The Miami Heat visited the Staples Center Wednesday night to play the Los Angeles Clippers in a western-eastern conference matchup. Two of the best teams in the NBA faced off to what constituted to be a highlight packed game. Although the Clippers faced double-digit deficits in both halves, they climbed back to make it a wire-to-wire game in the finishing minutes, and finally losing 116-112.
The Heat were led by LeBron James’ 31pts, 8rebs, and 12ast. LeBron, along with Ray Allen, helped the Heat edge the Clippers’ comeback in the fourth quarter. Allen had 11 of his 15pts in the fourth period, including two clutch three-pointers (one of which became a 4-point play) and LeBron had a couple of drives to the basket as well as one three pointer. On the other side, the Clippers received huge performances from Blake Griffin and Jamal Crawford. Check out Griffin’s monster stat line: 43pts (16-34 FG), 15rebs, and 6ast. In his last three games, Griffin has take 50+ free throws. Crawford, his partner in crime, added 31pts and 6ast. With Chris Paul still out, the Clippers are receiving much of their output from only Griffin and Crawford on a nightly basis. Beside Crawford and Griffin, the Clippers did not receive much help from anyone else in this game, a trend we are seeing to often of. Note, J.J. Redick sat out this contest nursing a minor hip injury, so Crawford and Griffin had to pickup the slack.
As for the highlights, Sportscenter featured Top 5 plays just for this game specifically. These highlights included several dunks from Griffin, Jordan, and LeBron. Fans may have seen a potential NBA finals matchup today, and from the results of this game, most can’t complain.
