Clippers Coast By Heat

    The Miami Heat were on the west coast on Wednesday night as they lost to the Los Angeles Clippers 107-100 at Staples Center. The Heat fell to 2-10 in their last 12 tries on the Clippers home court and have not won there in the last five seasons.
    Los Angeles(6-2) made their first four shots of the game and led 8-2 at 10:20 of the first quarter. There were seven ties and seven lead chances in the opening quarter as the Heat were down 25-24 going into the second quarter. Neither team was able to lead by more than five points as Miami(6-3) led 54-52 at halftime.
    The Clippers put the lead up to 67-60 with 7:50 left in the third quarter as they began the second half on a 15-6 spurt. Los Angeles rolled with ten straight points alongside a 13-2 run all by Chris Paul at the end of the quarter for a double-digit margin of 85-74. Things did not get any better for the Heat as they were outscored 10-2 at the start of the fourth quarter and the Clippers increased the deficit to 19 points 95-76. Miami scored the last seven points of the game to cut the lead down from double-digits.
    LeBron James played 41 minutes for the Heat and scored 30 points with seven assists. Chris Bosh and Rashard Lewis added 11 points each while Dwyane Wade had six points.
    Blake Griffin knocked in 20 points for L.A. along with 14 rebounds in 30 minutes and Paul contributed 16 points and 10 assists. Former Heat player Caron Butler pounded in 15 points and Jamal Crawford had 22 points as a non-starter.