Flat Clippers fall to Pelicans
LOS ANGELES >> Paul George or no Paul George. Zion Williamson or no Zion Williamson. It didn’t matter who was and wasn’t on the floor Saturday. The New Orleans Pelicans beat the Clippers again.
Whenever the Clippers and New Orleans have met over the past three seasons, the result has favored the Pelicans five out of six times. The seventh time wasn’t much different as the Pelicans out-hustled the Clippers for a 131-110 victory Saturday at Crypto.com Arena.
Both teams were missing key players. George missed his second game because of a sprained knee, while Williamson was sidelined because of a hamstring injury. Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said he expected the Pelicans to play hard despite Williamson’s absence.
“Their coach, Willie (Green), does a great job of just no matter who’s on the floor they play hard, and they play the right way,” Lue said. “They’ve been brought down by some injuries all year, but they still play hard, they still play the right way. It’s going to be a tough challenge.”
Lue got an inkling early just how difficult getting past the Pelicans was going to be in the first two minutes as New Orleans raced out to an 8-0 lead. It didn’t get much better for the Clippers (39-36) as the game progressed. Brandon Ingram and Trey Murphy III were just getting warmed up.
The two Pelicans stars bombarded the Clippers from behind the 3-point line all game, finishing with a combined 13 3-pointers. Ingram scored a team-high 32 points, his second consecutive 30-point game, behind 12-of-22 shooting, including three 3-pointers. He also contributed 12 assists and four rebounds in three quarters.
Murphy finished with 32 points on 10 of 12 from beyond the arc and 9 of 12 shots overall.
CJ McCollumn added 21 points, eight rebounds and eight assists and Jonas Valanciunas had 17 points.
Overall, the Pelicans made 21 of 34 3-point attempts, compared to the Clippers’ 15 of 33.
For the Clippers to be effective during George’s absence, Lue said the team needs to play with increased energy. The pace needs to be amped up and that can’t rest with their trio of energetic guards — Russell Westbrook, Bones Hyland and Terance Mann. Leonard must be part of the mix.
“For him (Leonard) to play fast and attack early in transition or early in the clock, that helps him out because now teams aren’t getting back, getting set or able to double team him as much,” Lue said.
Whether it was a lack of warm-up time because the court was still being transitioned from the KingsJets game earlier, Leonard played without much energy at all. He failed to connect on six 3-point attempts, finishing with just 12 points. He added six rebounds and four assists before leaving the game with a facial contusion.
Eric Gordon made all three of his long-range shots and finished with 15 points, while three others scored in double figures.
The Clippers discovered it difficult to step up the pace when the Pelicans were running circles around them. They failed to stop Ingram and Murphy from long range, were outrebounded 45-31, turned the ball over 20 times, scored just four second-chance points and gave up 54 points in the paint.
The Clippers are expected to be without George for the remainder of the regular season, and potentially the first round of the postseason.