2015 NBA Playoffs: Sans Chris Paul, Los Angeles Clippers Steal Homecourt Advantage From Houston Rockets With Game 1 Victory In West Semis

Without Chris Paul, the Los Angeles Clippers had enough in their arsenal to pull off the 117-101 upset victory in Game 1 of the Western Conference semi-finals against the Houston Rockets. Blake Griffin turned in an impressive triple-double of 26 points, 14 rebounds and 13 assists to lead the Clippers, which now has the homecourt advantage in this best-of-seven series.

Paul was out in the opening game of the series because of a hamstring injury but multiple Clippers stepped up to the plate including Jamal Crawford (21 points) and Matt Barnes (20 points), Austin Rivers (17 points) and J.J. Redick (17 points). DeAndre Jordan also had a double-double of 10 points, 13 rebounds plus four blocked shots.

Houston led after the first quarter, 25-19 but couldn’t contain the Clippers the rest of the way. Los Angeles scored 27 points in the second quarter, 37 in the third quarter—their highest quarter-scoring the entire season—and another 34 in the final canto.

Dwight Howard a double-double of 22 points and 10 rebounds with five blocked shots while Trevor Ariza had 17 points and 3 steals. Rockets superstar James Harden had a relatively quiet night in the scoring department with 20 points and but had 12 assists and 4 steals.

Like the first game on Monday when the Chicago Bulls defeated a well-rested Cleveland Cavaliers, the Clippers, which were coming off a Game 7 win over the San Antonio Spurs last Saturday, were more on rhythm and took advantage of an out of sync Rockets squad, which defeated the Dallas Mavericks in their first round series in just five games.

As a team, Houston shot a respectable 38-of-84 shots (45.2%) from the field but was only 11-of-33 (33.3%) from behind the arc and 14-of-24 (58.3%) from the free throw line. The Rockets lost the game despite winning the fastbreak points, 28-16 and the points in the paint, 50-40.

Game 2 of the Rockets-Clippers best-of-seven series is on Wednesday still in Houston.

To contact author of this article, email j.quizon@IBTimes.com.au.