Giannis Antetokounmpo and Khris Middleton had 16 points apiece, and the Bucks hung on for a 97-96 victory against the Clippers on Wednesday night at Staples Center.
DeAndre Jordan had 22 points and 17 rebounds, and Blake Griffin added 18, but missed a shot at buzzer that would have won the game. Griffin drove the lane and put up a shot that just rolled off the rim.
The Bucks led by seven with less than three minutes to play, but Jordan scored to bring the Clippers within a point. Then with 5.1 seconds left, LA called timeout and ran a play for Griffin moments later.
“It was a decent look,” Griffin said. “Wish we had two more seconds to let it develop.”
It was an off-night for Chris Paul, who shot just 2-10 from the field, while scoring six points and turning it over six times.
Milwaukee scored 30 points in the fourth quarter, giving the Clippers their second consecutive loss.
The Clippers are just 5-6 in their last 11 games, but head Coach Doc Rivers isn’t too worried. “It’s just a point in the season. Cleveland’s lost four of five, but if won then it’s a different (reaction). Maybe because they won a world championship. I have a lot of confidence in where we’re headed,” he said.
The Clippers will travel to Denver tomorrow night to take on the Nuggets. They plan on leaving Griffin and Jordan home to rest.
For the 2nd night in a row, the Kings were dealt another devastating blow to their playoff hopes. This time, a 3-2 loss to Arizona in shootout at Staples Center. The shootout took 11 rounds, but the Coyotes prevailed on a goal by Anthony DeAngelo.
Even though the Kings got 1 point in the standings, it’s not nearly enough with just 13 games left in the season, and 4 points out of a playoff spot. LA would need to win 10 of their final 13 games, and that’s if St. Louis or Edmonton play .500 hockey the rest of the way.
The Kings actually had the lead twice in this one. After a scoreless 1st period, Tyler Toffoli scored his 1st of two goals on the night at the 5:03 mark of the 2nd period. The Coyotes would tie things up in the 3rd period on Max Domi’s 8th goal of the season. It looked like the Kings we’re going to come away with 2 points when Toffoli struck again on the power play with 1:36 left. His 14th of the season. However, the Coyotes would answer. Domi would take advantage of a broken play in front of Kings goalie Ben Bishop, to tie the game with 45 seconds left.
In overtime, both teams had their chances, but Bishop and Coyotes goalie Louis Domingue made some big saves. Arizona even had a 4-on-3 power play in the final seconds of OT, but the Kings managed to get the game to a shootout.
That set the stage for the drama in shootout. Jeff Carter got things started off nicely for the Kings with a goal on a beautiful wrist shot that beat Domingue. Brandon Perlini answered for the Coyotes with a goal of his own. 10 rounds later, Bishop and Domingue continued to make save after save, until DeAngelo won it for Arizona in the 11th round.
Bishop made 30 saves and played a strong game, but he’s still winless since being traded to the Kings. Once again, the LA dominated on the stat sheet, but not on the scoresheet. The Kings outshot the Coyotes 46-32, and dominated the faceoff circle 49-29.
Well at least there’s good news for Bob Miller. The Kings last two games of the season probably won’t be stressful when he’s calling the final two games of his career, because the games will likely be meaningless. After the Kings lost 3-1 to the Blues on Monday at Staples Center, their playoff hopes are fading fast.
Magnus Paajarvi scored a power-play goal, and Jake Allen made 38 big saves as the Blues extended their lead over the Kings to 5 points for the final playoff spot in the West. There are 14 games left to play, and that means that even if the Blues win half of their remaining games, the Kings would have to win 10 of their final 14 just to pass them in the standings. LA hasn’t won 10 of 14 games during this entire season.
The game was scoreless after the 1st period, in a very cautious twenty minutes from both teams. Then in the 2nd, David Perron dug the puck out from underneath Jonathan Quick, and pushed the puck into the net after the Kings goaltender made the initial save.
The Blues made it 2-0 just 1:10 into the 3rd period, when Paajarvi deflected in a shot from Patrick Berglund, after Quick once again made the initial save on the play. It was a power play goal for St. Louis, which was just the 4th time the Kings have given up a power play goal in the last 55 penalty-kill opportunities.
Dustin Brown got the Kings on the board with just over 3 minutes left, putting home a rebound after a big scramble of bodies in front of the Blues net.
However, the Kings would get no closer. Jake Allen continued to respond with big save after big save, and Alexander Steen closed the scoring with an empty-netter. So how do the Kings approach the next 14 games?
