Here’s the Lob City Ledger from our guy Nick Flynt over at ESPNLA.com:
Finding his offensive touches limited by the defense of Channing Frye and Markieff Morris (excluding the first quarter), Blake Griffin tried to respond by initiating out of the high post. Unfortunately for him, the Suns did a nice job closing down passing lanes. That said, Griffin still managed to maintain solid effectiveness by hitting the glass and getting out in transition.
He’s made a habit of waiting until the fourth quarter to look for his own shot, but tonight Chris Paul struggled to find his shot at all. He responded (unsurprisingly) by creating some nice opportunities for his teammates, and also attacked in the clutch. Unfortunately, tonight was one of the nights L.A. needed a complete CP3 performance.
Caron Butler and Randy Foye hit their share of shots, but Kenyon Martin brought great intensity on the defensive end by making solid rotations and breaking up plays throughout the night. Offensively, he did a nice job when forced to finish plays, usually with the shot clock running down or with the defense quickly recovering.
The refs let both teams play throughout the night, and things came to a head midway through the fourth quarter when Robin Lopez hit Blake Griffin with a flagrant-2 foul and was ejected from the game. Still, the Clips couldn’t swing the momentum to pull away. L.A. also struggled to keep Phoenix off the glass, further illustrating their troubles with the Suns.
The Phoenix Suns came into their matchup against the Clippers a half game behind the Utah Jazz for the final West playoff spot. With that in mind, there was no question of effort for the Suns. Questions did arise when Phoenix had to deal with the ball pressure of the Clippers’ defense, but they overcame the turnover issues to get a win.
