tracy McGrady of the Atlanta Hawks weighed in with "yo, crazy crazy dunk by the dude Blake Griffin."

Even Shaquille O'Neal's ex-wife was impressed.

Shaunie O'Neal tweeted: "OMG!!! Did y'all just see Blake Griffin dunk!!!!! Daaayyyummm!"

Paul had 26 points and 14 assists, Caron Butler also had 22 points, Chauncey Billups scored 13 and Mo Williams 12 as the Pacific-leading Clippers dunked with high-flying abandon against the team with the NBA's best record at 16-4. They won their third in a row to follow up a 109-105 victory at Denver a night earlier that began a stretch of five games in seven nights.

"We're not going to read too much into it," Paul said of the back-to-back wins. "It let us know what we're capable of. We can explode offensively."

Kevin Durant had 36 points and 13 rebounds, and Russell Westbrook added 31 for the Northwest-leading Thunder, whose league-best road record dropped to 8-3. They had won 11 of their previous 12.

"Chris Paul was running around, getting what he wanted to get on the floor and making passes to guys for wide-open dunks and 3s," Durant said. "It's tough to stop."

Griffin's monster mash had everyone talking and tweeting, but the Clippers put together a stunning sequence going into halftime.

They shocked the Thunder with four consecutive 3-pointers in less than a minute to lead 64-46. The flurry by Williams (two), Butler (one) and Billups (one) stopped the Thunder's 11-2 run that had drawn them within six points.

"I told Mo that might have been the greatest exchange I have been part of since I've been in the NBA," Paul said. "That got the crowd into it. Four 3s in under a minute is unbelievable."

Jordan said: "We were just hot. It really didn't look like it was real. We were on a high, but we knew we had to come out in the third and knock them out flat."

The Thunder bumbled their way into the half, with Westbrook and Durant combining on three straight turnovers that led to the Clippers' long-range fireworks. Williams and Butler had two steals in the run.

"That doesn't happen, and it probably won't happen again the rest of the year, that a team will make that many 3s in a minute," Thunder coach Scott Brooks said. "But they made the shots. They started the game with a lot of urgency and they had us back on our heels."

Los Angeles shot 71 percent from long range in a half that also featured a series of huge dunks by Jordan, Griffin, Durant and Westbrook, although both teams missed their share of dunks, too.

Daequan Cook was the only other Oklahoma City player in double figures with 12 points. Durant and Westbrook scored all but two of the Thunder's 25 points in the third quarter, which the Clippers ended on a 3-pointer by Paul to lead 90-70.

Durant and Westbrook began the fourth on the bench, although they both stood up when Cook hit his second 3-pointer of the period to get the Thunder to 95-81. Griffin then scored five in a row, capped by a two-handed jam that extended the Clippers' lead to 100-81.

The Thunder outscored Los Angeles 30-22 in the fourth, but never made a big run to get close.

The Clippers made 13 3-pointers - just off their season high of 14 against Denver on Sunday.

They made 10 3s in the first half, led by four from Butler, who connected from his favorite spot in the left corner.

The Thunder's only lead was four points to start the game.

Notes: Butler reached the 10,000-point mark on his third 3-pointer in the first quarter. ... Durant and Westbrook have scored at least 25 points each 37 times in their four seasons together. ... The Clippers improved to 10-2 at home. ... It was the Clippers' 12th consecutive sellout this season and 24th in a row overall dating to last season. The crowd of 19,404 included Larry King and Los Angeles Angels pitcher Dan Haren.

Notebook: Clippers 112, Thunder 100

By Dan Arritt, for NBA.com
Posted Tuesday January 31, 2012 2:23AM

THE FACTS: The Clippers played their most entertaining game of the season against a team with the league's best record, burying rapid-fire 3-pointers, delivering pinpoint passes and thrilling the sold-out crowd with perhaps the most impressive slam dunk of the year, paving the way for a 112-100 victory Monday night against the Thunder at Staples Center.

QUOTABLE: "They are the best team we've played all year. They have everything, a talented team, their bench is really good and they played well."
-- Thunder head coach Scott Brooks.