“Just not pay attention to standings, not pay attention to what other the other teams did. And just worry about us and win every single game for the rest of the season,” defenseman Drew Doughty said.
The Kings face another must win game on Tuesday night against Phoenix at Staples Center. LA is 5-5-2 in back-to-back games this season.
The Lakers shuffled their starting lineup on Monday against the Nuggets, but it didn’t matter. Denver dominated LA 129-101, despite moving D’Angelo Russell to the bench and starting Jordan Clarkson in his place.
Will Barton and Jamal Murray scored 22 points apiece. Danilo Gallinari and Nikola Jokic each added 18 points for the Nuggets, who now have a 2 game lead over Portland for the final playoff spot in the West with 15 games remaining.
Ivica Zubac was the lone bright spot for LA, scoring a career-high 25 points to go along with 11 rebounds. Jordan Clakrson had 19, and Brandon Ingram scored 14, as the Lakers lost for the 10th time in the last 11 games.
Russell scored 10 points and had 3 assist on 4-14 shooting in 27 minutes. However, Walton said the move was made more for evaluation purposes. “D’Angelo has been playing great when you look at his numbers, but we’re 1-7 after the break and I want to see some other looks,” coach Luke Walton said before the game.
The Lakers trailed by as many as 32 points early on in the 3rd quarter. They managed to cut the lead to 93-76 after 3 quarters, but couldn’t get much closer. However, Denver went on an 11-0 run in the 4th to build a 28 point lead.
With 15 games left, the Lakers have the 2nd worst record in the league. They’ll take on the Rockets on Wednesday in Houston.
“We’re gonna continue to look for opportunities to look at new things so we can gain as much information as possible going into the off-season,” Walton said.
The Clippers shot well in the 1st half, but the Jazz had a big 3rd quarter, and defeated LA 114-109 on Monday night in Salt Lake City.
Gordon Hayward had 27 points and George Hill added 19 as Utah defeated the Clippers for the first time in nine tries at home. Chris Paul had 33 points for LA in a losing effort.
The victory gave the Jazz a two-game lead over the Clippers in the race for the No. 4 playoff seed in the Western Conference and home-court advantage in the first round.
“They wanted this game,” Clippers coach Doc Rivers said. “They took the game. We played great in the first half and had a lead. I thought we should have had a bigger lead at halftime to be honest. I thought that was our chance to separate and we didn’t.”
The Clippers had a 56-49 lead at the half, behind 18 points from Paul, and 8 straight points from Austin Rivers. It was just a 7 point lead despite shooting 56% from the field, and 50% from behind the arc.
The Jazz exploded for a 40 point quarter in the 3rd, which was a season-high for any quarter. Hayward, whose back-to-back 3-pointers gave the Jazz a 103-92 lead. Hill finished with 19 points and Joe Ingles scored 18 off the bench.
Chris Paul was still fairly optimistic despite the loss. “We got to get it together,” Paul said. “I’d much rather be playing the right way and be playing consistently on both ends and lose a couple of games, but know going into the playoffs we’ve got our principles. We’re still working on them.
“It sucks, but you got to do it. If we were ready for everything right now, we might be peaking too soon, so hopefully we hit it at the right time.”
The Clippers return home to face the Bucks on Wednesday at Staples Center.
The Lakers introduced Rob Pelinka as their new General Manager on Friday. I heard a lot of good things from Pelinka, and it’s exciting, not just because he looks like Rob Lowe. However, I also heard something a little concerning as well. I heard a lot of talk about free agency. If there’s anything we’ve learned over the past five seasons of Laker basketball, it’s that free agency by itself is a lousy way to build a team, and it’s about to get a lot lousier with the new CBA. However, when you do an excellent job of drafting and developing players, you give yourself the opportunity to get elite free agents, and elite talent via trade. Rob Pelinka probably has some great relationships with players, but hopefully he’ll have more than that to sell to free agents during the offseason. As for the Lakers, here’s a summary of their season in 30 seconds……
On to college hoops, where March Madness is upon us, and the NCAA tournament bracket is set. That means UCLA’s fate has been determined after their disappointing showing over the weekend in their conference tournament. The Bruins blew a major opportunity to get a a #2 seed in the West, and have a very favorable path to the Final Four. Now their potential 2nd round matchup won’t be easy, and then they’ll probably have to face Kentucky and UNC to get to the Final Four. The bigger concern is the fact that UCLA reminded us over the weekend that they live and die by the 3-point shot, and that they can revert back to not playing any defense at any time. Lonzo Ball is banged up, Bryce Alford can’t get any shots off other than 3-pointers, and suddenly, I’m feeling a lot less confident about Steve Alford coaching the Bruins now that’s it’s March.
