Without Leonard, Clippers at a loss
Understaffed and under duress, the Clippers tried to keep the focus off of who wasn’t playing Tuesday in Boston by keeping it moving, sharing the ball with purpose and pace.
It might have worked, if not for another late-game unraveling.
After going scoreless in the final four minutes of their loss in Milwaukee on Sunday, the Clippers experienced a chill in the fourth quarter Tuesday too, and it foiled their attempt to swipe a victory without Kawhi Leonard in the lineup.
Behind 25 points from Kemba Walker and a late-game boost from Robert Williams, Boston beat the Clippers for the second time this season, coming out ahead Tuesday at TD Garden, 117-112.
Leonard missed the game with back spasms that were the result, Coach Tyronn Lue said, of contact in the loss to the Bucks. The Clippers’ All-Star forward warmed up before the game in Boston, but he was pulled from the starting lineup just before tipoff, and scratched from playing altogether once the game began.
It was the eighth game Leonard has missed this season, his other
absences coming on account of a facial laceration, health and safety protocols and a lower left leg contusion. Lue said he didn’t know whether Leonard would be able to play Thursday in the Clippers’ final game before the All-Star break.
The Clippers’ depth was further depleted when Marcus Morris Sr. left Tuesday’s game late in the first half with a concussion, having scored 10 points in 15 minutes. Already, their reserves were thin without Patrick Patterson — their dependable break-in-case-of-emergency option — who missed his fourth game due to per- sonal reasons.
And yet, the Clippers — led by Paul George’s gamehigh 32 points and Reggie Jackson’s season-high 25 in fill-in-for-Leonard duty — gave the Celtics (18-17) the type of game they’ve come to expect, a closely contested affair with 16 lead changes and 11 ties.
The Clippers (24-13) even closed to within 114-112 on a 3-pointer from George (who shot 12 for 26 and 5 for 15 from deep) with 11.2 seconds left. But Boston made three of its four free throws thereafter to deliver the Clippers a second consecutive loss for just the second time this season.
Lue’s squad is limping into its last game before the AllStar break having lost five of its past eight games, which puts more weight on their early March game against the 13-20 Wizards than anyone might have anticipated a week ago.
“It’s a must-win,” George said. “It’s a must-win for us. We wanna go into the break with a win, go into the break with some positive to leave off on coming out of the break. So the game in Washington is a must-win.”
Winning against the Wizards likely will require a wireto-wire execution, something L.A. lacked Tuesday, when the gears got gummed up again in the fourth quarter.
The Clippers entered the final period leading 89-88 and having connected on 53.8% of their shots from the field, 22 of their 35 makes coming off assists. But then, in the final period, they went 8 for 22 from the field and just 4 of 11 from long range as their attack slowed and their ball movement stagnated.
Lue said the Clippers need to do a better of trusting each other and their system in crunchtime.
“Just trust in end-of-game situations,” he said. “Continue to play a full 48 instead of a 42-minute game, 43-minute game. And just continue to keep trusting.”
George’s assessment was straightforward: Do better — starting with him.
“We just gotta do a better job of pushing the pace, pushing the tempo, and just getting into our sets,” said George, the Clippers’ lone All-Star available Tuesday. “We didn’t do that down the stretch once again, and that’s on me. A lot of times, I’m one of the primary ball handlers, I gotta get the ball up, let’s get into some action, and let’s play from there.”
Jackson provided as much spark as he could muster throughout the 37 minutes of his surprise start.
He learned he’d be called in to pinch hit for Leonard right after the national anthem, Lue said, and told his coach, “OK, I am ready to go.”
The veteran point guard went for his highest scoring output as a Clipper, going 10 for 14 from the field, 5 for 6 from 3-point range and collected seven assists, just one off his season high.
After his 3-pointer cut the Celtics’ lead to 113-108 with 2:43 to play, Jackson hauled in a rebound to regain possession and then tipped a deflection on the other end back to back to Beverley, who was fouled and made one of two free throws.
After the Clippers won a coach’s challenge with 1:33 to go, trailing 113-109, Jackson picked off a pass from Jayson Tatum (14 points on 5-for16 shooting) on one possession before the former Duke star was called for an offensive foul the next trip down (Boston’s Brad Stevens challenged that call, but he was denied).
After a subsequent miss from George, to stop the clock, Jackson fouled Williams — who had six points, five rebounds and three assists in the final quarter, when he also made one of his free throws with 23.6 seconds left.
George’s 3 fell for the Clippers 12 seconds later, but that was their final scoring of the night.
Jaylen Brown added 18 points for Boston, which shot 50% (16 for 32) from 3-point range — outdoing the Clippers’ 47.4% (18 of 38) night.
For the Clippers, Lou Williams scored 12 points on 4-for-13 shooting and Nicolas Batum added 10 on a 4-of-6 effort in 30 minutes of action.