SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Point guard Chris Paul scored 20 of his game-high 30 points in the second half, and fellow guard J.J. Redick scored 17 of his 27 in the first half as the Los Angeles Clippers beat the Sacramento Kings 116-105 Wednesday night at Sleep Train Arena.
Paul made eight of 11 shots after halftime and finished with 11 assists. Redick converted a four-point play to cap an 18-6 fourth-quarter run that allowed the Clippers (44-25) to pull away after the Kings tied the contest 84-84 with 9:12 remaining.
Los Angeles forward DeAndre Jordan added 15 rebounds, his 17th consecutive game with at least 14, and the Clippers beat the Kings for the 17th time in their past 20 meetings. Los Angeles remained tied with the Dallas Mavericks for fifth place in the Western Conference, two games behind the fourth-place Houston Rockets.
Forward Blake Griffin had 19 points and 10 rebounds for the Clippers, and forward Hedo Turkoglu, a former King, scored 19 points and shot 5-for-10 from the 3-point range.
Turkoglu’s effort was timely, as Los Angeles played without guard Jamal Crawford (right calf bruise) and forward Matt Barnes (right hamstring soreness).
The Kings played without center DeMarcus Cousins (right calf strain) but hung around for most of the contest thanks to forward Rudy Gay’s 23 points. Gay, who missed Sacramento’s previous two contests with a strained left patellar tendon, made only six of 19 shots from the field but added six rebounds in 37 minutes.
Guard Andre Miller had 16 points, guard Nik Stauskas scored 13 points, and forward Jason Thompson added 12 points and eight rebounds for Sacramento (22-45). Center Ryan Hollins, starting for Cousins, contributed nine points in 14 minutes, and forward Derrick Williams added 11 points.
Sacramento lost its fourth straight and fell for the eighth time in nine games and the 10th time in 12. The Kings dropped to 4-11 under coach George Karl.
Jordan’s 17 straight games with at least 14 rebounds is the longest such streak in the NBA since Dennis Rodman pulled at least 14 rebounds in 24 consecutive games for the Detroit Pistons during the 1992-93 season.
NOTES: Before Wednesday, the Clippers averaged eight fewer points in their past 12 games than they did in their first 56. The slump partially coincided with the absence of G Jamal Crawford (right calf contusion), who missed his eighth straight game. … Kings F Rudy Gay has not missed three straight games this season, but teammate C DeMarcus Cousins has been out a career-high 15 games. At least one of the two has been on the floor for every Kings game this season, but they both were on the floor for only 46 of Sacramento’s 67 games. … F DeAndre Jordan, last in the NBA while converting just 40.4 percent of his free throws, made more than half of his attempts in only 11 of the Clippers’ first 69 games. He was 0-for-1 from the line Wednesday. … The Kings surrendered at least 100 points in 13 of their first 15 games under George Karl.