Okobo steps up in loss to Clippers
LOS ANGELES — That got out of hand in a hurry.
The Los Angeles Clippers turned a close game into a lopsided one in the third quarter of their 115-99 win over the Phoenix Suns before 16,372 fans Wednesday night at Staples Center.
“We’re very selective when it comes to playing the right way,” a noticeably upset Suns coach Igor Kokoskov said. “Parts of the game, we played the right way. Obviously the third quarter was brutal.”
Very brutal.
“Yeah, we went downhill in that third quarter,” Suns rookie 7-footer Deandre Ayton said.
The Clippers blitzed the Suns with a 21-7 surge on their way to building a 7661 lead in the third. Tobias Harris, who has played like an all-star, hit two 3s and Danilo Gallinari added two more in the third-quarter run in scoring a game-high 28 points.
Los Angeles outscored Phoenix, 4025, in the pivotal third. The Clippers shot 64.7 percent in the quarter and led by as many as 20.
“We just didn’t have it going on the defensive end,” said Suns guard Devin Booker, who scored a team-high 23 points on 9-of-21 shooting.
So much for those close losses. Those last five games in which Phoenix (4-17) lost four times by five, six, 11 and five, respectively, were against Eastern Conference teams.
This wasn’t Philadelphia, Chicago, Detroit or Indiana out there.
This was the best team in the Western Conference right now. The Clippers (14-6) showed that after Phoenix played them to a 49-49 tie in the first half.
For a quarter, Phoenix looked like the team that was getting drummed early in the year — and paid for it.
You can’t do that against a team like the Clippers, who are not only playing as one, but have some really good players, several quality guys who know their roles and embrace their duties.
“They were just ready to play and they were way more physical and engaged from the jump,” Ayton said.
Losing battle?
Simply put, the Clippers are superior to Phoenix. Losing the free-throw battle — again — made it worse.
Phoenix finished 13-of-18 from the line and its opponent once again made more free throws than the Suns attempted.