Griffin’s Clippers hit Toronto to face Raps
Posted February 13, 2011 1:05 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The Los Angeles Clippers had a prime opportunity to gather some momentum following a rough start to their brutally long stretch of road games. Instead, they became the answer to a trivia question.
The Clippers, however, get another chance to take advantage of a woeful opponent when they face the Toronto Raptors on Sunday.
Los Angeles had lost the first three of its 11 straight road games before beating New York 116-108 on Wednesday night. The Clippers (20-33) seemed to have a good shot to build on that victory Friday night, facing a Cleveland team mired in a 26-game losing streak which matched the longest in major pro sports history.
The Cavaliers, though, finally ended their misery with a 126-119 overtime victory and dropped Los Angeles to 3-7 since it lost leading scorer Eric Gordon to a wrist injury. Gordon and center Chris Kaman (ankle) are not expected to return until after the All-Star break.
“Gotta give it up. They played well,” guard Baron Davis said. “They wanted to win, and they played like it. I’m not saying we didn’t. They made big plays at the end. We didn’t.”
The Clippers have the second-worst road record in the Western Conference (4-19), but they’re facing a team that has dropped 16 of 17 and 13 of 16 at home.
Toronto has won four straight over Los Angeles but will face rookie phenom Blake Griffin for the first time. The All-Star forward, averaging 22.8 points and 12.6 rebounds, posted his 38th double-double in 40 games with 32 points and 13 boards Friday.
Randy Foye has averaged 16.7 points starting the last 10 games in place of Gordon and has scored at least 23 in each of the past two. The former first-round pick has averaged 22.5 points in four career starts against Toronto (14-40).
Davis is averaging 20.6 points and 10.0 assists on the road trip, but he’s shot 28.3 percent in his past three games versus Toronto.
The Raptors, allowing a league-worst 48.5 percent shooting and 104.7 points per game, have let each of their first two opponents on a four-game homestand shoot better than 54.0 percent.
They rallied to tie Portland with 4:18 remaining Friday night as Jerryd Bayless scored all 18 of his points in the fourth quarter, but they couldn’t stop Trail Blazers star LaMarcus Aldridge (37 points) in a 102-96 defeat.
“In the last five minutes, they scored but we didn’t. Otherwise, we played a pretty good game,” center Andrea Bargnani said. “We just have to play better.”
Bargnani, who scored 29 points, is averaging 27.8 over the past four games. He averaged 20.0 points during last season’s sweep of the Clippers.
