Both the Clippers and Pistons were forced to play back-to-back home/away games after battling the best teams in the NBA.

You could tell. Neither team started very strong, going behind by a lot quickly. Los Angeles trailed 19 in the second quarter, Detroit 20. No legs.

Credit their desire, though. Both squads came back to cut the deficit at halftime. Then, each used defensive third quarters to try and will their way back – to no avail. In the Clippers case, however, we received some extra motivation.

Portland was running away with it until Chris Kaman cheaply shoved Chis Paul hard to the ground along the baseline out of bounds. The flagrant foul sparked a fourth quarter surge that saw Los Angeles drain four straight threes.

Paul etched his name in the record book as the 6th player ever to record multiple games of 40+ points and 15+ assists (Isiah Thomas is one). He finished with 41 & 17, accounting for over 75 of our points.