The Associated Press
Joe Resnick
LOS ANGELES—The Toronto Raptors shut down Blake Griffin and Chris Paul, then had enough to hold off the L.A. Clippers at the very end.
DeMar DeRozan had 21 points, and DeMarre Carroll scored all of his 21 points in the first half, as the Raptors held Griffin and Paul scoreless through the first 20-plus minutes of a 91-80 victory over the Clippers yesterday.
“We respect Griffin and Paul because they’re all-stars, but it’s not the first time we’ve played them,” Raptors’ centre Bismack Biyombo said after making his first start of the season for the injured Jonas Valanciunas.
“Today, our guards and our ‘bigs’ did a pretty good job of taking them out of the game,” he noted.
“We started the game the right way, and that helped.”
Luis Scola added 20 points while Kyle Lowry had 13 points and 10 assists for the Raptors (9-6), who closed out a 2-3 road trip.
They shot just 37 percent from the field but out-rebounded the Clippers 46-42 and also forced 19 turnovers.
J.J. Redick scored 17 points for L.A. (6-7), which now has lost three-straight and seven of nine after starting the season 4-0.
The only other time the Clips were under .500 during Doc Rivers’ two-plus seasons as coach was after his first game on the job, which they lost to the L.A. Lakers before winning their next three.
“We’re pretty frustrated,” said Griffin. “It’s been three in a row so I think it’s pretty normal to be frustrated.
“But we can’t let that frustration affect us negatively, moving forward,” he stressed.
The Clippers, who blew a 23-point lead in a 124-117 home loss to the Warriors on Thursday, sliced a 29-point deficit against the Raptors to 73-67 with a 17-2 run capped by Austin Rivers’ short jumper with 9:26 to go.
But that was as close as they got.
“The hardest thing to do in the NBA is play with a big lead because human nature says you’re going to let down,” said Raptors’ coach Dwane Casey.
“You’ve got to come out in the third with the same energy, and that’s very difficult to do in this league,” he conceded.
“It was a good win, and we’ll take it, but we’re not satisfied with it,” added Casey.
“We’ve got so much room for improvement on the offensive end.”
