Clippers 94, Rockets 83

Sunday December 15, 2002

HOUSTON (AP) The Los Angeles Clippers ended Houston's seven-game home winning streak with their best road game of the season.

Elton Brand and Andre Miller each scored 27 points and Marko Jaric added 13 points as the Clippers never triled in a 94-83 victory Saturday night.

``We controlled the boards and got a lot of second-chance opportunities. That was the key to the game,'' Brand said. ``We never trailed. It was a great win to end a road trip.''

Miller shot 10-of-15 from the field, many from long range.

``We did what we wanted offensively,'' Miller said. ``I wanted to come out aggressive and shoot the ball. I was fortunate that some of the shots went in and that opened up our inside game.''

Cuttino Mobley led Houston with 19 points, followed by Yao Ming with 16, Glen Rice with 15, Steve Francis with 14 and Eddie Griffin with 10.

``They played a physical inside game and wore us down,'' Houston coach Rudy Tomjanovich lamented. ``We tried a zone early, but we gave up a high field-goal percentage. That is something we haven't been doing. They made some shots against the zone that we didn't expect them to make.''

Los Angeles led 54-45 at the half despite eight points by Yao in the final 3:37 of the half.

Rice contributed 10 third-period points to cut the Clippers' lead to 72-68 with 1:37 left, but the Clippers responded with a 6-0 run to lead 78-68 going into the final period.

Houston was never closer than nine in the fourth quarter.

After leading 19-16 with 4:10 left in the first period, the Clippers outscored the Rockets 12-2, with four each by Brand and Miller, to move ahead 31-18.

The Clippers led 40-24 before a 9-1 run cut the Rockets' deficit to 41-33 with 6:20 left in the first half.< ^Notes:@ Yao had his streak of five consecutive double-doubles snapped ... Houston is 4-1 in the second night of back-to-back games ... The Clippers are 4-0 this season when scoring 100 or more points ... The Clippers scored 33 points in the first quarter, the most Houston has allowed in a quarter this season.

(Copyright 2002 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)