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 Instead, most of the pain Friday was felt by the Sacramento Kings.
Paul lit up Sacramento for a season-best 40 points, and the Clippers
bid Sleep Train Arena adieu in typical style with a 117-107 victory.
Los Angeles closed out their run at Sacramento's outgoing home with
six consecutive victories.
Newly acquired forward Jeff Green added 22 points for Los Angeles,
and the Clippers improved to 21-7 without injured forward Blake
Griffin. They also moved to 13-3 on the road since Christmas, the
best road mark in the NBA over that time.
They owed the latest victory to their eight-time All-Star. Paul
torched the Kings on 13-for-20 shooting and added 13 assists and
eight rebounds. Paul posted his fifth career 30-point game against
Sacramento and scored 13 of them during a 34-11 Los Angeles blitz to
close the third quarter.
He did it despite an undisclosed right arm injury the guard said he
suffered in Wednesday's loss at Denver. He also has suffered through
a sore left calf and bruised left thigh recently.
"Once you throw the ball up, everything else goes out the window,"
he said. "It's just play."
Paul assisted on three of Green's 3-pointers, two of them during a
20-0 Los Angeles run in the third quarter that was part of the
period-ending blitz.
"It was defense, straight defense," Paul said. "Me and (center
DeAndre Jordan) talked about it at halftime. We had to set the tone,
so I tried to start picking up Darren Collison earlier. ... They
started feeling us a bit more and that sort of fed our offense."
Guard J.J. Reddick scored six of his 16 points during that span as
the Clippers took Sacramento's 72-64 lead and turned into an 84-72
Los Angeles advantage.
The run seemed to shake Los Angeles out of its first-half cobwebs.
Sacramento knocked down 51 percent of its shots in the first half en
route to a 67-64 lead.
"I'm not sure we even had a deflection in the first half," Clippers
coach Doc Rivers said. "As much as anything, I thought (Paul) won
the game early for us, because early on, he was really the only guy
we had who was competing on a winning level. In the second half, we
had other guys, too."
Center DeMarcus Cousins scored 26 points, pulled 15 rebounds and
added nine assists for Sacramento. But the Kings (24-33) played
without starting guard and NBA assists leader Rajon Rondo and lost
their second straight following a three-game winning streak.
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"Typical Clippers game," Cousins said. "Typical Clippers game.
(They) manipulate the game. Manipulate the game."
Rondo sat out with pain in his right thumb that apparently increased
Wednesday, a day after his 18-assist effort in Sacramento's loss to
San Antonio. He is questionable to play in Sacramento's home game
against Oklahoma City on Monday.
The Kings led 72-64, when Reddick knocked down a jumper. Kings
forward Quincy Acy was hit with a technical foul on the next
possession, Paul knocked down the free throw and the Clippers were
off to the races.
"It's tough. You know he's going to figure it out," Curry said of
Paul. "We did a good job early, but you have to change your looks,
and we weren't able to do that."
Curry scored 19 points in 26 minutes for Sacramento, and made three
of four 4-pointers. Forward Rudy Gay added 18 points, and guard
Darren Collison, making a rare start, also scored 18 for Sacramento.
NOTES: Clippers F Paul Pierce missed the game because of an
undisclosed family matter. Pierce's status for the Clippers' home
game against Brooklyn on Monday is uncertain. ... Kings G Darren
Collison made his fifth start of the season in place of injured G
Rajon Rondo (thumb). Last season, Collison started all 45 games he
played before suffering a season-ending injury. ... F Quincy Acy,
coming off a 15-point night against San Antonio, has started all
four of Sacramento's games since the All-Star break. His presence
pushed rookie C Willie Cauley-Stein to the bench. Cauley-Stein,
fourth among NBA rookies in blocked shots, averaged 18.3 minutes in
the first three games since the switch.
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