Impressive win by an even more shorthanded than usual New Orleans team, ending a six-game losing streak against the Clippers: already missing Holiday, Anderson and Smith for the season, the Pels also played tonight without Eric Gordon, Brian Roberts and Austin Rivers. So, basically, they were without their opening night starter at point guard, his backup, and the backup's backup, against the best point guard in the league. So, who got the start at point? Good ol' Tyreke Evans. And, while neither he nor Anthony Davis had a good night shooting the ball, both contributed in other ways, and got some unexpected help from their deep bench roleplayers, particularly a combined thirty off the bench from Alexis Ajinca and Darius Miller; Anthony Morrow also came up large in his own building, in his fifth start of the season.
New Orleans also ended an interesting streak for the Clippers: they lost despite hitting thirteen three pointers, including seven from Jamal Crawford. Coming into tonight's game, the Clippers were 29-0 on the season when hitting at least nine three pointers. And Chris Paul, although he did have twelve assists, was held to two points, on 0-12 shooting. And the only two points he scored came late in the third, when Evans was getting his only rest of the night.