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LA Clippers star Chris Paul says familiarity the key to team's NBA best start
By Roy Ward
LOS ANGELES: The pre-game talk before the LA Clippers win over Toronto Raptors focused on the NBA replay system's intervention in the latter side's loss to Sacramento Kings on Sunday night.
So it was telling familiarity and imperfection played major roles in the Clippers eventual 123-115 win at Staples Centre on Monday night (US time).
Los Angeles Clippers guard Chris Paul.Credit: AP
The win moves the Clippers to a 13-2 [win-loss] start while the Raptors fall to 8-6 but have filed a protest to the Kings' loss as Terrance Ross' game-tying three-pointer with 2.5 seconds left was ruled out by replay officials who ruled the scorer started the clock too late so cancelled out the basket.
Both coaches spoke against the decision and for the need for human scorers to be allowed human reaction times when asked during the pre-game press conferences.
Clippers coach Doc Rivers made the point Derek Fisher's storied 0.4 seconds left game-winner for the LA Lakers would have been ruled out if such a replay was called for back in 2004.
"I think the game is human error and I don't think you should be able to go back and look at the clock," Rivers said.
"The league came back and said it was the right call but I still disagree - the only thing Ross can go by is the clock.
"We can't take everything out of the game, lucky it wasn't us."
While the game on Monday night was never close enough to need such intervention but it will get plenty of revision from the Clippers who repeatedly gave up three-point shots to the Raptors who were knocking down the shots late on but couldn't get close enough to steal the win.
The Clippers big three were all dominant with Chris Paul (26 points, 12 assists), Blake Griffin (26 points, seven rebounds, seven assists) and DeAndre Jordan (17 points, 15 rebounds) leading the way while veteran shooters JJ Redick (20 points) and Jamal Crawford (12 points) offered key points.
Raptors point guard Kyle Lowry starred for his side with 27 points and seven assists while fellow guard DeMar DeRozan scored 25 points and had seven assists.
When the Clippers kept with their same core this season despite appearing to be behind other Western Conference powers Golden State Warriors and San Antonio Spurs, some questioned their championship hopes.
But their league-best start aided by their familiarity and the savvy recruitment of veteran reserves like Mo Speights and Raymond Felton shows the Clippers could well be the real deal.
"Our communication is there, some of that has a lot to do with this being our sixth year together as in me, Blake and DJ," Paul said.
"As our core, the guys follow us and see how we talk and communicate with each other then they have no choice other than to fall in line and we see that focus every night."
Jordan added the team still had to be smooth out their defensive communication issues in the final minutes of games and they would be doing that as they begin a six-game road trip and progress into mid season.
"It's just getting back in transition, loading up [defensively] and finding a guy," Jordan said.
"I know with [Raptors forward] Patrick Patterson we have got to communicate in transition, you may not have the guy who is guarding you or have a different match up so we need to communicate better.
"Especially with guys who were knocking down shots at the end of the game - we have to be able to communicate and get back."