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Bobcats hold off Clippers for third straight on road

Mar 1, 2009 - 6:55 AM LOS ANGELES (Ticker) -- Emeka Okafor and the Charlotte Bobcats have gone from roadkill to road warriors.

After losing seven straight games away from home, the Bobcats appear to be at home outside of North Carolina.

They have won three straight on the road after Saturday's 100-95 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers.

"It feels good," Okafor said after 28-point, nine-rebound effort. "We want to take the momentum of this weekend and carry it on to the weekend and see what we can do."

While downing the Clippers doesn't seem like the most difficult of tasks, the Bobcats managed to dig a 15-point hole for themselves only to build a 13-point lead in the third quarter.

"We got a big lead, played the third quarter about as good as we could," Charlotte coach Larry Brown said. "And then we kinda let them back in."

Still, at the end of a five-game road trip, the win didn't come easy for Charlotte. The Clippers battled back as Zach Randolph proved the tonic for many of their woes after falling behind.

Randolph took over the Clippers' offense in the fourth quarter. With the score, 92-86, he scored seven points and fed Al Thornton for another to keep Los Angeles in the game.

After Randolph's layup made it 95-93, Raja Bell countered with a shot from long range to make it a five-point game with 1:36 left.

Randolph would not be deterred, however, banging in a 16-footer to make it a three-point game. He finished with 33 points and nine rebounds.

After a miss by Okafor, Gerald Wallace picked off Mike Taylor's pass to give the Bobcats the ball with 35 seconds left.

"Our turnovers and second-chance points killed us," Clippers coach Mike Dunleavy said.

The Clippers played tough defense and Thornton intercepted a pass as the shot clock ran down on the Bobcats. Los Angeles came down the court with a chance to tie the game. The Clippers had a timeout, chose not to use it and wound up with a long-distance prayer from straightaway by Thornton that was not answered.

Okafor sealed the victory with a pair of foul shots with 2.6 seconds left and the kings of the road were happy to be headed home.

"Every win, were always glad to have," Bobcats forward Gerald Wallace said. "But we have to go home and take care of business now. We finished out February strong, we've got to start out March strong and put ourselves in a good position coming down the stretch."