Raptors whip Clippers; Pau leads Lakers
TORONTO—The way Blake Griffin saw it, a sloppy effort by the Los Angeles Clippers only made things easier for Rudy Gay and the fired-up Raptors.
Gay wowed a sellout crowd by scoring 20 points in his Toronto debut, leading the Raptors to a 98-73 rout of the short-handed Clippers on Friday night.
“The way we played had a big effect on their flow,” Griffin said. “Not to take anything away from them—they did a good job—but our defense was terrible.”
The Clippers were pretty terrible on offense, too, setting season lows for points and field goal percentage (34.7). Los Angeles’ previous low in points was 76 at Brooklyn on Nov. 23, while its previous low in field goal percentage was 36.6 on Jan. 19 in a home win over Washington.
“We didn’t execute very well, we didn’t shoot it very well,” coach Vinny Del Negro said. “We struggled in a lot of areas.”
In Minneapolis, Pau Gasol had 22 points and 12 rebounds in his return to the starting lineup and Kobe Bryant nearly had a triple-double in leading the Los Angeles Lakers to a 111-100 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Bryant had 17 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists and Steve Nash added 17 points and seven assists for the Lakers, who played without Dwight Howard due to a sore right shoulder. They have won four of their last five games and beat the Wolves for the 20th straight time, the longest active streak in the NBA.
Alexey Shved scored 18 points and Ricky Rubio had nine points and seven assists for the Timberwolves, who lost their sixth straight game. They trailed by 29 in the second quarter, but climbed within four in the fourth quarter.
Elsewhere in the NBA, it was Indiana 102, Miami 89; New York 96, Milwaukee 86; Boston 97, Orlando 84; Memphis 85, Washington 76; New Jersey 93, Chicago 89; Philadelphia 89, Sacramento 80; Detroit 117, Cleveland 99; Denver 113, New Orleans 98; Utah 86, Portland 77; Dallas 109, Phoenix 99
Amir Johnson had 19 points and matched his career high with 16 rebounds for the Raptors. DeMar DeRozan also scored 19 as Toronto welcomed Gay with a winning effort two days after the high-scoring forward was acquired from the Memphis Grizzlies in a three-team trade that included Detroit.
“It felt great to be accepted like I (was) today,” said Gay, who got a standing ovation before checking in for the first time. “It just makes you want to play hard.”
John Lucas scored 17 and Aaron Gray had seven points and 12 rebounds for the Raptors, who handed the Clippers their worst defeat of the season.
“Our guys came in locked and loaded,” Raptors coach Dwane Casey said.
Griffin had 17 points and nine rebounds for the Clippers, who were without point guard Chris Paul (bruised right kneecap) for the sixth straight game. Los Angeles forward Matt Barnes served a one-game suspension for striking Minnesota’s Greg Stiemsma on Wednesday. AP
