INDIANAPOLIS: The Los Angeles Clippers held off Indiana’s late charge to beat the Pacers 99-91 in Thursday’s clash of NBA divisional leaders and win their seventh game out of eight.
Chris Paul scored 29 points and and Blake Griffin finished with 18 points and 14 rebounds for the Clippers, who pushed their lead in the Pacific Division to eight games.
In the day’s other games, Chicago beat Philadelphia to move within three games of Indiana atop the Central Division, and the Los Angeles Lakers beat Minnesota for the 21st time in a row.
Indiana’s David West had 22 points, while All-Star Paul George had 20 points and five assists. But without the suspended Roy Hibbert, the Pacers barely resembled the team that had won five straight by an average margin of 23.8 points.
Chicago’s Joakim Noah had 23 points, 21 rebounds and a career-high 11 blocks for his third career triple-double as the Bulls beat the Philadelphia 76ers 93-82.
Carlos Boozer added 21 points and 12 rebounds as the Bulls completed a three-game regular season series sweep.
Noah tied the Bulls record for blocks in a regulation game, previously set by Artis Gilmore in 1977.
Jrue Holiday had 22 points for the Sixers, who slumped to a season-worst seventh-straight loss.
The Los Angeles Lakers cruised past the Minnesota Timberwolves 116-94, with Kobe Bryant scoring 33 points and Antawn Jamison 17.
Bryant and Jodie Meeks each hit four of 16 3-pointers for the Lakers, who moved within two games of Houston for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference.
J.J. Barea scored 20 points for the Timberwolves, who have lost 20 of 24.
Los Angeles’ 21-game mastery of Minnesota — dating back six years — is the NBA’s longest active winning streak in any matchup.
Mayor reveals plan to keep Kings in Sacramento
Meantime, the wealthy investors that are partnering on a plan to keep the Sacramento Kings from moving to Seattle have finally been revealed, and they’re the two almost everybody expected — with a twist.
Mark Mastrov, founder of 24 Hour Fitness, will submit a bid to buy the team to the NBA on Friday, Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson said in his State of the City address Thursday night. While Ron Burkle, the billionaire co-owner of the NHL’s Pittsburgh Penguins, will instead only lead the effort to build a new downtown arena that he hopes will also lure back a WNBA franchise.
“With all due respect to Seattle, I do hope they get a team someday. But let me be perfectly clear: it is not going to be this team,” Johnson said. “Not our team. No way.”
The Associated Press and other news outlets have reported since Jan. 22 that Mastrov and Burkle were working on a plan to keep the Kings from relocating to Seattle.
Burkle, who also expressed interested in buying the Kings two years ago, had met with NBA Commissioner David Stern at the league’s New York headquarters in January before deciding to back out of the bid. Mastrov was among the final bidders for the Golden State Warriors before Joe Lacob and Peter Guber bought the team for an NBA-record $450 million in 2010, and he’s hoping the second time going solo in Northern California is the charm.
Neither Mastrov nor Burkle were present for Johnson’s speech. Each released statements through the mayor’s office expressing excitement but offered no details about the plan.
“This is about building a winning franchise for a winning community,” Mastrov said. “Sacramento has proven time and again to be a great NBA market. As a longtime resident of Northern California with deep ties to Sacramento, I am thrilled to be a part of an effort to do something special for this region.”
Burkle added: “I am excited about the economic possibilities for the arena and for downtown Sacramento as a whole. We have an opportunity to transform downtown into a vibrant hub of economic and cultural activity that will create jobs and generate a positive economic impact for years to come.”
Now Sacramento vs. Seattle showdown is set.
The Maloof family agreed in January to sell 65 percent of the franchise for $341 million to a group led by hedge-fund manager Chris Hansen and Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer. The group already has applied to relocate the team to Seattle next season and restore the SuperSonics, which left the basketball-loving Pacific Northwest for Oklahoma City in 2008.
Johnson has been scrambling to organize local ownership for the Kings ever since.
The NBA Board of Governors is expected to make a decision on the sale by the end of its meetings in mid-April. Johnson, a two-term mayor and former NBA All-Star, believes Sacramento is back after announcing the Mastrov-Burkle plan.
“I’ve been assured by the commissioner of the NBA that we will be given full consideration,” Johnson said.
Sacramento is hoping to revitalize the city with an arena at the Downtown Plaza shopping mall owned by JMA Ventures, whose officers have said they are eager to participate. To show local support for the Kings, Johnson also lined up 20 local investors who each committed $1 million. They hope to buy the 7 percent share of the team now under control of a federal bankruptcy court.
