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Clippers thump Kings

Apr 12, 2014 - 11:01 PM Los Angeles, CA (SportsNetwork.com) - Blake Griffin scored 27 points and handed out nine assists to lead the Los Angeles Clippers to a 117-101 win over the Sacramento Kings on Saturday.

DeAndre Jordan had 21 points nine rebounds and seven blocks and Chris Paul posted a near triple-double with 17 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds for the Clippers, who are locked into the third spot in the Western Conference.

Jamal Crawford returned from a five-game absence due to a strained left calf.

DeMarcus Cousins had 32 points and 12 rebounds and Rudy Gay scored 16 points for the Kings, losers in five straight.

"We couldn't get any stops all night. 25-5 in transition, I hated our defense," said Kings coach Michael Malone. "They're a playoff team and we didn't respond. They get layup after layup after layup. We played hard, we didn't play smart."

Los Angeles led 27-26 after 12 minutes, but the Kings scored five straight points to take a 31-27 lead early in the second period.

The Clippers eventually stretched their lead to eight, 48-40, after Jordan's layup with 3:17 left in the first half before taking a 56-47 lead into the break.

Griffin's layup less than a minute into the third gave LA its largest lead of the game, 60-47, but a 10-2 run, capped with a Ben McLemore layup, made it 62-57. The Clippers once again pushed their lead to double digits, 85-71, when Griffin got a layup to fall with 1:11 remaining in the third, but the Kings rattled off eight straight points to go into the fourth trailing 85-79.

Cousins' dunk moments into the fourth had Sacramento within 85-81 before his three-point play made it 91-89 with 8:55 left.

The Clippers opened up a 12-2 run from there, capped with back-to-back 3- pointers from Crawford to make it 103-91 with 5:23 left. the Kings never got closer than eight the rest of the way.

"Over the last few minutes we got stops. Those back-to-back 3's from Crawford were back-breakers," said Paul.

Game Notes

The Clippers were 41-of-81 from the field ... LA outscored the Kings 54-42 in the paint ... J.J. Redick and Matt Barnes finished with 13 and 12 points, respectively, for the Clippers ... Reggie Evans had 14 points and 14 rebounds for the Kings.