The Los Angeles Clippers registered a stunning victory over the Portland Trail Blazers 103-90 in a thriller on Thursday night.
In the first quarter the Clippers were ahead of the Blazers and score was 29-22. In the second quarter they extended their lead further and at the end of the first two quarters they were leading by 21 points. The game was looking one sided.
When it seemed that the Clippers would win by a huge margin, suddenly the Blazers made a spectacular come back and to outscore the Clippers by 15 points. They showed an outstanding game to reduce the gap.
For the Clippers, Chris Paul and DeAndre Jordan added 21 points each. Jamal Crawford was the leading scorer with 25 points off the bench.
"We all knew what we were supposed to do. We came out a little flat defensively in the third quarter, so we all got on each other," The Associated Press quoted Jordan as saying. "We knew in the fourth quarter we had to come out and play."
Nicolas Batum was the top scorer for the Blazers with 23 points and nine rebounds. His three-pointer helped his team reduce the lead to 75-69 in the third quarter.
"We can't wait until we're down 20 points to say, 'Man, we've got to play now,'" Batum said.
It did not look like Blake Griffin's game was affected because of his injured right hand, even if he added only seven points and 10 rebounds.
"I wouldn't really say it's affecting my play. Once you're out there it's just a matter of playing," Griffin said. "It's gotten better each day so a few days off will be good for it but it's not something I'm worried about."
Rookie Damian Lillard appreciated his team members' never-give-up attitude and he was very impressed with the way they made a wonderful comeback in the third quarter of the game.
"We know when we play like that, with a lot of energy and when we're flying around, playing hard and moving the ball, we know that we can play with one of the best teams in the league," he said. "At the same time, we can't put ourselves in that hole, because we're not that level of team to be able to fight back every time."
The Blazers stunned the Clippers in the third quarter by shooting 71 percent from the field. The third quarter score was in the Blazers' favor 32-17. In the whole game the Clippers shot 53 percent, while the Blazers shot 43 percent.
"The first half skewed the whole thing," Blazers coach Terry Stotts said. "The shooting percentages in the first half were very disparate. The third quarter obviously made up for a lot of that in the final tally, but on the whole, we didn't offer much resistance in the first half."
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