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San Antonio Spurs defeat LA Clippers 107-95. It’s a hard lot the Clippers drew having to play back-to-back games on the road against the New Orleans Hornets and San Antonio Spurs. Combine that with point guard Baron Davis once again not dressed because of his left knee despite playing ten minutes in Tuesday night’s game, things are tough sledding in the early going for the Clips.
The Clippers got off to a slow start having to play catch up the entire game. Rasual Butler had 10 points on 4-for-9 shooting with two three-pointers in the first half while Al-Farouq Aminu tried to prove he can be consistent with five points on 2-for-3 shooting in 12 minutes.
Tony Parker was instrumental in the Spur’s first-half play scoring 11 points and dishing the ball out seven times. That allowed Tim Duncan to be quiet getting his first field goal and points only in the last minute of the half.
But after some choppiness to open the second quarter, the Clippers went on an 11-3 run to take a one-point lead. Yes they actually had the lead for a total of 19 seconds in the third quarter. The Spurs then scored ten unanswered points thanks to Clippers’ turnovers closing out to a 14 point lead after three.
The Clippers though had another run in them getting to within five points with 2:35 left in the game, but with the help of a questionable flagrant foul on Ryan Gomes on Richard Jefferson the Spurs left the Clips in the dust.
Butler ended the game with 18 points and five rebounds while Griffin had 11 points and eight boards.
Anaheim Ducks defeat New York Islanders 1-0. Saku Koivu provided the only offense as the Ducks and goalie Curtis McElhinney withstood the Islanders’ desperation in a shutout effort.
The Islanders came into the game on a seven game losing streak having never had a lead while the Ducks won their last four games. And things didn’t look good as the Ducks only managed one shot-on-goal in the first period: a short-handed attempt by Koivu with 1:45 left in the period.
But the Ducks got the one shot that counted: rookie Cam Fowler fed the puck to Koivu who slammed the shot over Islanders’ goalie Dwayne Roloson’s glove.
The Ducks would only get 14 shots on goal while giving up 27 shots. But McElhinney saved all of those shots for his first career shutout giving the Ducks 19 points, only one point behind the Kings.
TONIGHT’S ACTION
LA Lakers (8-0) at Denver Nuggets (4-4). 7:30 pm TNT, AM 710 KSPN.
Dallas Stars (16 pts., 8-5-0) at LA Kings (20 pts., 10-3-0). 7:30 pm FSWest, AM 1150 KTLK.
