MINNEAPOLIS _ Playing nine games in 14 days presumably is a taxing ordeal, but these Los Angeles Clippers are pushing through all the boundaries in front of them in the early part of the season.
They ignored what really had to be weary bodies to pull out a 119-105 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Saturday night at the Target Center.
All five of the Clippers' starters scored in double figures, even surviving the Hack-A-Jordan the Timberwolves used to no avail in the fourth quarter.
Clippers center DeAndre Jordan had entered the game making only 39 percent of his free throws. But he stepped to the line and knocked them down like he was comfortable there, at least for him. He went 10 for 16 from the line in the final 5:43 of the game that slowed to a crawl.
Jordan finished with 18 points and 16 rebounds for the Clippers, who extended their franchise-best start to 9-1, tops in the NBA.
Blake Griffin had 20 points, 11 rebounds and four assists. He became the fastest player to have at least 9,000 points, 4,000 rebounds and 1,500 assists since Hall of Famer Larry Bird, who did it in 398 games. Griffin did so in 420 games over his seven-year career.
J.J. Redick had 18 points on seven-for-13 shooting.
Chris Paul had 19 points, eight assists and four rebounds. He was four for seven from the field, three for four from three-point range.
When the Clippers opened a 19-point lead, it looked as if the starters would get the rest of the night off to rest.
But the Clippers' reserves, who entered the game ranked fifth in the league in bench scoring (39.9 points per game), had a rare off night.
Still, that didn't stop the Clippers from winning their sixth consecutive game.
The Clippers were coming off a stirring victory at Oklahoma City on Friday night, leaving them little time to prepare for the back-to-back game here.
They were playing their fourth game of the week, and this was on the heels of playing five games in seven days the week before.
They have already played three sets of back-to-back games during the first three weeks of the regular season.
And still the Clippers rolled behind a defense that has continued to give up little and behind an offense that kept striking against the Timberwolves.
The Clippers shot 52.6 percent from the field, 45.8 percent from three-point range.
They gave up a little more than 100 points to the Timberwolves, but most of that was because the Clippers eased up as the game got out of hand. Los Angeles held Minnesota to 44.9 percent shooting.
Even with point guard Ricky Rubio back after the missing the last five games with a sprained right elbow, the young Timberwolves couldn't handle the Clippers.
Karl-Anthony Towns, last year's No. 1 pick, had 24 points and 10 rebounds for Minnesota, Andrew Wiggins had 22 points and Zach LaVine had 15 points.
