In the latest reminder that the line between contender and pretender status is still awfully blurry in the Western Conference, the Los Angeles Clippers went into the Moda Center and came out with a 100-94 win that snapped the Portland Trail Blazers' four-game winning streak.
Before tipoff, all signs pointed to a Portland win.LaMarcus Aldridge loomed as a matchup nightmare, a walking amalgamation of basketball talent specifically designed to exploit the Clips' key weaknesses: lack of interior defense and front-line depth. Synergy Sports Tech used stats to illustrate just how much of a nightmare Aldridge was:He was probably the last guy L.A. wanted to see. And as expected, Aldridge got everything he wanted against the Clips, posting a game-high 37 points that exceeded the combined scoring output of Blake Griffin and DeAndre Jordan by two.
No combination of Clipper defenders could handle Aldridge, and when Spencer Hawes checked in off the bench, things got particularly ugly.
Fortunately for the clips, Portland's bench wasn't a factor outside of Meyers Leonard, who contributed 11 points and 10 rebounds. The Clippers reserves were collectively weak as well, but Jamal Crawford did what he does best: score, often and late.
His 25 points made up L.A.'s entire bench-scoring output, but his fourth-quarter heaves fell often enough to offset Damian Lillard's 12-point final stanza—a late surge absolutely everyone saw coming. Both ESPN.com's J.A. Adande and ESPN Insider Kevin Pelton joined the Lillard round-table discussion
Source http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2330476-la-clippers-trying-to-prove-contender-status-and-other-wednesday-nba-takeaways
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