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Saturday, Jan. 8 10:30pm ET
Olowokandi overpowers Pacers | |||||
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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
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 GAME FLOW
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- At least for one night, Michael Olowokandi got teammate Maurice Taylor off his back. Olowokandi, criticized twice by Taylor recently for his lackluster play, scored a career-high 24 points and had 17 rebounds as the Los Angeles Clippers snapped Indiana's seven-game winning streak with a 107-94 victory Saturday night. Taylor and Tyrone Nesby each added 23 points, helping the Clippers end a four-game losing streak and a 12-game skid against the Pacers -- including five straight at home. "The most important thing is just putting everything else behind you and knowing that you can't always depend on people backing you up all the time," Olowokandi said. "You have to take care of business yourself individually and in a team concept." The Clippers winning margin was their largest of the season, and their 10th victory was one more than they had during last year's lockout-abbreviated campaign.Trailing by 14 at halftime, the Pacers closed to 72-65 on a 3-pointer by Rose with 2:57 left in the third quarter -- Indiana's first basket from behind the arc. But Olowokandi scored the Clippers' first six points of the final period and Taylor's 15-foot bank shot gave Los Angeles its biggest lead, 90-73, with 7:51 to play. "Mike played the way he was capable of playing, and that was the difference," Taylor said. "He killed Rik Smits every time down. That's the way I want him to play every game, and that's what I was talking about." Olowokandi, who entered the game averaging 9.3 points and 7.6 rebounds, burned the Pacers for 21 points and 13 rebounds on Dec. 11 in a 108-90 loss in Indiana. "We make him look like an All-Star," Indiana's Sam Perkins said. "He was in rhythm tonight. We threw a couple of things at him, but he made some tough shots." Travis Best scored 20 points and Jalen Rose added 17 for the Eastern Conference-leading Pacers, who lost to the Clippers for the first time since Dec. 13, 1992. "We had yesterday off, so we should have been rested. But we just didn't come to play," Pacers coach Larry Bird said. "We've lost 10 games this year and nine of those losses were just like this." Best hit a layup with 59 seconds remaining to narrow the gap to 102-94. But that was as close as Indiana got despite holding the Clippers to just two field goals over the final 6½ minutes. Nesby, who woke up Saturday morning with a migraine headache and was held out of the starting lineup because of it, hit a 3-pointer with seven seconds left in the first half to give the Clippers a 58-44 lead. His other nine points in the half came during a 3:17 span of the second quarter -- helping fuel a 24-4 run that turned a five-point deficit into a 51-36 lead with 2:27 left in the period. "The second quarter was when we really turned it up," Taylor said. "They were looking like they were pretty winded. We knew they couldn't keep up with that tempo for four quarters because that's really not their game. We tried to make them play our game." The Clippers took Reggie Miller out of his game, holding him to just 16 points on 6-for-15 shooting -- including 0-for-6 from 3-point range. "Basically, we just never left him, regardless of his much double-teaming and switching was going on," Taylor said. "We always stayed chest-to-chest with him. "We knew he was going to score, because he's a scorer. But we just wanted to make all of his baskets hard. We didn't want any open threes or any wide-open layups, so we were all over him." Taylor, who averaged 25 points in his previous five games, had 16 points in the first half. Los Angeles opened the game with a 14-2 run, while Indiana missed its first six shots and didn't get a field goal until Dale Davis' tip-in with six minutes left in the period. Game notesNesby gave a throat-slashing gesture to the Indiana bench after hitting a 3-pointer to give the Clippers a 77-65 lead with 1:22 in the third quarter. Unlike the NFL, the NBA has not legislated against that act. ... Indiana, the only team shooting at least 80 percent from the foul line, made its first 12 free throws and finished 24-for-31. The last team to finish an entire season at 80 percent or better was Cleveland in 1992-93 (80.2 percent). ... The Clippers are 4-14 against teams with winning records. The Pacers are 9-3 against teams with losing records. ... The Clippers' last three games have been against the Lakers and Pacers -- who combined had won 35 of 38 prior to Saturday. ... The Pacers were held under 100 points for the first time in eight games. The last eight games in which the they have been held under 100 points have been on the road. | ALSO SEE NBA Scoreboard Indiana Clubhouse LA Clippers Clubhouse RECAPS Minnesota 110 Detroit 105
LA Clippers 107
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