Clippers at Rockets
The Los Angeles Clippers won the opening game of the Western Conference
semifinals without Chris Paul and may again be without the standout
point guard when they visit the Houston Rockets on Wednesday. Paul
suffered a hamstring injury in Game 7 of the first-round series against
San Antonio and his status for Game 2 will be decided in the hours
leading up to game time.
Austin Rivers started in place of Paul and had 17 points in 28 minutes as Los Angeles registered a 117-101 win in the opener. Rockets star James Harden finished second in the MVP voting to Golden State’s Stephen Curry but his quiet 20-point performance was made worse by nine turnovers. Houston allowed 71 second-half points and committed 24 miscues and coach Kevin McHale was highly disturbed with the latter. “These are professional athletes and some of the turnovers we have were seventh and eighth grade,” McHale told reporters. “We just jumped in the air and with no one to throw it to, so we threw it in the air. We got to be better, that’s the bottom line.”
TV: 9:30 p.m. ET, TNT
ABOUT THE CLIPPERS: Power forward Blake Griffin is playing spectacular and had 26 points, 14 rebounds and 13 assists in the opener for his third triple-double of the postseason. “We’ve always had a lot of trust in Blake,” backup guard Jamal Crawford told reporters. “If we could draw anything from C.P. going down, it was that Blake had grown as a playmaker and a guy that we could obviously play through. He knows when to score, he knows when to set his teammates up and that’s why he’s one of the best players in the league.”
ABOUT THE ROCKETS: Harden had 12 assists but his off-night as a scorer to go along with the ball-handling miscues sabotaged Houston’s chances of winning the opener. “I’m the catalyst, especially on the offensive end, and I’ve got to do a better job,” Harden told reporters. “Nine turnovers against this team is not to going to cut it. I think they had maybe (34) points off our turnovers – that’s giving them easy points.” Center Dwight Howard, who had 22 points, 10 rebounds and five blocked shots, said the Rockets didn’t have their usual level of energy.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Griffin is averaging 24.4 points, 13.3 rebounds and 8.1 assists in the postseason.
2. Houston backups Josh Smith and Corey Brewer each were 3-of-12 from the field in Game 1.
3. Clippers SF Matt Barnes is averaging 18.5 points on 15-of-24 shooting over the past two contests.