April 5, 2017

Blake Griffin scored 32 points and the Clippers won their 4th straight game by beating the Mavs 112-101 at Staples.

J.J. Redick scored 25 points, DeAndre Jordan had 20 rebounds, and Chris Paul had 22 points and 11 assists.  The Clips have won 8 of their last 10 games.

Harrison Barnes led the way for Dallas with 15 points.  The Mavs have lost 6 of their last 7 games, and are out of the West playoff race.  They have just four games left in the regular season.

It was the 3rd straight game that Griffin has scored 31 or more points.  “We keep forgetting he missed a huge part of the season,” Clippers coach Doc Rivers said. “He’s getting ready.”

The Clippers made their first nine shots of the game.  After the first quarter they shot 61% from the field and had built a 17-point lead.

Dallas got within seven in the second before the Clippers extended their lead to 18 and went into halftime ahead 62-49.

The 3rd quarter saw Yogi Ferrell score 9 points, which helped cut the Clippers’ lead to 6.  “They just kept fighting,” Rivers said. “They had a lot of reasons to say `game over’ and that made us keep playing.”  The Clippers would re-group and go on a 17-6 run.  That pushed the lead back to 17 heading into the 4th quarter.

After a Mo Speights 3- points, the Clippers had their largest lead of the game, 20 points.  The Mavs would rally again, but they never got closer than 9 points.

The Clippers moved to within a half game of idle 4th place Utah.  The Clippers have three regular-season games remaining while the Jazz have four.

Up next for the Clips will be Saturday night against the Spurs in San Antonio.