CHICAGO (AP) – The Los Angeles Clippers need all the wins they can get if they’re going to make the playoffs for the seventh straight year – even the ugly ones.
So they’ll take this.
DeAndre Jordan dominated with 29 points and 18 rebounds, Lou Williams scored 26 and the Clippers beat the Chicago Bulls 112-106 on Tuesday night.
Tobias Harris added 18 points, and the Clippers started to take control late in the third quarter on the way to their fifth win in six games.
“Well, we won,” coach Doc Rivers said. “That’s all I’ll say to that one.”
Bobby Portis led Chicago with 19 points and nine rebounds. Kris Dunn added 18 points and six assists. But with Lauri Markkanen sidelined by lower back spasms, the Bulls lost for the eighth time in 11 games.
“We’re young, we’re trying to figure (out) who we are as a team,” Dunn said.
Seventh in the Western Conference, the Clippers struggled to put away a rebuilding team going with younger players while eyeing a lottery pick. But they did just enough on the opener of a three-game trip.
With the next two at Houston and Oklahoma City on Thursday and Friday, they needed this one.
“The approach is to win,” Harris said. “The approach is to go out there and compete every single night. Go out there and collect wins. Obviously, in the situation we’re (in), the margin of error is very slim so we have to be ready at all times.”
It was four-point game with about five minutes left in the third when Los Angeles went on a 14-4 run that bumped the lead to 14 early in the fourth.
Austin Rivers started it with a 19-footer, and Williams broke for a layup off a missed 3 by Chicago’s Noah Vonleh. Montrezl Harrell drove for a layup just under a minute into the fourth, making it 92-78, and Los Angeles maintained the lead the rest of the way.
“Right now, it’s about us getting better as a unit and prepared for the playoffs, and that is us paying attention to coverages on both ends of the floor and staying locked in,” Jordan said.
