Short-handed Clippers rally for win
George makes two free throws in final seconds and L.A. holds on in possible postseason preview.
CLIPPERS 113 PORTLAND 112
Considering the sizable holes in each roster Tuesday, it would have been easy to dismiss the Clippers’ 113-112 win in Portland as a shell of the first-round playoff preview this matchup currently appears on paper.
The Clippers, the Western Conference’s third-place team, were missing All-Star Kawhi Leonard — who will be out at least three games while managing soreness in his right foot — as well as starters Serge Ibaka and Patrick Beverley and because of it, used this season’s 21st different starting lineup.
The sixth-place Trail Blazers, with All-Star Damian Lillard out for a third straight game because of a hamstring, and center Enes Kanter sidelined, too, were missing their offensive engine and dominant rebounder.
And yet should these teams meet again for a seven-game series in late May, there could be lessons the Clippers draw on from one month earlier. They swept the regular-season series with Portland by doing the kind of thing that has happened so rarely — winning a tight game in the final minutes — by replicating some of the discomfort they had caused Portland’s backcourt in two previous wins, when they had trapped and blitzed Lillard into two ineffective performances.
“Portland had the game and we were able to continue to keep fighting and take this game from them,” Paul George said. “We celebrate that. We played great down the stretch.”
With 27 wins by double digits this season, the Clippers have most often hit the fourth quarter in cruise control than worrying about clutch efficiency. In fact, they had played the third-fewest clutch minutes in the NBA this season — just 70. Only six of their victories had come by five points or fewer, a figure of both their ability to overwhelm opponents early and their lack of polish during some finishes.
But trailing 112-107 with 63 seconds to play Tuesday, after a threepointer by Portland’s C.J. McCollum, the Clippers scored on their final three possessions, including a pair of free throws by George with 4.8 seconds left to pull ahead by one. They then survived McCollum’s leading jump shot from the elbow in the final second.
George was incandescent with 33 points, including 10 in the final 3:41, to score at least 30 points for the sixth time in his last seven games.
“He was special,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said.
Portland guard Norm Powell, after scoring 17 points in the first half, added just six in the second half. McCollum scored 28 points but needed 26 shots.
Leonard, who had sat out three games last week because of the foot, only to return Sunday, “wants to play,” Lue said, but made clear the team won’t take the risk with the Clippers comfortably near the top of the West standings.
“With the doctors and sports science guys and the trainers we have, sometimes we got to protect the players from themselves,” Lue said. “And right now, we are doing the right thing by Kawhi.”
Doing the right thing for Leonard created a familiar challenge for his teammates — playing shorthanded in a game where the Clippers never got comfortable shooting the ball (28% from deep) nor made the Trail Blazers uncomfortable handling it (just six turnovers).
To fill in the gaps, they received 11 points in just 13 minutes off the bench from center DeMarcus Cousins. If his contributions can’t be counted on come the postseason, given the nature of his 10-day contract, the strong play of Rajon Rondo is something the Clippers hope will carry over in the first round.
The Clippers acquired Rondo at the trade deadline to win games in the postseason, in games against opponents just such as Portland. On Tuesday, his nine points, seven assists and six rebounds helped the Clippers claim a game weeks earlier.
“We had all the chances to give in, but our team just kept fighting,” Lue said. “We kept scrapping. We didn’t want to lose that game.”
TONIGHT
VS. MEMPHIS When: 7. On the air: TV: Bally Sports SoCal; Radio: 570, 1330. Update: Memphis (29-27) could have big man Jaren Jackson Jr. back for the first time since he injured the meniscus in a knee last summer during the NBA restart, after he was upgraded to questionable. He would join a Grizzlies offense that owns the league’s topranked rating in April (120 points per 100 possessions).