As for the Trojans, they narrowly made the NCAA Tournament, and will be participating in the play-in game on Tuesday vs Providence. USC will be the #11 seed. Sure enough, they are playing the team that played them last season in the 1st round, and beat them at the buzzer. That’s about as surprising as a USC student being hungover for class on Friday, after a Thursday night frat party. The selection committee loves these type of re-matches and creating story lines out of them. The Trojans game against Providence, and potentially SMU after that should be close ones. They are evenly matched, and USC should feel good that they beat SMU back in November. They probably won’t make it too much further though, with Baylor awaiting the winner of that game.
As for the rest of the bracket, Arizona might as well have a bye to the Final Four. You can pencil in Gonzaga to be upset by the Sweet 16 every year, and this year is no different. Congratulations to Kentucky for winning the SEC tournament. Their players are clearly earning all the money they are being paid. Word is President Trump has selected Trump University to win it all in his NCAA bracket. Kansas also has a fairly easy route to the Final Four but you can always count on them to blow it. That’s an annual guarantee like people smoking weed at Coachella.
The Rams went out and spent money on former USC receiver Robert Woods last week. I realize that the Rams needs help at wide receiver, but $15 million guaranteed for Robert Woods? Alshon Jeffrey got $14 million guaranteed and at least he was once a Pro Bowler. When you include Tavon Austin, that’s two receivers the Rams have overpaid for that are really #3 receivers on a good team. They should be directing most of their resources at the offensive line. Andrew Whitworth was a good start, but they need more.
If you think the Rams are having an unspectacular offseason thus far, the Chargers look like they are trying to give their new cross-town rivals a run for their money. The Bolts signed Russell Okung to help their offensive line, but apparently Okung nor the Chargers knew the rules about negotiating with a player who didn’t have an agent. They might have tampered by negotiating with him prior to the period when it was allowed. Based on how Okung played last season though, they probably have more to worry about him protecting Philip Rivers than the tampering issue.
I’m not in denial anymore. The LA Kings aren’t making the playoffs folks. Every time i find myself saying they are only a few points behind one particular team for the last playoff spot, a week later that team is about 10 points ahead of them. The same is about to happen with St. Louis, who is coming to Staples Center tonight. The wins the Kings are picking up now needed to happen back in December and January.
A tragic episode of The Walking Dead went down last night on AMC. SPOILER ALERT for those of you who have yet to see it so read no further if you are watching it later. The Saviors have officially lost their minds, in case we weren’t sure before. Now they are shooting people over a missing cantaloupe. Our favorite killer homemaker finally knows what happened in Alexandria, and Morgan is about to do his Rambo impersonation. It only took 13 episodes, daylight savings time, and a cantaloupe. I don’t remember a cantaloupe causing this much drama since Janet Jackson’s at the Super Bowl. Apparently in the apocalypse your life is worth 1 cantaloupe. Why isn’t Ezekiel bringing Shiva to these meetings? The last three episodes of this season are going to be epic.
Finally, it’s about to go down tonight on The Bachelor. The finals between Vanessa and Raven. However, when it’s over, you’ll think Nick is going to choose Raven, but he’s really going to choose nobody. Which we all agree is better than living in Canada. The producers must have blown the whole budget on the trip to Finland so they had to settle for ice baths for Nick and Vanessa’s date. Either that or Nick was determined to give Vanessa pneumonia. In the last episode, Nick saw more action than Chuck Norris does with 4 different girls in fantasy suites. The only difference is the action Chuck Norris sees can kill him, while the action Nick sees can give him herpes. My favorite part of the last episode was when Vanessa said this is the best relationship she’s been in. Really? The best relationship you’ve ever been in is with somebody who was dating two dozen women at the same time? Corrine and champagne are one of the ultimate duos of all-time. She was going off at Taylor during the women tell all. It felt like Josephine was Corrine’s hype man, supporting her with every word that came out of her mouth. Poor Taylor though….I guess she gave up her career for lent.
The Lakers lost to the 76ers on Sunday night at Staples Center, 118-116, in a game between two lottery bound teams. Jordan Clarkson had a career-best 30 points and helped the Lakers rally from a 12-point deficit late in the game, but it wasn’t enough.
Dario Saric scored a career-high 29 points for Philadelphia, and Jahlil Okafor added 23. T.J. McConnell’s hit a 12-foot fallaway jumper with just under a minute left, and the 76ers never gave up the lead from there.
Tomothe Luwawu-Cabarrot scored 18 points for the 76ers, and Julius Randle put up 21 points and 12 rebounds for the Lakers.
