• Preview
• Recap
• Bleachers
• Game Tracker

Clips beat Bulls for 7th straight win

Dec 12, 2012 - 7:30 AM Chicago, IL (Sports Network) - Chris Paul and Blake Griffin continue to lead the way, but it's the Los Angeles Clippers' bench who has helped the club to their longest winning streak in 21 years.

Griffin had 22 points and 10 rebounds in the Clippers' seventh straight victory, a 94-89 triumph over the Chicago Bulls.

"We really never got our rhyth," Clippers head coach Vinny Del Negro said. "We missed some easy shots, but we found a way to grind the game out."

Paul added 18 points for Los Angeles, which is in the midst of its longest winning stretch since 1991-92 when the Danny Manning-led squad won a team- record eight consecutive contests.

"Chris (Paul) made a couple of tough plays at the end," Bulls forward Carlos Boozer said.

The franchise mark is 11 straight games accomplished by the 1974-75 Buffalo Braves.

The Clippers, who got 34 points from their bench -- 14 from Matt Barnes and 10 from Jamal Crawford -- ranked near the top of the league with 41.8 bench points per game coming in.

Boozer tallied 24 points and 13 boards for Chicago, which had their three- game winning streak snapped.

Marco Belinelli nailed four of the Bulls' season-high 10 3-pointers for 18 points in defeat.

Griffin slammed home an alley-oop from Lamar Odom and his tip-in following a pair of offensive rebounds two possessions later gave the Clippers their largest lead of 89-80 with 2:21 to play.

Chicago, though, countered with a 9-2 spurt, and a Joakim Noah reverse layup pulled the hosts within 91-89 with 22.5 seconds left.

Paul then sunk two free throws, and after Kirk Hinrich and Luol Deng missed jumpers at the other end, Paul split a pair from the line to account for the final margin.

The Clippers led, 21-18, after a quarter of play before taking a 47-40 margin into the break.

Los Angeles had a 69-65 cushion after three.

Game Notes

The Bulls turned the ball over 17 times, which led to 22 Los Angeles points ... Chicago was 50 percent (10-of-20) from beyond the arc ... The Clippers held a 50-38 points in the paint advantage.