Chris Paul certainly took matters into his own hands Wednesday night as the Clippers dispensed with the Timberwolves at Target Center Wednesday night, 102-98.
Point guard Paul dropped in 16 of his 20 points in the 4th quarter – the difference maker.
And the general consensus is that Ricky Rubio is just not quite at that level yet.
“Paul stepped up, as a star should, to help his team stop a late game run by Minnesota, by draining two (three-pointers) as well as a jumper right in Rubio’s face,” notes TWolvesBlog. “Frustrated, he couldn’t hang with Paul. He gave head coach Rick Adelman a helpless look as Chris Paul, seemingly effortlessly, put the game out of reach.”
Yahoo! Sports: “Paul finished with 20 points and 11 assists for his 12th straight double-double to open the season, breaking Magic Johnson’s previous mark of 11 straight in 1990-91.”
Comcast Sports Bay Area focuses on the head-to-head between Blake Griffin and Kevin Love: “In a matchup of two of the best power forwards in the league, Griffin and Love spent the first half essentially playing each other to an underwhelming draw. They combined to shoot 4 for 17 before Griffin made his move in the third. He scored 14 points in the quarter, often going right at Love and scoring any way he wanted.”
Another nugget from Yahoo! Sports: “Timberwolves F Derrick Williams, a former No. 2 overall pick, was in for 11 minutes after he had played just three minutes in the last three games. … Timberwolves coach Rick Adelman has turned to rookie F Robbie Hummel as his top sub at small forward.”
ESPN offers this: Kevin Martin (28 points), Nikola Pekovic (20 points) and Brewer (17 points) each gave the Clippers fits at times. Stat of the game: The Clippers had 25 fast-break points, which is 13 more than they had last week against the Timberwolves and eight more than their season average.
