A stat sheet was left on Eric Bledsoe‘s chair after the Clippers beat the Golden State Warriors on Saturday as a reminder of how well the backup point guard played.
Bledsoe had a season-high 17 points on eight-for-13 shooting. He also ran down Jarrett Jack and blocked his shot attempt just before the first half ended, showing his defensive abilities.
Told he had played a good game, Bledsoe responded: “It’s about time.”
Bledsoe had not been playing his best basketball for almost three weeks.
Bledsoe injured his left hip against the Detroit Pistons in a hard fall Dec. 17.
“Yeah, as far as my hip, I’m feeling better,” Bledsoe said. “I think you can tell.”
Bledsoe said he also had to work on his game.
When the Clippers had Thursday off from practice, he still went to the facility.
“We played three-on-three and that really helped,” Bledsoe said. “That helped a lot as far as getting my confidence back, just knowing that I could do it.”
The Clippers didn’t practice Sunday, but Bledsoe had his own plan.
“I’m going to come in and get some shots up, and then I’ll enjoy the rest of my day,” he said.
Clippers make it through
The Clippers knew the week of Dec. 30 to Jan. 5 would be challenging, and it did live up to its billing. But in the end, the Clippers finished it with a 3-2 record.
“It went OK,” Chris Paul said. “We would have loved to have won them all. When we were in Golden State, it was time to press the panic button. Remember? We were on our way to 17 losses in a row.”
Paul smiled.
The Clippers began last week with a victory over the Utah Jazz at home, pushing their winning streak to an NBA-best 17 consecutive victories.
Then the Clippers lost at Denver on Tuesday and at Golden State on Wednesday.
But the Clippers finished the week with a victory over the Lakers on Friday and over the Warriors on Saturday.
“It’s all good,” Paul said. “Right now we’re just trying to get healthy. We’re missing Jamal [Crawford]. We’re missing Grant [Hill]. We’re missing Chauncey [Billups]. So, this next week we’ve got two games in seven days, so hopefully we can rest up a little bit.”
Crawford became the latest Clipper to be injured when he suffered a sore left foot that has kept him out of the last two games. Crawford probably won’t play Wednesday against the Dallas Mavericks at Staples Center. The Clippers also host the Orlando Magic on Saturday.
Hill has increased his activity and is expected to practice this week after missing every game this season because of a bone bruise in his right knee.
Billups has tendinitis in his left foot and is not expected back soon.
“I wish it was a little more even,” Blake Griffin said. “We’ve got to take advantage of this rest and not come out sloppy and come out with a relaxed attitude just because we’ve got a couple of days off. We have to keep the momentum going.”
twitter.com/BA_Turner
