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The Clippers expanded their winning ways Tuesday, getting 24
points from Paul George and another 23 from Reggie Jackson in a
117-109 victory over the Portland Trail Blazers. Nicolas Batum
was right behind the leading scorers, hitting six 3-pointers
while scoring 22 points.
Los Angeles seems to be settling into a comfort zone without
Kawhi Leonard, who is out indefinitely following knee surgery in
the offseason. The playing-time chemistry experiment looked
bleak when the Clippers were 1-4 to open the season, but George
has settled into being a dependable leading man.
When the Clippers were struggling through five games, George was
inconsistent. He had a pair of 40-plus-point games, but he also
had a pair where he scored fewer than 15 points. During the
winning streak, he has not scored fewer than 20 in a game and
has averaged 25.8.
The Clippers have also shared the ball late. Over the last two
games, their top three scorers all were within two points of
each other. And that team-wide approach also has shown up on
defense, leading to four consecutive victories by at least an
eight-point margin.
"I mean the way we're moving the ball, we got 25 assists
(Tuesday) on 44 field goals, only eight turnovers," Batum said.
"... When we play on offense like that, we're moving the ball,
we're sharing the ball, we're a good team."
Said George: "So many guys are stepping up when we need them.
You never know who it is going to be."
The Heat will enter off a 120-117 overtime defeat to the Los
Angeles Lakers on Tuesday. They not only lost the game, but they
lost star Jimmy Butler after 12 minutes because of a sprained
right ankle. His status for Thursday's back-to-back remains in
the air.
Bam Adebayo scored 28 points and Tyler Herro had 27, but the
Heat missed five free throws and two 3-point attempts by Herro
in the final 50.9 seconds of overtime. Miami led 106-97 with
4:45 remaining in regulation before the Lakers rallied to tie
it.
"I was pretty pleased with how we were defending and the looks
down the stretch," Heat coach Eric Spoelstra said. "... For the
most part, in a really competitive fourth quarter, I thought we
did enough to put ourselves in position to win, we just couldn't
close it out."
The Heat will be just three days removed from an emotional game
against the Denver Nuggets, when a hard foul from Markieff
Morris led to a return shove from Denver's Nikola Jokic. Morris
was fined for the foul, and Butler was fined too for escalating
tensions.
The Clippers' Marcus Morris Sr. offered his support on social
media after the incident. While Marcus Morris is out of action
indefinitely with a knee injury, the brothers can at least catch
up in person Thursday.
The Heat are dealing with their own injury issues - including
Butler's ailment. Markieff Morris did not play Wednesday because
of a sore neck from the shove he received, while KZ Okpala
(ankle) was out. Adebayo (knee) and Herro (back) played through
their ailments.
--Field Level Media
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