The Lakers trailed by as many as 11 points in the first half, but used an 8-2 to tie the game at 65 by halftime.
Their execution late in the game though was problematic. D’Angelo Russell airballed a last minute 3-point try, and looked to be confused about the time remaining on the shot clock. Randle fouled Gerald Henderson after he was double teamed and looked to be in trouble, and Clarkson missed a key free throw in the final seconds.
“The effort and the intentions were in the right place, which is a good start,” Lakers Coach Luke Walton said. “The actual execution of it wasn’t good enough to win the game tonight.”
The good news for the Lakers was that the game helped them in the lottery standings. The 76ers receive the Lakers 1st round pick if it falls out of the top 3 in this years draft. The Lakers remained with the 2nd worst record in the NBA after Sunday’s loss.
Corey Perry scored 2 goals and added an assist, and Ryan Getzlaf had a goal and 2 assists as the Ducks took care of the Capitals 5-2 at Honda Center on Sunday.
Ryan Kessler also had a goal and two assist for the Ducks who have won three of their last four games. Anaheim also moved ahead of Calgary for 2nd place in the Pacific Division with the win. Richard Rakell contributed his 29th goal, and Jonathan Bernier had 25 saves.
The Capitals got goals from John Carlson and Marcus Johansson, as they lost their season high fourth consecutive game.
Alex Ovechkin didn’t score for the 10th straight game, which is the longest scoring drought of his career.
The Ducks held a pregame ceremony to mark the 10-year anniversary of the their Stanley Cup Championship. Perry and Getzlaf were two of the youngest players on the team then, and Randy Carlyle is behind the Ducks bench once again.
The Capitals played without defenseman Kevin Shattenkirk, who was serving the first of his two-game suspension for charging at Kings defenseman Kevin Gravel on Saturday night.
Anaheim will return to action on Wednesday night against the Blues, at the Honda Center.
Adrian Kempe scored his 1st NHL goal midway through the 3rd period, which helped give the Kings get a critical 2 points on Saturday vs the Capitals. The Kings kept pace with the St. Louis Blues, and remained 3 points behind them in the race for the final playoff spot in the West.
Anze Kopitar also scored a goal and had an assist for LA, and Jonathan Quick made 17 saves to help the Kings win their 3rd game in the last 4 tries. Marian Gaborik also scored, and Jeff Carter had an empty-netter.
This was the first time the Kings won back-to-back games since early February. Kempe was excited to finally find the back of the net for LA. “There was a lot of time left in the game,” he said, “[but] I think it was an important goal and it was a really great feeling to finally put it in.”
The Kings fell behind 1-0 and 2-1, but tied it at 2-2 heading into the 3rd period on the goal by Kopitar. It was the Kings fifth straight game with a power play goal, and the 3rd in the last 4 games for LA captain. Then Kempe put the Kings ahead for good by spinning away from Capitals forward Marcus Johansson, and beating Philipp Grubauer,
Jonathan Quick started for the 2nd straight game, but Darryl Sutter reassured everyone that Ben Bishop will still see some action.
“Quite honest, we are in a position where we’re fighting for a playoff spot because our goaltending, in February, hit the wall,” Sutter said.
The Kings will have a huge game against the Blues on Monday night at Staples Center, as both teams continue to fight for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference.
Chris Paul and DeAndre Jordan came up big on Saturday afternoon at Staples Center, and the Clippers took down the 76ers 112-110.
Paul scored 30 points and had 7 assists, while Jordan had 19 points and 20 rebounds to help LA win their fourth game in the last five tries.
The Clipps were somewhat sluggish for the first three quarter of this one, trailing at halftime 57-56, and then trailing heading into the 4th quarter 79-75. However, a 10-0 run to start the final 12 minutes of the game was the spark they needed to secure the win.
Blake Griffin also had a nice game for LA with 15 points and 10 rebounds. The win was the Clippers 10th in the last 11 games against Philadelphia.
The 76ers were led by Richaun Holmes, who scored 24 points off the bench. Rookie Dario Saric scored 16 points, and Jahlil Okafor had 14.
The Clippers got some help from Oklahoma City, who defeated Utah on Saturday afternoon as well. That means LA is just 1 game back in the loss column from 4th place Utah in the Western Conference.
That couldn’t have come at a better time because the Clippers will travel to Utah on Monday to take on the Jazz in the next game. There’s just 16 games left and these two teams look like they are on a collision course to meet in the 1st round, so they’ll be fighting to secure home court advantage over the next month.
