Clippers grind out win over the Spurs
In their first game without Lou Williams, traded to the Hawks at the deadline Thursday for point guard Rajon Rondo, the Clippers’ depth was further tested by injuries to four starters, as was their grit.
And no, it wasn’t pretty, but somehow, on an emotionally taxing day, they passed.
The Clippers beat the Spurs, 98-85, in San Antonio to win their fourth consecutive game and improve to an NBA-best 8-0 in the tail end of back-to-back sets this season.
In their second game against the Spurs in as many nights, the Clippers went forth without All-Star Kawhi Leonard, who was scratched Thursday with right foot soreness, and Marcus Morris Sr. was held out at the last moment because of a leg contusion. Already, they were missing Patrick Beverley with a sore knee and Serge Ibaka with a tight lower back.
Their lone regular starter: Paul George.
The seven-time All-Star answered the call, finishing with 24 points and logging 13 of the Clippers’ 57 rebounds — season highs for both George and the team.
George had help from his buddy Reggie Jackson, the Clippers’ reliable fill-in, who started his 23rd game for the Clippers (30-16) and scored a season-high 28 points, all of those points coming in the first or final periods — including 16 of in a fourth-quarter explosion, when he went 5 for 5 from the field and 3 for 3 from 3-point range.
To celebrate Jackson’s effort, George gave the former Boston College standout a ringing introduction to reporters on a postgame Zoom video conference: “Coming to the stage, Biiig Bucket! Mr. Reliable! Hit me when you need one, P! I got you! No. 1, BC’s finest! Regggggie Jack-Jack-Jackson!”
George and Jackson were two of the mere nine healthy players in uniform (and rookie Daniel Oturu didn’t play) for the Clippers, who withstood one of their worst shooting games of the season, missing at the rim and from long range and finishing 34 for 89 from the field – that 38.2% mark their second-worst this season.
But in a game with 10 ties and 13 lead changes, the Clippers buckled down defensively, holding the Spurs (22-20) to just 30 points in the second half on 28.6% shooting.
Before closing the clamps, the Clippers trailed at halftime, 55-49, when only George (11) and Jackson (12) had scored in double figures. That fact served only to further drive home how strange it was that Williams, such a mainstay for the Clippers in the scoring column and the locker room for the past four seasons, wasn’t available to turn to.
“Actually, we talked about it at halftime, I said, ‘We need Lou Will right now,’” Clippers Coach Tyronn Lue said. “He’s going to be missed for everything he brought and not just basketball. I just thank him as a person. That is what I love the most. We know he is a great basketball player. Just him as a human being and what he stood for and how he always boost morale for the team and of everyone around him, that is what is going to be missed the most.”
“Bittersweet,” said George. “A sad day for the Clipper family. Lou is someone who’s been so big in the Clippers history in the past four years. It’s a tough loss, it hurts, you hate to see these things happen — we miss
Lou ...
“Best way we can kind of do this and send him off well,” George added, “is to go off and compete so he can get one as well.”
Next up on the Clippers’ quest to win that elusive first NBA title, a nine-game, 16-day homestand that starts Saturday night with a meeting with another of the team’s recent pillars, former coach Doc Rivers.
Rivers coached the Clippers for seven seasons, amassing the most wins in franchise history as his teams went 356-208 and made the playoffs all but once. He’ll face his old team as the head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers, who arrived in L.A. to face the Lakers on Thursday as the Eastern Conference’s top seed.
The Clippers, 15-6 at home, currently occupy the third seed in the Western Conference.