Basket Ball / Sports

Paul George scores 24, Clippers beat Blazers to extend win streak

Paul George has been putting the Los Angeles Clippers on his shoulders the first month of the season. He needed some help Tuesday night after running into foul trouble midway through the third quarter against the Portland Trail Blazers.

Reggie Jackson and Nicolas Batum were able to pick up the slack.

George led the Clippers with 24 points in their 117-109 victory over the Trail Blazers, but Jackson added 23 and Batum scored a season-high 22 points as Los Angeles extended its winning streak to five.

“We just keep being resilient and finding ways to win,” coach Tyron Lue said. “In the timeouts my message was I wanted us to keep our poise. We had to keep playing through it. They held it down until we got Paul back in the game.”

George went to the bench with 5:53 remaining in the third quarter and the Clippers up 70-65. When he came back into the game with 9:55 left in the fourth, LA had extended the lead to 88-82.

Batum and Isaiah Hartenstein keyed the Clippers’ offense during George’s absence with eight points apiece.

“The first two or three possessions we didn’t play well. We weren’t moving the ball,” said Batum, who was 6 of 8 from beyond the arc. “Then we just started to play simple, move around and got open shots. That was a big stretch before Paul came back.”

George, the reigning Western Conference player of the week, played only 33 minutes because of his foul trouble. Despite the decreased playing time, he was near a triple-double with nine rebounds and seven assists.

“So many guys are stepping up when we need them. You never know in a big night who it is going to be. You can’t put enough emphasis on that,” said George, who is fifth in the league in scoring at 26.7 points per game.

Damian Lillard led Portland with 27 points and Norman Powell scored 23. Jusuf Nurkic had 15 points and 13 rebounds for the Trail Blazers, who are winless in their …

Basket Ball / Sports

Damian Lillard Continues His Struggles, LA Clippers Defeat Portland Trail Blazers 116-86

After suffering two tough losses to begin the season, the LA Clippers have gotten their first win, blowing out the Portland Trail Blazers 116-86 on Monday night. The team was backed by a special shooting performance from Luke Kennard, and when combined with the team’s stellar defense, it was enough to get a blowout win.

Coming into this matchup against the Blazers, there was some concern surrounding the Clippers’ ability to defend Portland’s perimeter attack. The team had struggled in their first two games containing dynamic guard play, and the Blazers have no shortage of it. Despite this concern, Damian Lillard never really got going.

The Clippers took a 56-42 lead into halftime, and that point, Lillard had just 8 points on 3/8 shooting and 0/5 from deep. His co-star CJ McCollum was able to get a little bit more freedom in that first half, pouring in 16 points on 6/14 shooting; however, the Clippers were likely content with the way they defended that duo through 24 minutes.

Fortunately for the Clippers, the 2nd half was more of the same. Lillard finished with just 12 points on 4/15 from the field and 0/8 from deep, while McCollum ended with 20 points on 7/16 shooting. Ty Lue’s ability to effectively show those two guards different looks was successful all night. Eric Bledsoe, Nicolas Batum, Terance Mann, and Justise Winslow all took turns defending Portland’s backcourt duo, and each did a solid job.

As a team, the Clippers forced 30 turnovers which is just the 8th time in franchise history such a mark has been achieved, and the first time since 1996 that the clip was reached. Of the 30 turnovers, 21 were steals, which was the 2nd most in a game in franchise history. A combination of solid defense and sloppy offense from Portland created some historic defensive numbers for the Clippers.

Offensively for the Clippers, it was the Luke Kennard show. As the team wants him to do, Kennard was hunting shots. They tend to go in when he does …