Blake Griffin of the Los Angeles Clippers goes for a free ball against Nene and J.R. Smith of the Denver Nuggets at Staples Center on Jan. 5, 2011. (Photo by Stephen Dunn/Getty Images)
From Jesse
LOS ANGELES (AP) - with DeAndre Jordan patrolling the key and Eric Gordon hitting 3-pointers, there was short the Denver Nuggets could do to stand off the Los Angeles Clippers.
Jordan`s block party and the Clippers` smothering defense led to a 106-93 victory Wednesday night that snapped Denver`s four-game winning streak.
Jordan finished with 14 points, tied a career high with 20 rebounds and had six blocks to facilitate the Clippers halt a four-game skid against the Nuggets.
"I`m the ground so everything that comes in there, if someone gets beat, I give to be in there to stop it, contest it or modify the shot," Jordan said.
Many of his blocks led to crowd-pleasing dunks on the early end.
"That`s what we want from him," said Gordon, who scored 28 points, including four 3-pointers. "When he gets that many rebounds and blocked shots, he just helps us overall.
"We get on the ruin and it`s difficult to block us. We`re a transition type of team so if we get a good tempo, everything will go our way."
Blake Griffin had 22 points and 18 rebounds to tie a franchise record with his 22nd consecutive double-double. Los Angeles outrebounded the Nuggets 57-43 and committed only 12 turnovers.
"We did a secure job of second-chance points and points in the paint," Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro said. "I thought we were tighter defensively, we were able to keep them from getting second-chance points and we were able to change on the offensive end."
Carmelo Anthony had 31 points and Chauncey Billups added 25 for the Nuggets, who took their only lead early in the 1st quarter.
Before the game, Nuggets coach George Karl noted how his team had a favorable schedule in January with winnable games on the road. But not much went right for Denver, which shot 37.5 percent.
"We weren`t good at either end of the court," Karl said. "most nights this year we`ve had something going and tonight our defense wasn`t serious enough and our offense wasn`t serious enough."
Billups made 5 of seven 3-pointers, including 3 in the 2nd half to celebrate the Nuggets within striking distance.
After his 3 trimmed the Clippers` lead to 89-83 with 7:02 remaining, Los Angeles responded with consecutive 3-pointers from Gordon and Baron Davis to rest well ahead.
"they were awesome tonight - not just Blake, everybody," Billups said. "they all played good."
In the late meeting, the Nuggets shot an NBA season-high 59 free throws to get the Clippers 109-104 on Dec. 3. this time, Denver made 25 of 31 free throws while the Clippers converted 18 of 27.
The Nuggets welcomed the fall of forward Al Harrington, who lost the final four games with a dislocated right thumb. It pronounced the 1st sentence all season Denver had its entire roster healthy, but the team took another setback when backup point guard Ty Lawson sprained his left knee with 4:59 left in the 2nd quarter and didn`t return.
Lawson said it was a slight sprain and that he would try to run against Sacramento on Thursday night.
The Clippers led by as many as 15 in the low half.
The Nuggets trimmed the star to 51-43 at the crack after Billups scored six straight points, including a four-point play to end the half.
The Clippers snapped a 33-all tie in the 2nd quarter with a 13-1 run capped by Jordan`s two-handed, reverse alley-oop dunk in transition.
Griffin had his own highlight-reel play during that stretch, a thunderous, one-handed, alley-oop dunk off a run from Davis that put Los Angeles ahead 40-34.
NOTES: Griffin will join Milwaukee point guard Brandon Jennings and big men JaVale McGee of Capital and Serge Ibaka of Oklahoma City in the Feb. 19 slam dunk contest at Staples Center during All-Star weekend, the NBA announced Wednesday. _ The Clippers had nine assists and shot 51.9 percent in the 1st quarter to make a 30-23 lead.
Clippers Snap Nuggets 4-Game WinningStreak
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