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Monday, Dec. 13 10:30pm ET
Taylor scores season-high 26 points | |||||
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 GAME FLOW
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- After nine consecutive losses, the Los Angeles Clippers weren't too picky about the team they ended their slide against. The Vancouver Grizzlies, who began Monday night's game with the same 4-16 record as the Clippers, provided the perfect remedy for a losing streak. Maurice Taylor capitalized with a season-high 26 points in a 102-90 victory.
"We wanted this victory," teammate Troy Hudson said. "We wanted to end the nine-game losing streak and get over the hump. So we went out there with a lot of intensity from the start. We kept our composure in the second half and executed at both ends." Hudson had 18 points and 11 assists for the Clippers, who shot over 50 percent from the field for the first time this season and finished with a season-high 27 assists. But the Clippers paid a price, as guard Derek Anderson had to be helped off the court after spraining his left ankle with 4:51 to play. The victory was the Clippers' first since Nov. 23 at Staples Center, when they barely outscored a New York Knicks team playing without Patrick Ewing, Larry Johnson and Marcus Camby. "A win is a win. It doesn't matter if it's the Lakers or Vancouver," Tyrone Nesby said. "The coaches told us to go out there and play 'em as hard as we've been playing everybody else. We rotated real good, played hard defense and hit open shots." Shareef Abdur-Rahim had 24 points and 16 rebounds, and Michael Dickerson scored 21 points for the Grizzlies, who have lost 14 of their last 15 games and 32 of 33 on the road. The Grizzlies, who trailed by as many as 13 points in the second quarter, never got closer than four in the second half after Abdur-Rahim's layup narrowed the gap to 62-58 with nine minutes left in the third period. In their previous meeting on Nov. 14 in Vancouver, the Grizzlies trounced the Clippers 109-89 for their largest winning margin in the franchise's five-year history. But Taylor sprained a ligament in his left foot early in that game and missed the next seven. "It was very humiliating," Hudson said. "We went up there and didn't play with any enthusiasm. We just gave up once Maurice went down. But you can't do that as a team. You have to continue to play when guys get hurt. We could have folded tonight once D.A. got hurt, but I think we learned our lesson from the game in Vancouver. Someone had to step up." The Clippers made 27 of 45 shots in the first half en route to a 59-49 lead. Taylor led them in the half with 18 points. "I thought the game was lost in the first half," Vancouver coach Brian Hill said. "We were soft defensively and allowed them to shoot 60 percent from the floor. We did a horrible job with our pick-and-roll defense and they basically got all the open shots they wanted." Vancouver shaved an 11-point deficit to 37-32 on a pair of jumpers by Dickerson and Dennis Scott, followed by Dickerson's layup. But rookie Lamar Odom grabbed an offensive rebound after a missed jumper by Taylor, drove the left baseline and dunked over Bryant Reeves, restoring the Clippers' double-digit lead to 44-34 with 4:47 left in the half. "They were definitely hitting a lot of open shots, making nice moves and finishing plays," Abdur-Rahim said. "I think a lot of it had to do with us not coming out at the beginning of the game with the defensive intensity that we needed." Reeves, playing his second game after sitting out the previous seven with a sore right knee, had three points and four rebounds in 19 minutes.
Game notes | ALSO SEE NBA Scoreboard Vancouver Clubhouse LA Clippers Clubhouse RECAPS LA Clippers 102 Vancouver 90
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