TIME FOR A BREAK
George-less Clippers fall to Wizards, take 3-game skid into All-Star weekend
Look out below, there went the Clippers skidding into the All-Star Break on their first three-game losing streak of the season.
Now, before they reconvene again to take on Golden State on March 11 at Staples Center, they’ll have a full week to stew — or, if they heed Tyronn Lue’s advice, to try and forget about their recent swerve in the wrong direction.
“Yeah, that (stuff’s) over,” said the Clippers’ coach after Thursday’s 119-117 loss to the Washington Wizards, insisting he saw a silver lining in the past couple losses, each of which featured one or the other of the team’s superstars being scratched from participating right before tip-off.
On Thursday, Paul George was removed from the starting lineup just before the jump, unavailable on account of dizziness, the team said. Kawhi Leonard was scratched at the last moment Tuesday because of back spasms in Boston, where Marcus Morris Sr. suffered a firsthalf concussion that kept him out Thursday.
Considering all that, Lue said he was heartened by his team’s effort, if not by the its execution: The Clippers had a season-high-tying
19 turnovers, saw their 16-point second-quarter lead dissipate in what felt like a few blinks and, for good measure, experienced another crunchtime stumble.
“I thought we did a good job of competing,” Lue said. “Other guys stepped up. Luke (Kennard) played well tonight. I thought Terance Mann made a couple of big 3s.
“We got to put it behind us,” he added. “The biggest thing is we got to come back after break healthy with the mindset that we got some games that we got to make up and we got to be ready to compete.”
They did manage to play it close in each of their past three losses, each of which provided them live-game practice in those “clutch” minutes they’d been lacking.
The Clippers (24-14) went into Sunday’s game in Milwaukee
having played only 33 minutes that qualified as clutch (coming in the final five minutes when the point differential was five points or fewer).
In the three games since, they logged 12 such minutes — none of them inspiring much confidence in the state of their late-game execution: With the game in the balance in that span, L.A. shot 4 for 21, and just 3 for 15 from 3-point range.
On Thursday, the Clippers went 1 for 6 in four clutch minutes (and 1 for 4 from deep, with Leonard drilling a shot from the top of the key to make it 116-115 with 15.7 seconds left).
But the Clippers liked their looks down the stretch, and they managed this time to frequent the free-throw line, converting all six of their foul shots to keep it close.
“I think tonight was good,” said Leonard in brief postgame comments before he headed to Atlanta with George to play on opposing teams in the All-Star Game. In a televised draft
Thursday, Kevin Durant selected Leonard among his team’s starters before LeBron James picked George 10th among the reserves for his side.
“We made shots, we got some good looks at it, but we wasn’t able to get no stops,” Leonard added, making reference to the Wizards’ 17 points in the final 5:03, when they went 8 for 10 from the free-throw line.
“We just gotta keep being consistent like this in knowing what we’re gonna do in the fourth quarter.”
For a short time in the second quarter, it looked as though the Clippers might avoid more nail-biting practice. They’d built that 16-point advantage with 1:28 to play before halftime, but within 86 seconds it was down to 61-54.
It evaporated entirely three minutes into the third period, when Washington (14-20) went ahead 64-63, setting up another back-and-forth (there were 14 lead changes, all told) to close the Clippers’ road trip.
Leonard scored 14 of his 22 points in the first half. Saddled by foul trouble, he played just 16 minutes in the second half and shot 1 for 7 from the field.
But the Clippers’ bench — sparked by an aggressive Kennard, who finished with a team-best plus-23 in the box score in his first substantial action since Feb. 15 — helped keep them within striking distance.
All four reserves who played scored in double figures, led by Lou Williams (16); Kennard and Mann both scored 14 points and Ivica Zubac had 13 points and 13 rebounds for his league-leading seventh double-double off the bench.
Reggie Jackson stepped into another spot start, this time for George, and followed Tuesday’s 25-point effort with 12 points on 5-for10 shooting against the Wizards. Patrick Beverley went 3 for 5 from long range for 17 points. Nicolas Batum made three free throws and hit a 3-pointer in the fourth quarter for six of his nine points.