LA Clippers Rout Denver, 117-83 But Detroit, Memphis Fall Short
By Teodoro Medina Reynoso
PhilBoxing.com
Fri, 25 Apr 2025
All three home teams planned to give the visitors a rude welcome but only one was able to do it as the two others fell short with one incurring serious injury to boot.
Back at their familiar playing venue, the Los Angeles Clippers took advantage of every miss and error of the Denver Nuggets to post a 117-83 rout, the first win of such sort in their series.
However, hosts Detroit and Memphis fell short against New York, 118-116 and Oklahoma, 114-108 with the loss most galling for the Grizzlies which saw their 26 points lead disappear despite hanging tough following injury to star scorer Ja Morant after a bad fall in the second quarter.
The loss was also galling to Detroit which botched a chance to send the game into overtime with costly inbound error time down to just a second.
Smarting from a close second game loss in Denver, the Clippers broke open a tight starting period with center Ivica Zubac playing heads up defense against Nuggets Nikola Jokic and Kawhi Leonard and James Harden scoring at will early, resulting to a series of 20-point leads right in the first half.
The problem of the Nuggets in trying to keep up with LA was accentuated by difficulty of Jokic, Jamal Murray and Aaron Gordon in getting their usual offense going in the face of the Clippers resolute defense.
Not only the Clippers managed to maintain their 20 points margin in the third quarter, they even started to pull away in the last period with their lead ballooning as time dwindled down.
Six Clippers finished in double figures led by Leonard with 21 points. Harden and Norman Powell scored 20 points each. Zubac had 19 points while Nicolas Batum added 16 points aside from hounding Murray. Derrick also came off the bench for 12 markers.
Jokic and Murray shared the honors in leading the scoring for Denver with 23 points each. But Gordon was the only other Nuggets in double figure scoring 15. Christian Braun, the hero of the second game for Denver was held to just 9 points while Russell Westbrook was more miserable finishing with just 3 points. Michael Porter Jr again was non factor in thus game after scoring 15 points the last time.
The win enabled the Clippers to go ahead in the series 2-1 with another game set in their homecourt.
After trailing for almost the entire game, Detroit managed to cut the deficit to just two from six in the last minute and even had a slim chance to at least send it to extra period time down to a second left.
But Jaden Durren's forward inbound pass to Cade Cunningham sailed out and New York merely wasted the remaining time to win and take a 2-1 lead in the series.
After getting bottled up earlier in the series, Karl Anthony Towns cut loose for 31 points. Jaden Brunson backed him up with 30 points while OG Anunoby again contributed to the winning cause with 24 points. Miles Bridges also played big in the win scoring 20 points for the Knicks.
Cunningham and Tim Hardaway Jr scored 24 points each for Detroit. Dennis Schroeder, hero of the second game for the Pistons, managed 18 points while Duren added 16 points aside from tending the boards.
Detroit will still host game 4.
Memphis was determined to get back at Oklahoma after losing the first two games by huge margins including by 50 points in the opener.
They started like a house on fire and managed to post a 40-29 lead in the first quarter despite losing Morant on injury due to bad fall off Lue Dorf. The Grizzlies still increased the lead to 87-49.
But the Thunder launched another of their famed comebacks, outscoring the Grizzlies 63-31 in the last two quarters to snatch the victory and a 3-0 lead in the series.
Shai Gilgeous Alexander as usual led the Thunder with 31 points with the twin towers pair of Chet Holmgren and Jaylin Williams scoring 26 points and 24 points respectively. Alex Caruso who pulled off many steals in game and Isaiah Joe both contributed 10 points.
The defeat of the Grizzlies laid to waste the topscoring 28 points by guard Scottie Pippen Jr., son of the Chicago Bulls legend. Morant was on a scoring tear before the injury and still had 15 points for Memphis.
Another win by the Thunder and it will be OK-C you next season for the Grizzlies.
The author Teodoro Medina Reynoso is a veteran boxing radio talk show host living in the Philippines. He can be reached at teddyreynoso@yahoo.com and by phone 09215309477.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Teodoro Medina Reynoso.
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