LOS ANGELES— Washington coach Randy Wittman wanted his players fouling DeAndre Jordan, whose free-throw shooting has always been the weakest part of his game.
That strategy didn’t work this time.
Jordan hit four straight free throws during a 10-4 run over the final 2:48 that gave the Los Angeles Clippers a 110-103 victory over the Wizards on Wednesday night.
“I’m going to ask Doc if I can shoot the techs from now on,” Jordan joked.
Blake Griffin led five players in double figures with 29 points as the Clippers won their fourth in a row.
Jamal Crawford added 21 points, including two 3-pointers from 29 and 33 feet, and Jordan had 14 points and 17 rebounds for the Clippers, who beat the Wizards for the sixth straight time at home. Darren Collison scored 16 points to help the team improve to 11-3 without the injured Chris Paul.
“We have a lot of really good players,” Griffin said. “Sometimes some of these guys don’t get the credit they deserve, that’s what I’ve learned about our team.”
Back home for the first time after going 5-2 on their Grammy road trip, the Clippers improved to 19-3 at Staples Center this season.
“It was our best opportunity to beat them, especially with Chris Paul out,” John Wall said. “But they’re still a great team and they’ve been winning games. It’s the same as you see without Chris in there. Those other guys play the same way. J.J. Redick can shoot the ball and Jamal Crawford’s one of the best at creating his own shots.”
Bradley Beal scored 10 of his 20 points in the fourth, and Wall had 19 points and 11 assists for Washington.
The Wizards, who trailed by 16 points in the game, cut their deficit to 81-80 early in the fourth on Garrett Temple’s steal and basket. After Crawford scored, Beal’s basket got the Wizards within one again.
“We put ourselves in a great position, but we just didn’t have it at the end of the game,” Beal said. “They were executing at the other end of the floor and we couldn’t get a stop.”
J.J. Redick, who finished with 20 points, and Crawford combined to score the Clippers’ first 16 points of the fourth, with Redick hitting two 3-pointers in that stretch to put them up 97-90.
“Him and J.J. have this thing going,” Clippers coach Doc River said. “It’s just been really good stuff. We can do that with veterans.”
Kevin Seraphin’s basket got Washington to 100-99. Collison scored and the Wizards had a basket disallowed on a shot-clock violation. Jordan got fouled and stepped to the line having made just 2 of 6 to that point. But he sank both to extend the Clippers’ lead to 104-99.
Beal, who was 4 of 6 from the line, got fouled and missed both. Jordan made another pair of free throws for a 106-99 lead. Crawford added two more, going 11 of 12 from the line.
“We did a lot of fouling down the stretch and we didn’t make plays at the offensive end,” Beal said. “We got out of rhythm a little bit.”
Please read our comment policy before commenting.