The Feed: Los Angeles Clippers vs. Portland Trail Blazers [11/08/12]

Recap:

The Los Angeles Clippers holds off the Portland Trail Blazers 103 to 90, after nearly blowing a 25 point lead they built in the first half. Chris Paul led the way with 21 points, 6 assists and DeAndre Jordan added another 21 (8 for 10 shooting) to go with his 8 rebounds.

After shooting only 35 percent (LA shot 58 percent) from the field in the first 2 quarters, the Blazers rallied a 18 to 4 run in the third. Nicholas Batum sparked the charge with 12 of his 23 points in the quarter, his defense on Chris Paul helped limit their opponent to only 17 points, while Portland went for 32 points on 71 percent shooting.

The Blazers managed to get as close as 4 points behind, but Jamal Crawford came off the bench with a 25 point performance that iced the game. Fatigue settled on the Portland starters in the fourth, with the lowest scoring bench in the league, Terry Stotts was forced to overplay them. Unfortunately the production failed to maintained. The Clippers closed the game with a 14 to 3 run that rendered the Blazer's comeback effort pointless.

Offensive End:

Los Angeles got whatever they wanted in this game. DeAndre Jordan looked great, using his length to score over LaMarcus Aldridge. As always, the Clippers go to the post,  ran Chris Paul pick and rolls that allows him to dissect the floor and utilized ball movement to take advantage of Blazer's rotations.

Portland plays an uptempo style, they space the floor very well but they weren't able to hit shots early and it buried them body-deep in the first half. LaMarcus Aldridge had a lot of opportunities, with DeAndre Jordan on him. The Clippers big man likes to stay in the paint to help, with Lillard's dribble penetration to kick the ball out, the All Star should have knocked the open jumpers down.

Defensive End:

Before they got lazy the Clippers played great defense, they completely stopped Portland in the paint, holding their foe to 30 points, to their 56. With their size, they like to pack the paint, so they are slower to get out to the shooters.

The Blazers only played defense in the third quarter. In the rest of the periods, their rotations were slow, and were just getting blown by every time.

Rookie Watch:

Damian Lillard didn't do bad against Chris Paul, scored 16 points and handed out 4 assists.

Meyer Leonard dunked a lot, got 8 points and 6 rebounds.

Highlight of the Night: Meyers Leonard might have read the instructions to get a NBA highlight.
Step 1: Find Ronny Turiaf.
Step 2: Dunk on him.