The Clippers have struggled on defense during the opening games of the 11-12 season, but may have turned a corner against the Blazers in their 93-88 win.

The Clippers are ranked last in defense, allowing 113.3 points per 100 possessions.

"I thought we did a good job limiting their easy baskets as much as possible," Clippers coach Vinny Del Negro said. "They got behind our defense a couple of times in the fourth quarter, but overall I thought that was an important part of the game for us." 

The Clippers applied tough ball pressure on the Trail Blazers for three quarters, something that was notably absent from losses to San Antonio and Chicago last week. For the game, the Clippers logged 25 deflections

"We were in them the whole time," Griffin said. "We were on top of them, getting loose balls, getting steals, deflections. A deflection forces them to have to take a tough shot at the end of the shot clock. It's huge."