THE STAT: The Thunder had not allowed an opponent to shoot 50 percent or better from the field this season and came in tied with the league's second-lowest field-goal percentage by the opposition (41.8 percent), but the Clippers were much better than that, shooting 45-for-80 from the floor (56.3 percent), including 13-for-25 from 3-point range (52 percent).

TURNING POINT: Trailing by as many as 16 points in the second quarter, Oklahoma City made a run, cutting the deficit to six with 1:35 left in the half. That's when the Clippers exploded for four consecutive unanswered 3-point baskets over a 51-second stretch, two by Mo Williams and one each by Caron Butler and Chauncey Billups, pushing the lead back to 18 at the half.

HOT: The Clippers have led after the opening quarter in 13 of 18 games this season and Monday was no exception. Butler has been a big reason for L.A.'s fast starts lately. Against the Thunder, he scored 11 of his season-high 22 points in the opening quarter, helping the Clippers to a 36-25 lead. In the nine games Butler has played since a victory against the Lakers on Jan. 14, he has scored 65 of his 128 points in the first 12 minutes. His 11-point opening quarter also made him the 47th active NBA player to reach 10,000 points. Somewhat less monumental, he also surpassed the 20-point barrier for the first time this season after getting stuck on that number in four previous games.

NOT: Thunder guard James Harden, who came into the game as the league's highest-scoring reserve at 16.9 points, was placed in the starting lineup for just the second time this season after a sore right foot sidelined Thabo Sefolosha. Harden looked like a fish out of water, missing his first six field-goal attempts before finishing 2-for-10 with seven points.

GOOD MOVE: Move over Timofey Mozgov, a new euphemism could take over the NBA this week. Clippers forward Blake Griffin unleashed a dunk more powerful and more spectacular than the one he put down on Mozgov last season, one that coined the term, 'Mozgov'd' to describe a player on the receiving end of a ferocious dunk. Clippers point guard Chris Paul set up the play, driving into the lane and dishing to Griffin on the side of the basket. Oklahoma City center Kendrick Perkins was slow to rotate and, by the time he moved into position, Griffin was already elevating. Still more than an arm's reach from the rim at the apex of his leap, and with the top of his head even with the rim, Griffin forcefully heaved the ball through the basket to provide the Clippers with their biggest lead of the game, 73-51. The dunk brought the sold-out Staples Center crowd into a frenzy, resulted in at leas a half dozen replays on the big screen and earned tweets of recognition from the sporting world, including LeBron James, Matt Kemp, Bubba Watson, David Lee, Terrell Owens and Larry Fitzgerald. Oh, by the way, Griffin also finished with 22 points.

QUOTABLE II: "It's the timing of when I got the pass and the late rotation. If all that comes together at the right time, then those things happen. It's not like I caught the ball and thought, 'OK, let's go make something happen.' It just came together and, fortunately, we got it."
-- Griffin on his dunk.

BAD MOVE: Clippers small forward Ryan Gomes slid even further down the depth chart Monday. He did not appear in a game for the first time this season. He played just four minutes Sunday night in Denver. Even when both sides pulled their starters with less than two minutes to play, Gomes and Brian Cook remained on the bench, while seldom-used big men Trey Thompkins and Solomon Jones entered the game.

NOTABLE: Kevin Durant (36) and Russell Westbrook (31) combined for 67 percent of Oklahoma City's offense. The Thunder dropped to 8-2 when they each score at least 20 points in a game. By contrast, the Clippers had six players in double figures for the first time this season ... The Thunder allowed season-high point totals for the first quarter (36), the first half (64) and the game ... Including Monday's game in Denver, the Clippers are 27-for-55 from 3-point range ... Clippers guard Eric Bledsoe, who underwent offseason knee surgery, made his first appearance of the season with 1:19 remaining.

UP NEXT: For the Clippers, Wednesday @ Utah, Thursday vs. Denver, Saturday @ Washington. For the Thunder, Thursday @ Dallas, Friday vs. Portland, Monday vs. Houston.

• Thunder: Maynor, Reid
• Clippers: Leslie

• Thunder: Ibaka, Perkins
• Clippers: Evans

• Lead Changes: 3
• Times Tied: 0

• Arena: Staples Center, Los Angeles, CA
• Officials: #49 Tom Washington, #45 Brian Forte, #35 Kane Fitzgerald
• Attendance: 19404
• Duration: 2:17